Think Kit Day 2: Flip the Script
- Sarah Moralez
- Dec 2, 2014
- 3 min read
Because I didn't do Day 1...
What did you change your mind about this year?
I'm no good at opening lines and I'm a day late. Having said that, I'm also a jump-righ-in kind of lady so here you go. Bad opening and all.
I changed my mind this year by deciding to WRITE. Not only to write (because I've been doing that my entire life), but to commit to a project and just fucking deal with it when I hated it. (Currently, my novel and I are not on speaking terms, but we are considering therapy.)
After I changed my mind, landing squarely on the shoulders of a giant known as Literature, I signed up for two writing classes at the Indiana Writer's Center. The second one is what I call "the game-changer." It was called SO YOU WANT TO WRITE YA and was taught by Indiana author, Mike Mulllin. The class was great! So many good pieces to that puzzle. The gritty of that class was something to chew on and enjoy.
It opened my eyes to new apporaches, new questions and answers, and really propelled me in my novel HOWL.
I remember from that class three women moreso than the rest (they appear in just a moment after brief introductions). >> One was late to our first class because she had a job interview, and to the second or third class because she got the job! One was in my group on the last night and critiqued me and I didn't get pissed off at her for it. (lol) The third one had blonde hair that looked super soft and she spoke like she knew her shit, which meant I had to become friends with her because I needed her knowledge and direction.
My next change of mind was this: Where I normally shy away from being outspoken and putting myself out there with strangers I pushed that gut reaction aside and opened my mouth.
"Does anyone want to start a writing group?"
Five women said yes while the rest of the class rushed out of the building to get home. We can say they were tired, but I tend to think they were taking the class as a hobby and had no interest in becoming a part of something that would help take their writing to a new level. (Of course, I also think I'm a snob sometimes.)
I contacted those five women and three of them replied (can you guess which three?). We set up a time to meet and we followed through. PS: Panera has good food, tiny tables, and it's too loud to be conducive to good writing sessions; we don't meet there anymore. I suggest sticking to coffee houses, Cornerstone Cafe, etc.
Since March 2014 we have been meeting, emailing (a couple hundred emails at a time, to be honest), critiquing, writing, congratulating, inspiring, and fangirling over each other.
I'm happy I changed my mind about the class. I'm excited to know these three women as a result. I'm proud that I've written over 60,000 words towards my rought draft. I'm hopeful my novel and I work things out to provide a finished product (whatever level of publication that may get me to).
Overall I am just glad they push me to do better and to constantly write. They're the ones that told me about this blog challenge and I'm hoping through this my motivation and inspiration come back to me so I can start churning out the chapters again!
xoxo
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