Learning From the Masters

I am on a continual quest to improve my writing. Those first million words are the hardest.

One thing I’ve discovered is that many author’s want to give back. One way they do this is by offering services in their area’s. During my writing retreat in June, I met with a couple of writers who have been published that offer teaching and feedback for your writing.

Katey Schultz is one such writer. She writes and teaches flash fiction and is currently working on her first novel. She’s written a book of short pieces called Flashes of War, which won the Military Writers Society of America’s 2013 book of the year. This book is a fantastic read no matter if you enjoy short or long pieces. She also has a blog entitled, Katey Schultz Writer at Large. Check it out if you have some time.

This summer, Katey has offered a service called Flashy July. This involves weekly prompts, short-short stories and feedback. It is a good opportunity to expand writing skills.

There is an unexpected side effect of this type of challenge. When I signed up, I was very excited about the prospect of someone in my genre seeing my work and giving feedback. But since the beginning of the month, I have been paralyzed in my writing. The first story is due tomorrow and I am so not ready for it. I have a story but it is most definitely not in submission form.

My goal tonight is to do a rewrite of the story just to clean it up. Tomorrow I will actually finished the edits as I don’t think the story is due until midnight. Regardless of how nervous I am about this process, I am excited to get the feedback from someone who writes flash.

This is my first experience with this type of feedback process. I hope to give updates, whether good or bad as we go along. I believe each experience has something to teach as long as I am open to learning.

Wish me luck.