Looks Like I Have An Open Summer This Year

Well, I've received a response to my applications to Clarion and Clarion West and it's both bad and good. The bad part is I didn't get in. I'm not going to lie, this is a disappointment. I really wanted to go to one of these. Either one would have been a blast and a huge learning experience, with Clarion West having a slight edge as it was cheaper and had George R. R. Martin teaching this year.

Now for the good part. The response from Clarion West included the words "our readers ranked your work among the upper tier of this year's applications". Again, not going to lie, that's a huge ego boost/bit of validation for me. These workshops receive hundreds, if not thousands of applications each year. You have to be near publication ready or already published to get in, and even though I didn't both workshops encouraged me to try again next year. If I'm in the top tier this year, as long as I keep working and growing I know my chances will improve dramatically for next summer.

So where does this leave me. Well, I now have to figure out what to do with three weeks of vacation time since I'll loose it at the end of the year if I don't take it off. (I'd saved all of my vacation time from last year and carried it over into this one so I'd have the six weeks needed for either workshop.) This means I can go to all days of World Fantasy, even the Thursday I originally thought I may have to miss. I can take the days off before and after Ad Astra, so I don't have to rush into Toronto after work and have a day to recover afterwards. I'll be around for the War of 1812 ceremonies at Fort Erie. And who knows, I may find some time to make a trip up to Ottawa in June to see a storyteller friend perform.

The most important thing I need to do is work on my writing. I may not have gotten into either Clarion but that doesn't mean I won't have opportunities this year to get feedback or get published. I want to have a novel draft I can be proud of and an elevator pitch ready for World Fantasy this year as Toronto will be crawling with editors and agents and I'd be crazy to not have something ready.

So while not getting into Clarion sucks it is far from the end of the world and isn't going to cause me to stumble on my path to getting published.

Clarion Submissions

They're done!

Oh, wait, I should probably explain a bit.

Okay, here's how it is:

I've reached the point where I need help if I'm going to get my writing to the next level. I've come a long way in the last three years. What I'm producing is light-years beyond what I started with. My language is tighter, my grammar has improved, and I'm starting to tell really compelling stories. I'm on the cusp of producing publishable material. But I'm not quite there.

I've learned that I make bigger leaps forward if I have some guidance. While the quality of my writing has improved steadily, the biggest jumps where when I had something read by someone else who provided me laser-guided criticism on what wasn't working or what needed to be improved. It's hard to see your own bad habits. At least it can be for me.

So that's why I decided this year I was going to submit an application to the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops. Both are focused on fantasy and sci-fi, the exact genres I want to work in. Both are six weeks long, and both have different instructors each week. I'll learn a lot if I can get into either of them.

I don't know for sure that I'll get in. Each workshop only takes in eighteen students, and I'm they get hundreds if not thousands of applications. Both have a great line-up of instructors this year, including George R.R. Martin and Chuck Palahniuk for Clarion West.

Now I just need to play the waiting game. The waiting game sucks.