I Took a Writing Class and This is My Experience

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In August, I signed up for a writing class run by Megan Beam through Les Conteurs.  The class started on Sept 3rd and run 8 weeks.  It cost me $100.

Why I took the Class:

My friend took the class and recommended it.  She said Megan’s style and mine were similar and she might help me go through the second draft of my novel “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” 

 Megan is a published author in my genre, and I was looking for something to drive me and make me accountable.  I wanted feedback.  

A third consideration, is that I wanted to blog about my experience in Megan‘s class.  I wanted to talk about what it was like to go back to “school” for writing.  I missed regular work shopping.  I wondered if focused assignments would help me this time around or annoy as they had in the past.  I wondered how a writing class would compare to a writers’ group.  I wondered what kind of writers I would meet in class and if I would make friends with them as I had those from my writers’ group.  I even hoped to get insight in how to query agents, publish, and market.  There is so much a published author could tell me.  

As readers know, I haven't blogged about the class.  I think my experience will explain why.

My Experience:

I received no notice on September 3rd, so on the 5th I emailed Megan asking her if I’d missed something and confirming they enrolled me in her class.  She sent me a generic “I’m working on it” email.  Satisfied, I waited.  

I got an invitation into Quip on September 10th.  When I logged in, I saw I would take this class with two other writers.  Both these other writers were in the summer session with Ashley and had already started folders.  What did Megan clean up if she left her previous students’ class work from last class in place?  It made me feel like a fish out of water right away, to be the only new student.  I tried to ignore this and dismiss it as me being too sensitive.  At this point I still wanted the class to work and thought I could still achieve all my goals even if I was the "new kid on the block".

  There were no instructions other than to create a folder and an intro, so I did that. I waited a week before Megan got class running.  Two weeks gone and no actual meeting happening until September 23rd.  

Now the meeting on the 23rd was productive.  We were missing one member but those of us there outlined our desired projects, what we were looking for, and what we planned to do that week.  Megan seemed interested in my work, and it thrilled me.  This is what I’d signed up for, a fellow urban fantasy writer to geek out over my writing on.  Megan never mentioned what projects she planned to work on, which I found strange because my friend told me Megan also wrote and asked for feedback on her writing during class.  I resolved that I would go to her folder and comment on her writing from last class. Though, since she said she'd finalized the work there, if felt a little awkward to comment.  Like when I find corrections to make on a fellow writer's work when I know the work is out for submission.

I commented on Megan and my other classmate‘s work within the week.  On Sept 30th Megan said she hadn‘t read anything and would get to it ASAP.  We had no meeting or chat of any kind.  She didn‘t comment on my work until Oct 10th.  We are over “half” done with the class and I’m just getting feedback.  The feedback inspired edits on my chapter 1 & 2.  One reason I wanted to join class was met, though it's only about 8,000 words of feed back and I was thinking 2,000 words a week minimum at eight weeks and I'd see the first 16,000 words read which would give me a strong direction in my novel.  At that point I'd either be able to continue on my own or sign up for the winter session.

I made edits, asked questions, and in a burst of enthusiasm, posted Chapter 3.  I also went over to her folder and made spent time digging for comments on her work.  She is a good writer.  I enjoyed reading her work, but felt there were too many missing chunks for me to make a lot of commentaries.  Still, I tried.  

To be fair, I received a lot more attention than my fellow student did.  She had three documents up and only got two comments on her outline with no thoughts on her prologue.  

This is where the class ends though.  We got no assignments, no one got concrete advice, and there was no class opening or closing.  We had one meeting over 8 weeks.  I feel cheated.  

In the spirit of full disclosure, I never reached out to her and expressed how neglected I felt the class was.  These typed words are the first expression of my frustration and anger regarding the class.  On the other side, when I sign up for a class, I expect to show up in the classroom and for the teacher to be there.  I don't expect to have to write a letter to the dean asking why my instructor rarely shows up and never has a lesson plan when she does arrive.

Normally I wouldn't bring this issue to public in this manner, but there is no other way to leave feedback on the class.  Both her site and the Quip site she uses don't have any area for feed back.  I could start a direct confrontation with her, but at this point I don't know that I want anything from her.  What I want is to speak in public about what happened and let others make their own decisions regarding the "class".

Can I Recommend the Class?

Obviously not.  I don’t think it was Megan’s intention to quit on us, but she should have communicated more and she should have refunded our money when it became self evident she could not run class this semester.  Or, if she always intended this to be a paid beta reading service with a thirty-minute meet and greet, she should have called it that.  Her actual shop service is vague enough she may legally skate by.  This is why I'm outlining what specifically was delivered for $100.

It was a weird experience, and it reminded me of working with an English teacher who didn‘t want to teach but didn’t know what else to do with their major.

And why Quip when Google Docs and Hangouts exists?  The site choice was a miss for me.  It wasn’t bad, there are just better options.

My experience differs greatly from the summer session, so perhaps a person could go to a future class or have gone to a past class and had a more constructive experience.  It’s $100 gamble though. 

Do I Recommend a Writing Class in General? 

Of course!  Writing class can be a great way to get feedback from a group of fellow writers.  It can help keep a writer focused and writing.  It can give assignments that force a writer to explore topics, genres, and styles that help them grow.   

Talk to me!  Have you ever been to a writing class?  If not would you want to take a writing class and what would you look for in said class?

If you‘ve been in a writing class, how did it go?  What did you do?  Did you learn anything?  Did you make any friends?

My Complicated Past with Writing Prompts

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As a lifelong writer, I’ve used a lot of writers’ prompts in my time.  The short story: good ones rock and bad ones make you question the others’ intelligence.

Have I ever used a prompt?  Yes.   Prompts have helped me out of writers’ block and sometimes I even have a cool story to show from the experience.

Can prompts help cultivate a daily writing habit? Yeah, but all things considered, I’d rather journal or do daily gratitude as a daily practice than a writing prompt a day.

Would I recommend a prompt to other writers?  Maybe.  My knee jerk reaction to prompts is that I hate them.  They often feel forced, and often I read on and want to defy whatever suggestion it makes.  I assume others hate these things as much as me though a friend pointed out that this might just be my issue.  Most people like when some work is done for them.

All of that said, I’d enjoy creating writing prompts for others.  My favorite part of writing is creating ideas.  I enjoy forming some of them into a story too, but I’ve got more ideas than I have time to make stories.

What do you think about writing prompts?  Do you use them often?  Are they life savers or creativity drains?  Talk to me.

Progress Report: All the Good (and Bad) Numbers

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Twitter Numbers 

Per Twitter Analytics: I've been active on Twitter 18 days and have 192 tweets.  I've had 483 profile visits, gained 97 new followers, and 36 mentions.

My engagement averages about 2% which is an increase from my 1.5% last week.  That engagement averages about 1 link click per day, 2 RT a day, 11 likes, and 1 reply per day.

What does this tell me?  First my follow increase seems strong.  20% of everyone who checks out my profile follows.  This suggests I'm doing well finding relevant quality content to retweet and I'm sorting it well with the Hashtag system to direct my Tweets to the right people at the right time.

I'm on track to gain 100 followers every month.  Remember my following count when I reactivated was 347.  My following has grown 22% in 18 days and that's a lot.

I'm midrange active on Twitter.  I have 5 planned posts a day and everything else is impulsive gravy.  What takes off is a mix of planned posts and impulsive ones.  It averages out to 10 ish posts a day.  They debate the life span of a Tweet but it seems to range between 8-30 minutes.  At the most generous range, I should post twice an hour.  I'd NEED to buy a subscription to a Tweet scheduler to achieve this without going crazy.  I'm looking different options, but I would like 30 days of Twitter before investing.  More details on schedulers I looked at coming.

As a writer and blogger, my link clicks are terrible.  If I can't entice people to check out the posts with interesting titles and snippets, then I need to post links more often to make up for the low conversation.  I'm not comfortable doing that just yet because I feel like my blogs need more evergreen content before I dive into more aggressive self promotion.

General Clean up notes: I've cleared all inactive accounts from my Twitter feed.  Will address again in thirty days.  My following to followers ratio improved, but not in an "ideal" range yet.  I keep telling myself it won't matter once I break 1k, but I've got months before that happens.

Blogs:

The North Alabama Writers' Group blog is drowning in spam.  It's made me rethink everything I thought about how to judge a blog's success.  There was a time where a lot of comments on a blog amazed me, now I know that comments =/= traffic.  Our all time highest view rate is still 19 views and we're not even averaging 3 people visiting a day.  

 It's frustrating because we helpful content like the recent release of Calls for Submission in September but we also have reflective pieces like "Creating Aliens" by Christopher M. Palmer.  We even have crossover pieces like "What's in a Name—A Name I stole from Another Blog!" where I discuss my personal struggle to name characters and places WHILE ALSO offering resources to help other's find good names for their characters/places.

This blog's early numbers success has slumped a little.  It tells me posting on Tell All Tuesday, is very important to driving my traffic.  Good news, there is traffic.  Bad news, it's not worth talking about.

Unlike The North Alabama Writers' Group Blog, I know this blog doesn't have a lot of added value yet or "evergreen" blog fodder.  I am working on adding more.  I have scheduled posts that should improve traffic.

Writing Projects 

I've written more of the second/third/final draft of my novel Follow Me: Tatter Veils.  All forward motion is exciting.  I love this book more than I can express.

I've continued rearranging "Comes in Threes" and when I'm done with this short, I'm moving on to "1000 Words" (which will be 1000 words), and then I want to write one more flash.  Zach challenged me to write 3 flash pieces this week, and I'd like to have three in hand.  I'm toying with a step counter story called "The Tracker" or a reverse mortgage story that doesn't have a name.  All the ideas are sad and bittersweet.

Random Notes: 

My Goodreads reviews are up to date.  I'm half way through the next book on the list and hoping to finish reading/reviewing this week.

I have plenty ideas for the blog and hope to batch those together with the research and link work on Wed.

Batching is helpful, but it doesn't maximize efficiency as well as I'd thought.  For example, to get a sense of accomplishment from the work I need to write, edit, add links, and schedule each post before moving on to the next "job".   In an ideal batching scenario, I'd write all the blog rough drafts, then edit several posts, then place all the links for these posts together, and then find all the pictures.  I can't group the tasks that well yet.  Besides, that much editing all at once is exhausting.  Still there are benefits.  Being in "blog" mode increases speed of writing multiple posts.

Thanks for reading my update, tell me about how your own campaigns are going!  Are you seeing the growth you'd like on social media or on your blog?  What are you doing to achieve that growth?  Talk to me.

Want to see more related to this post?  See how far I've come from Aug 29th or earlier on Aug 21st.  

What's my strategy on Twitter?  Here's a post on the 8 Step Twitter Plan

Looking for the Larger Picture Check out Why a Twitter Campaign and Why a Blog at All

Putting On My War Paint: Time To Twitter

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Two years ago, I began an ill-advised campaign to write/freelance blog/publish a book.  I bit off way more than I could chew.  My goals were too broad, and I added in more things I "had" to do too often. I decided the whole circus wasn't for me.  Instead, I focused on my writing, I reached out to agents, and got grass roots and joined a local writers' group.  

Well, I'm back at it again, trying to make something work.  What different this time?

First, my goals are more limited.  I'm looking to create a genuine community and audience for my creative writing endeavors.  

Second, I'll work with a team of fellow local writers trying to stir interest in our different projects instead of trying to shoulder all the work on my own.

Third, I've got a very strict schedule I plan to adhere to.

I will pursue audience by:

1. Posting in The North Alabama Writers' Group Blog, writers group blog I hope my fellow writers will join me in maintaining.  I've been curating it for the last year.  If the blog was a plant, it wouldn't survive my tender care, even if it was a cactus.  20 posts in 33 weeks sounds ok, but the spacing is fubar-ed.  Nothing between April until July and now I'm blitzing posts every four days.  Pacing in my social engineering needs some fine tuning.

2. Reviving my Twitter account and trying to mobilize old contacts while also making new contacts.  Of social media, Twitter seems to be the most manageable for me.   Short bursts into the void seems more tolerable.

 My previous attempts saw scattered successes.  This time, I have a specific plan for each day that should help me interact in ways that will be more meaningful but also be fun.  I also think Twitter will be less frustrating this time vs my last attempt.  The goal this time is to interact with people and show a little of who I am where the goal last time was to funnel traffic to the blog.  It's cool if you guys come to the blog, but I'm not in Twitter for that.

3. Bringing this blog back as a recording tool to track success/failure.  I love analytics and I know there have to be dozens of others who would show up for the statistic updates.  Beyond what interests others, there's something about complete statistical transparency that feels good.  It's a weird moral high ground, but if it makes me happy and accomplished, why not?

4. I will also use the pages option in this blog to create an organized collection of resources I use for writing, measuring analytics, doing the social media, and so on.  It would be soooo cool if this kind of researching helped others, but the pages would be a success if I didn't have to hunt and peck all the time for stuff I half remember once having a link and description to.

5. I will reinvest in my creative writing by taking a work shopping class.  I miss the creative writing classes I took in college and the structure might give me the kick in the butt I need to produce again.  Tired of standing in one place.

6. Write!  The workshop should help but key to the "revive my social media to gain audience" campaign is the assumption I have stories ready to share.

Writers' and Editors Blogs I Read

This list in alphabetical order.

Alexander M. Zotari "Notes from an Alien":This blog centers around book and writing questions/topics Zotari wants to explore.  He only brings the conversation forward if people engage with his posts.  A wonderful way to bring in interested lurkers, though it sometimes leads to repetitive posts.  I enjoy seeing quiet people come out and post, and "Notes from an Alien" succeeds in catching many people's thoughts.

Ari Meghlen: She is a writer and outside of blogging focuses in the fantasy genre.  She gives excellent advice on how to start up an organized writing routine.  She shares her personal writing goals, she updates with her progress, she is one of the hosts of #themerrywriter on Twitter.  Her style is to the point and very approachable.  She's also building a job info list resource for writers.

Cal P. Logan: As I add this entry, he's just getting his blog up and running.  It looks like it will revolve around indie author book reviews as well as some notes on his querying/writing process.  I'm curious to read more

Christopher Graham: Has "The Reading Ape'd blog where he offers a lot of how to's that will interest authors.  I struggle navigating his site as the layout while very good is not intuitive to me, but his articles are worth the work.

Elna Cain: She is a freelance writer who manages I believe four blogs along with her freelance posts. I enjoy her post layouts and while some of her tips/tricks/suggestions are generic, I like how positive and persistent she is.  You can see that she has personally used her own techniques to gain success.

Hannah Heath: a writer who blogs on building one's platform and gives writing advice.  Fun and to the point blog style with a clean visually pleasing blog home.

Jacob Brundle: He promotes his upcoming publication and he writes about different ways to approach the creative process and how that may impact your progress/ you work.  He has a very clean blog with an engaging style.

Jeffrey A. Moulton: He has an interesting quirky blog style that's most at home with the speculation I enjoy in good science fiction.  His style connects odd outside inputs together for interesting conversation and writing prompt fodder.  Fun and offbeat on his blog with dark horror present in his novels.

Joy D Fanning: An aspiring writer she creates content related to the writing process and preparing to write/publish a major project.  As another writer seeking publication, I have a lot in common with her only her chosen genre is science fiction.  She's also part of a blogging collaborative "The Aspiring Author Blog"

Just Publishing Advice: The title says some of it.  This blog gives publishing advice, grammar advise, advertising advice and social media advice.  All interesting and easy to implement.

K. Kris Loomis: An eclectic writer who creates both fiction and non fiction.  She's into reading, yoga, and self care along with helpful suggestions on how to interact with others and build your presence authentically.

K.M. Weiland: author who provides step by step guides and advice to completing creative writing projects and seeing publication through.

Lauren Sapala: is a writer who focuses on the writing and publishing market specifically from the perspective of a highly sensitive personality type.  She approaches problems/issues/concerns from a deeply empathetic core and often provides more sympathizing that step by step advice.  She is patient, well spoken, and encouraging.  Her writing style speaks to me and is very engaging.

Lionel Ray Green: a local writer who encourages me and shares his writing breakthroughs with me. His blog is an eclectic mix of observations, reviews, and market announcements.  He has insight specifically in the horror market.

Morgan Wright: An up and coming author with an amazing twitter presence and what seems to be an extensive, growing blog presence.  I enjoy her layouts and services so I keep and eye on this blog even though these isn't presently much to talk about

Nat Russo: a writer who offers writing advise to other writers.  His book series is fantasy and currently on my "to be read" list.  I enjoy his advise and presence.

The North Alabama Writers' Group: A blog I curate with my writers group.  We post flash fiction, writing exercises, book reviews, and random writing topics we usually talk about in writers group.

An Outsider's Way: a writer's blog about natural healing and poetry.  It's more a spiritual vibe I enjoy that direct advice.  Still pretty writing and worth a peak.

Planet Simon: A fiction writer with insights into the science fiction/fantasy genre.  His site has a wonderful layout and a simple friendly style.

Polar Bear Editing: offers editing and publishing services and as such the blog specializes in publishing/editing advice.  Has a lot of delightful humor in it and fun graphics.  Also hits topical self published books pontoon out the good and bad.


Rachel Poli:  She is a writer who offers advice over different writing hurdles, advertises contests, flash, writes reviews, presents open calls of submission, and also hosts #themerrywriter on Twitter

Stefanie Sears: A freelance creative who blogs her own personal journey and accomplishments.  I enjoy watching her progress and gleaning ideas from her progress as I hope others find in my recording with this blog.

T.A. White: an author I found through her "Dragon Ridden Series" on Kindle Unlimited.  Her blog focuses on updates of the three series she's juggling the release of.  The woman is a machine and an inspiration for anyone looking to publish fantasy in today's market.

Women Writers, Women['s] Books: Love, love, love this blog site.  It offers encouraging and helpful information for all writers and it features female writers and their journey specifically.  It's easy to hear about Stephen King's thoughts, but where is the female experience.  I see Margret Atwood and Amy Tang quotes and advice once in a while, but it's nice to always have a sight I can go to to hear my fellows talk about their struggles in the industry or in their own work.

Writer Writer: a new blog created by Morgan Wright and David Collins.  They have short story contests where they publish the final work for free to their blog.  Views are public knowledge on their blog so you can decide if the potential exposure is worth "giving away" the story.  They also have resources for fellow writers to check out including books, worksheets, and articles.