Moving Forward (with a little help)

It always happens – you start the year off well, writing and reading (or generally achieving whatever goals you set for yourself). But slowly, over time, things fall to the side. You start spending more time watching Netflix and staring at your phone than doing all of those things you said you would do.

It’s no secret that many of us could use some help staying motivated, and I am definitely one of those people. So, in early December, I decided to apply for a ten-week long novel workshop at GrubStreet. I kind of figured it would be a long shot, but by some miracle (and some help from my writing group on the sample I submitted) I was admitted, with a scholarship!

This means that, starting January 8, I’ll be attending a weekly workshop. In many ways, that’s not unusual. I spend a lot of time meeting with writers, sometimes workshopping and sometimes just chatting, but other than classes in college, I’ve never been in a formal workshop. They’re casual, and because of that, the feedback is often pretty casual as well. It’s not that it’s not helpful, but it’s definitely not always as targeted as I would like it to be.

I’m a little nervous, considering the fact that I’m sure many of the writers will be much more experienced than I am. It’s the usual apprehension I have when I get ready to share my work with a new group, only a little stronger. This class is also supposed to help you finish and polish a novel in progress, which is a bit scary in itself – as any writer will tell you, declaring something “finished” or “ready” is not an easy thing to do.

But I’m also excited, since I started my novel around this time last year, and it’s been at a bit of a standstill for the past six months or so. I’m hoping that the extra eyes and perspectives can give me the boost I need to fix some of the problems I’ve run into and finally decide that the novel is finished and ready to send out. So here’s to accepting help and moving forward in 2017.