Writing Workshop Coming to ATL

For those who wondered, the blog will continue to address my writing and provide resources for those aspiring authors like myself. I am just going to add information for those military brat's like myself on transitioning to/coping with the civilian world.

The major news today is my discovery that we have our very own writing workshop coming to Atlanta this fall. Dragoncon has put together a workshop with A.C. Crispin that will run the day before and the first day of Dragoncon this year. Click on the link above for specifics, but bottom line is that it will cost $140, run for two full days, and includes the option of having a short piece of writing critiqued by Ann Crispin. If you are curious about the syllabus, click here. If you have questions for Ms. Crispin, they also offer her email address which I will refrain from posting here since you can get it from them and I don't have permission to post it.

I have to see if I can make the workshop happen. Fortunately I think I can afford it, so I just have to hope there is still space. I'll let you know when I know more.

So why should I or you go to a workshop?

I have read a number of replies to this which give both sides of the coin. Here are my reasons.

1) If I'm going to write, I need to learn. This comes in many forms. To date I have read
How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol. 22 (article included in the book), and resources from several websites.

2) Writing has a community just like any other profession. I am currently in the lowest rank and file of that community as an 'aspiring author'. But one day I will, hopefully, be in the higher ranks with others who have transitioned. Who might I meet in that room that will make that journey with me? What can those people teach me? Will one of them be the person who rescues me from quitting after a particularly harsh criticism? Can I rescue one of them from the same fate? Bottom line is that this is a great opportunity to get to know others with the same hopes and dreams as I have.

3) Where else will I get a chance to pick the brain of someone who is where I want to be? I would be lying if I said I had read any of Ann's works (yet!) but I can see that she has been successful already. Therefore, it is helpful to get out there and learn what she can share with me.

Even if I only get one thing that helps my writing, how many stories or books do I have to sell to remake the $140 investment? For all of the markets that I look at, only one, unless it is incredibly short.

Now, I will mention that if this workshop was put on by a first time author or unknown author I would not be as eager or as willing to try it. But a legitimate pro and getting to live for a day in the writing world... Gotta go for it.

I'm including a few links to the books which A.C.Crispin has wrote. Feel free to join me in checking out a few of them.

Which way now?

Almost 3000 words done for ScriptFrenzy so far. Straightline math says that I need to have 2,667 words done, so I'm on track. I am aiming for having 7,337 words done by Thursday since I will be doing family things all weekend. Shouldn't be a problem after today. I generally have more time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Emailed with a professional writer that I know and got more encouragement. She has been at this a long time, so her words get extra weight from me. I needed the shot in the arm.

So, I'm going to open up here, for those who want to tune out, check back with me later. For those who like the dirty, emotional stuff, here you go.

I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago as being in a depression. He asked these questions and my answer to most of them was 'of course', 'yeah', or 'doesn't everyone?' Most of the things he asked have gone on for most of my life. So now I look at my past and wonder if this episode or that episode may have been depression striking.

My big things revolve around a feeling of intense sadness and being disinterested in everything. The other areas play a role as well, but these are two of the bigger things. The disinterested is the part that bothers me the most since it affects my ability to write. I don't like that at all.

For those who will ask, I'm not suicidal. That didn't shock me though. I've always been more of a 'runner'. I used to jump into my car and drive until I had to fill it up and then would come back. But I have a wife and two year old now. I can't afford to abandon them, even for a few hours. I know that much.

My wife and I are working through it. It makes things wierd for both of us as we figure it out. It has been suggested by a friend with a Psychology Degree that I should get counseling and consider medication. I'm not sure yet. Both have risks, in my opinion. On the other side of that coin, both have tremendous opportunities for me if they go well.

Decisions, decisions, decision.

Writer's of the Future Rejection

It is official. Writers of the Future posted their list of finalists to be considered by the final judges and my name is not there. On one side I am disappointed that I did not advance. On the other side of that thought is the realization that this is my first submission to this contest and it draws the most recognition among aspiring writers so I am not exactly the only talent submitting a story. Add to this a number of revelations over the last two months about thing I could have done differently in the story.

Overall: no harm, no foul. The posted list was online, so I have not recieved the copy of my manuscript back yet. I am hoping that a stray note may have been made on it, but I have been warned that this is fairly rare. I can understand the judges guarding their advise while hoping still.

I have almost two thousand words done on my manuscript for Script Frenzy so far. I may write some more of it tonight yet. Other than that, I am leaning toward pushing forward on my novel more than another WotF submission. The novel is running around in my head currently, while the WotF stories are hanging in limbo. I will have to decide on Monday.

Hope you have a good weekend!

SCRIPT FRENZY BEGINS!!!!

Bet you thought I had forgotten this little project.

Not a chance. Just been dealing with life. But today is a 'must post' day.

Today is the beginning of the first SCRIPT FRENZY!! Don' t know what that is? Check out the page at 'scriptfrenzy.org' for more information, but the basics are that almost 7,000 people in the US and abroad have signed on to write a 20,000 word screen or stage script. Will any of them ever be produced? Who knows. Who cares. The goal is to write it. That is always the first step.

Life in general has been hectic this week. I was told at the end of last week something which I am still deciding how to feel about. I suppose I should share, but I can't say I'm ready to yet. I will have to contemplate that one some more.

On the writing front, got two short stories turned out over the last two days. One is more a scene than a story, so I'll have to flesh that one out, but this is more than I've been able to do recently. I'm excited about getting back on track.

Still no word on my first entry to the Writer's of the Future contest. I was told that not getting my manuscript back within the first four weeks was a good sign, so I'm clinging to that. I also check the WotF blog daily. http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/ is the link if you want to see what I'm reading.

Well, I'm off to start my screenplay. I may paste some excerpts here later, but that will depend on my opinion of its chances for production as well as my making time to put them up. If you do want to read some of my work, please check it out at http://Writing.Com/authors/dspinella

Have a good weekend!

Where Am I Now?

I mentioned in the first post that my journey had begun a little while back. If you followed the chain of events, February marked my first story that was aimed at professional publication. That story is named Daughter-Debt and is being judged by the Writers of the Future (WotF) contest. I have submitted a few other stories to magazines which were entered in some contests although never published. I have two rejection notices so far with Daughter-Debt and two other stories out on the market currently (a children's story and a short science fiction piece.)

After mailing Daughter-Debt, I began working on a submission for the next quarter (3rd quarter, April - June) of the WotF contest, but this story has grown to over 20,000 words with at least another 10,000 more words to go. WotF requires stories to be under 15k words. Oops! I have decided to start a new story for this quarter of the WotF contest and expand this story into a novel in the 70k-100k word range.

Writing a novel which is over 70k words seemed huge to me in January, but I have had so much fun writing the first 20k words, that I don't expect any trouble with the other 50k. I have to flesh out the story points a bit for the additional length, but I don't expect that to take much effort. I have placed the project on the back burner so that I have an entry ready for the WotF contest by the end of June.

What am I entering in the WotF contest then? Well, I have three ideas at this point. I don't have titles for these yet and don't want to give the story plots away, so I will not give more information right now. Suffice to say, I expect to finish one or two of these in the next seven to ten days. Then I will begin the editting process.

What do I do to edit? The first thing I do is hand the manuscript (fancy term for story) to my wife. She is not an editor, but she reads science fiction and fantasy. She does a great job of letting me know when I leave her stranded or suddenly pull an item out of the air. This gives me some great feedback about what is essential for my reader.

After her review, I sit down to 'fix' the things she points out. This is usually my first time reading the entire work in one sitting. This allows me to have a few days separation and then to read it for effect. I have gotten some interesting surprises already in some of these readings. On one such reading of Daughter-Debt, I discovered that my writing edits on a section resulted in my inadvertent cutting of over a paragraph which was key to understanding the scene.

I make the changes and get my wife to reread it to see if she feels her problem(s) were solved. Once she feels comfortable with it, I send the story to either a workshop or a group of friends who I trust for honest and blunt feedback. This was as far as I got on Daughter-Debt.

In theory, my next step would be to set the story aside for a month and then do a final edit before mailing it. So far, deadlines have prevented me from hitting this last stage. It bothers me a little, but I'd rather have a slightly less than perfect manuscript out there than NO manuscripts out there. I figure that a rejection will allow me to revise it again then. And if it is not rejected...

Keep 'em coming!

First Thoughts

Welcome to both of us! For you, this is a new adventure (you hope as much as I do). For me, this is no less an adventure, although I have been in my journey for a little while now.

What prompted me to begin a Blog? What is this Blog about? Why should you care? Who is Dominic? What makes him special? Why is there a government car out in front of your house now?

Okay, so you might care about some of those questions, but not all of them. I get it. Let me fast forward to the parts that I can explain.

First of all, if the government has a car in front of your house, it is not my fault. I have done nothing to no one at no time in no place that I am aware of. So that government sedan must be looking into something more related to you than to me.

The other questions have answers that would be best explained by me telling you about the last year of my life as well as some other background elements. After that I'll come back and clarify anything that I might have missed.

Last April I was informed that my services were no longer required at my employer. We both knew that a separation was on the horizon, but it still caught me off-guard. I scrambled to find something new so that my wife and, at the time, one year old son would not be impacted. In hindsight, I wonder if my muses were working overtime to get me on track.

Over the next two months, my life shifted. The Monday afterward, I had the interview which lead to my current employer. I started two weeks later. Learning a new job challenged me, mostly because I was setting up their first formal Human Resources department. It was easier and tougher than I expected, but it has been a much better environment. I realized how much stress my former job had placed on my family and me and began to decompress. One afternoon, I realized that I had a great job, my family was doing well, and yet I felt something was missing.

Several days later, I stumbled on Writing.com. The website provides a forum for writers at all levels and all interests to be able to make their work available to others, whether for critiques or just to know it is being read. A few days later, I wrote my first story in about ten years. It was short and took less than five minutes to write, but it was the first step.

For six months I wrote a few short stories a week, often with glaring gaps in the story, but that was fine. My desire then was simple. I wanted to write to express myself. But something else developed during that time.

Initially my stories got comments like, 'Nice, but something was missing' and 'I didn't understand it, but had fun reading it'. Some contests I entered routinely gave me reviews, but few wins. Overall, the comments were that I had a problem keeping in the same tense and was not providing a complete plot.

I changed things. I reread and learned from the feedback. My writing improved.

By November I was getting comments like, 'Wow! I loved this! You should make it longer.' and 'Are you working on a longer piece like this? I would be interested in reading it, even if it cost me a little money.' On the contest front, I had weeks where I submitted as many as eight short stories and won 80-90% of them. On one occassion I was even told that I didn't win because I had won so many others recently.

These comments watered a seed which had been germinating since High School. That seed was the idea that I could write professionally. Over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the idea kept coming to the surface, but I kept squashing it. Then January came around.

January in Human Resources is notoriously slow. I wrapped up a few projects and assignments in the early part of the month and found myself increasingly searching for new tasks. One afternoon, I began scribbling out ideas for a story. Part of the idea was initially submitted to a Writing.com contest and got numerous comments as well as winning for that day. The idea grew though.

For a week I pondered where the story was going. Abreviating the doubts and worries, I eventually decided to extend the story and try for publication. This story became my first submission to the Writers of the Future contest in March of 2007.

I made up my mind to get my work published and pursue the dream of professional writing. For now I am focussed on the Science Fiction and Fantasy markets, although I could see expeditions into different markets later. And that story is what this Blog is about.

This is going to be my journal. This is going to be my record of the journey. Would you like to join me for the ride? You're invited.