Writing Update

I should be further along in the memoir but I'm happy with my 130 pages.

I've been taking two writing classes simultaneously, I don't know what I was thinking but I survived, mostly because the Novel II class (where I'm working on the memoir) had a 4 week break, we start back up this Thursday for four more weeks.

My CNF class just wrapped. I workshopped 10 pages (one piece) and 25 pages (3 pieces), the last piece is ongoing and will be my next memoir. In this class we had to write a flash (500 words) piece every week. So I have 8 flashes and got a total of four pieces workshopped. I'm going back to another CNF class at the end of July.

It's been crazy taking two classes (a lot of reading, critiquing, full time job & 2 hour commute), I used the Novel II class to work on my memoir and the CNF (Creative Non Fiction) to develop other work that is not in the memoir. When I complete my first memoir, I will be close to finishing the 1st draft of the second book/memoir/creative non-fiction.

I've started submitting work - fingers crossed my stories find a home.

As much as I love to beat myself up for not doing enough, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Lucy

PS - I've been taking these classes at Writing Workshops Los Angeles
My teachers (Seth & Chris) are fantastic, I wholeheartedly recommend this place.

Writing & Reading

I've spent the last seven weeks in a non fiction workshop taught by Seth Fischer at Writing Workshops Los Angeles. I love the intimate setting of these workshops. The class is taught in a person's home (either the instructor or one of the students) and its limited to 8 students. Wine, cheese and other snacks are provided. The environment is warm and friendly and everyone brings their A game. There's a lot of reading to enhance the week's lesson. Each person's story gets workshopped every other week. I've done some of my best writing in this class. It's a combination of the small setting, the prompts and I've been doing this for a while so I have to get better.

I learned so much from my memoir class at Santa Monica College. I took the same class with Monona Wali six times. The promps were different each semester and she is a great teacher but the class size was getting too big, most of the writers were new and I needed to advance to the next level.

In January I plan to take Writing the First Novel taught by writer Reyna Grande via UCLA Exention. It's a four day workshop and I want to come out of there with the a draft of the first chapter of the memoir and an outline for the rest of it. I've written a lot of pieces over  the past two years so now it's time to get serious and figure out which ones I'm going to include.

My goal is to have the first draft of the memoir by this time next year.


xoxo,
Lucy