There were 28 people in the session today, but it was fun, so I’m staying in. It is too many people, but quite a few aren’t bothering to participate at all, either by writing or giving feedback. I guess they’re there for the cookies. If enough people phone it in, one my stories may get read aloud after all.
I realised today that this is less about feedback for me than it is a challenge. My next exercise will be written directly in French with proofreading by my husband. If I can get feedback, ok. It may not happen given the number of attendees. Rather than reject the session because it wasn’t what I expected, I’m rolling with it.
So the next exercise is to start a story with ‘Salut, ma vie.’ Or ‘Hello, my life.’ Based on a super short story by Grace Paley. I have a vague idea of what to do. Will get going with it tomorrow.
Sent the first draft of the first short story for the seminar to Jake Lamar. Wonder what he’ll have to say about it?
Translating should be complete this week before the next meeting on the 21st.
Am considering creating a website where interested folks can read (and download) what I write. Not an author site since I haven’t been published. Maybe one day it would be transformed into an author site. Who knows? A girl can dream…and do all she can to get where she wants to be.
(Later that same day…)
Turns out, there was a communication problem. I thought that Jake Lamar was going to read over my English rough draft before I brought the French version to the seminar. I guess that’s not what he meant. The “organisers” did let the sign-up sheet get out of hand and there are too many people. I was wondering how he would handle reading everyone’s stuff in a seminar that size. Definitely going back to the next session, though. However, if the number of participants hasn’t gone down, I think I will drop it because I won’t get what I need out of it. I have the discipline to write fiction on my own without a seminar. The point for me was feedback and, if there are so many people that even one of my stories can’t get a reading, I won’t get the feedback I wanted. Sucks, but the seminar feels too disorganised to be useful to me. Starting to feel like I don’t really need this seminar and I should leave it to make room for someone who does.
Feels a little like an English class for now. Only in French. We even read A Good Man is Hard to Find or Les braves gens ne courent pas les rues. But this is essential reading for anyone who has ever considered writing a short story and I adore Flannery O’ Connor so I don’t mind. There were about 19 people. Kind of too many. One of the habituées let me know that the numbers would drop dramatically in the next two classes.
Kinda figured. This is the first day. Now add/drops begin.
Lamar is a really open and relaxed guy. Judging from his writing voice, I kind of figured that, too. He certainly doesn’t come off as a hard-ass on the page. But you never know. We sat in a square of tables, which was nice. You can pretty much see everybody. The best part for me today was hearing the introductions. It is so interesting to meet new people, hear why they are there, what they hope for and to get their book recommendations. This is a really interesting group. Different ethnicities, ages, jobs. Fascinating.
The first exercise is to build inevitability in a story. Imbue* the writing with the hand of fate. So the first exercise is only like one of the hardest things to do well in fiction. A bar so high I can drive a semi under it. Well, that’s how it feels right now. I have two weeks.
Eep.
And I feel like Ginger Rogers because at least everyone else there, other than Lamar, has French as a maternal language. I did tell Lamar that writing in French was going to be hard for me. He offered to read my work in English. My husband has said that he will help me with the French if not just outright translate my work for me.
Au travail!
* I dislike this word. Why did I write it?
