{"id":481,"date":"2015-10-25T21:20:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T01:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/?p=481"},"modified":"2015-12-10T11:20:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T16:20:53","slug":"a-week-in-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/?p=481","title":{"rendered":"A Week in Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sign\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had the good fortune to spend last week at the nineteenth Viable Paradise Writer\u2019s Workshop, on Martha\u2019s Vineyard. It was five days of classes, seminars, reviews, and insight, taught by some very talented people. The affair is by invitation, based on a work you submit, and I was actually quite shocked (gobsmacked, really) to have been invited. I didn\u2019t realize that I\u2019d progressed to a level where I\u2019d be taken seriously, and seeing the work of the other students didn\u2019t exactly help my confidence level \u2013 there were some VERY capable attendees there.<\/p>\n

At a fundamental level, there\u2019s probably not that much that I learned that I couldn\u2019t have found in a book on writing, or eventually figured out on my own. And I\u2019ve gotten useful reviews of my work both from my local writers\u2019 group and online. However, I\u2019m far more likely to retain something presented by a veteran author who also happens to be an excellent speaker, than if I skimmed over it in some \u2018how to write\u2019 book.<\/p>\n

But more importantly, VP is far more than it\u2019s classes. The event is designed to engender camaraderie in the attendees, partly through it being a high-pressure environment, and partly by cultivating a communal atmosphere \u2013 a sense that we were not kneeling at the knee of giants, but rather working collaboratively toward a common objective. \u00a0A core goal of the workshop is also to motivate it\u2019s graduates to actually get out there, write, submit, and get published. And that particular kick in the tush was of particular value to me at this point in time.<\/p>\n

So now the post-VP part of my writing begins. Like before, I\u2019ve got the same challenges: time and self-doubt being the biggies. But I\u2019ve also just received a first-class vote of confidence. Now it\u2019s time to see if I can convince some editors as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the good fortune to spend last week at the nineteenth Viable Paradise Writer\u2019s Workshop, on Martha\u2019s Vineyard. It was five days of classes, seminars, reviews, and insight, taught by some very talented people. The affair is by invitation, based on a work you submit, and I was actually quite shocked (gobsmacked, really) to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}