[Clarion West 2K1 week 2: the saga continues...]

Today's events included:

* Grogginess. Had one of my patented insomnia bouts last night. Couldn't fall asleep right away, and then kept waking up every half hour or so.

* Our first full class with Bradley Denton. We went over the "three basic story types": Boy Meets Girl (stories about relationships), The Little Taylor (stories about characters who struggle against great odds), and The Man Who Learned Better (stories about beliefs that are challenged).

* Critique. We aren't pulling as many punches as maybe we were during the first week. But, nonetheless, the criticism remains constructive. I remain amazed at how much there is for me to learn from my fellow Clarionites... and bummed that I'm not learning it quicker. :-)

* Handouts. Received our stories for tomorrow's critique session. I started on these as soon as I had lunch after class, but then fell into a light nap (wahhhhh thump!) and struggled to concentrate for a couple of hours thereafter.

* Food. One of our number volunteered to make dinner, and a bunch of us volunteered to help him eat it (and clean up the dishes afterward). Most yummy.

* Challenge. There are so many good stories here. I have to turn something in on Thursday morning, insofar as that's what I've signed up to do, but as there are so many great stories being submitted that I'm hesitant to work on the lighter plots I'd brought in with me. So, here I am at 1am trying to figure out what I could write that could possibly have enough *weight* to it that it would be worthy. I'm thinking I'll save the humor pieces I had in mind for next week or the week after. But, that leaves me this week with... nothing, so far.

I've spent so much of this evening trying to come up with the killer story idea that will be "worthy" of a slot this week that I haven't come up with anything. If I don't have a new story idea by tomorrow afternoon, I must move forward on one of my ideas from "the trunk". [sigh]

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Brad Denton made another interesting observation during a recent conversation. Wanna make money writing fiction? Foreign rights is the key. Without the foreign rights, he wouldn't be able to continue doing what he's doing without seeking an additional source of income. I find this a very important tidbit to keep in mind. (And, let's face it: one must not ignore the business aspects of this pursuit.)

Off to brainstorm some more. Nighty-night.