Four Day Advanced Writing Seminar

By Regina Allen

Working full time, attending school full time and running a household left little time to focus on writing. Six-week workshops, like Clarion and Odyssey, are ideal except my job requires educational leaves that relate to your position. I needed a weeklong intensive seminar to focus on the craft, and revise the science fiction novel and short story. Also, I wanted to attend a workshop well known authors attended. I found this with the Four Day Advanced Writing Seminar. The seminar met my expectations and more.

The Four Day Advanced Writing Seminar took place December 2-5, 2004 at the Wyndham Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. Tom Jenks, co-editor of Narrative Magazine (http://www.narrativemagazine.com) ran the workshop. Participation was limited to twelve people. Four months before the workshop, Mr. Jenks sent participants reading assignments for the seminar. A month before the workshop, Mr. Jenks sent everyone the manuscripts to critique for class. He asked that we write comments throughout the manuscripts as well as a one-page summary of the critique. Instead of focusing on the technical aspects, Mr. Jenks asked that we focus on diction, point of view, and characterization in each story.

Mr. Jenks ran a very organized seminar. At 9:00 a.m., we critiqued three manuscripts. After each manuscript critique, Mr. Jenks summed up the critiques, offered his suggestions, and asked the writer to think about the participants’ comments. He recommended reading material to aid the writer’s revision. Starting at noon, we took a two-hour break while Mr. Jenks held two 30-minute individual conferences. At 2:00 p.m., we reconvened and studied the art of storytelling until 5:00 p.m., when Mr. Jenks took his third individual conference. This routine worked very well because we ate, slept, dreamt, talked, and breathed storytelling.

Mr. Jenks read the assigned reading material at the afternoon sessions. The purpose was to have us listen for diction, watch the sentence structure and descriptive elements, and orient the reader to time and place. We studied masterpieces, Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady and the Little Dog,” Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Edward P. Jones, “All Aunt Hagar’s Children,” and E.L. Doctorow’s Billy Bathgate. These sessions became the bedrock of the seminar. He taught us the six elements of fiction, to read as a writer, and to write better than the masters!

This was the best workshop I’ve attended in years! It combined critiques, individual conferences, and storytelling sessions into a non-stop, four-day seminar. At work, I review my notes, read my science fiction novel to see where I can make a sentence more dramatic, separate the narrator from the character, and write words that flow like a river.

Though the price was steep, $2,100 not including hotel, meals, and transportation, it was worth it to learn the art of storytelling, revise my manuscripts, and learn to write better than the masters.

Have a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year!

Regina Allen is a fiction writer who lives in Exeter, Rhode Island with her cat, Isis. She is a member of the Speculative Literature Foundation, www.speculativeliterature.org. Currently, Regina is working on a science fiction novella and collaborating on a medical thriller with suspense author, Joel Ross (www.joelross.net). You can send information on conferences, retreats or workshops with two months’ advance notice at regall649@msn.com