Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

A Typical Day in the Exploratory Writing Workshop

For those who don't know, here at WDC, I teach at New Horizon's Academy a class called the Exploratory Writing Workshop. Sign up is 29 April. When I wrote it I envisioned a typical daily session.

First, is to try and get onto a regular schedule. It's best to find a timeframe where you are free from interruptions or other distractions. I know how hard that can be.

For some, getting up earlier works and for others relaxing at the end of the day.

Go to the classroom forum and check out the week's assignment. You do this by clicking the blue underlined link beneath the assignment.

This takes you to the weekly lesson page.

On this page is a list of requirements and Lectures. Read the requirements, paying particular attention to the prompt for the weekly vignette. With this in mind click on the first Lecture. I have tried to make this e-class like a regular classroom. Envision it as a college course and me pontificating like some old stogy professor. In most lessons there there are five lectures, one for each working day of the week.

With the prompt in mind and the first lecture under your belt, start writing the vignette. Write until the time window for your session closes.... This could be time to go to work, feed the kids or when your head nods to the side and the laptop falls on the floor.

In the next session take what you have written, read the next Lecture and continue writing with a goal of reconciling the two.

This goes on from one session to the next, until you finish writing the first Vignette. If you're disciplined, that will leave two days to clean up your copy and do any written objectives the lesson requires.

Prior to the Thursday night deadline post your work into the classroom forum. I'll write you a comprehensive review and send it to you, via private email, by the following Monday. I've never missed yet.

I know! I know, the approach shown above sounds like a bunch of pie in the sky and a long jump on theory. In practical application each of you will approach the workshop in a different manner. Some will be quasi-organized but for most it will be hit and miss throughout the week with a mad scramble to meet the Thursday deadline.

Many of you will not be ready to submit on time. The reasons I've gotten for requesting extensions are legion. Perhaps the biggest stumbling block is a quest for perfection. Do not let that become the insurmountable hurdle that leads to submitting late. This is not a Pulitzer Prize novel writing
class. All you're trying to achieve in the workshop is an understanding of some of the basics needed to write a longer work. While you might want to use the results as a preparation for NANO, the key is not the end product but rather an understanding of the process that will get you there.