1)   What was the main reason you decided to participate in the Writing Workshop?

My mom was actually the one that found this website. I checked it out and decided that it was something I wanted to do. I’ve wanted to start a book forever, but I’ve never quite gotten there until now.

2) Which lesson did you find to be the most helpful to the kind of writing you do, and why?

Probably the beginning, where it talks about HOW to start a story, you know, start    the first sentence with an action, etc. BEGINNING my story was one of the hardest things. Another helpful one was the dead words lesson. It never occurred to me that my reader would never understand my descriptions if I was using words like ‘big’ and ‘tiny’, because the scale for how big and how tiny was in MY head. So, because I understood what I meant, I thought that everybody would.

3) Which lesson was the most FUN and why?

Hee hee. Mrs. Marlow knows how I love to take an assignment and run with it! Definitely lesson 14, create a scene. Most of my assignments turned into a whole story scene anyway, so it was nice to be able to actually have the permission and encouragement to do it again. Also, I like creating my characters a lot.

4) Is there anything you learned from the writing workshop that you feel will "stick" with you the longest, and that you will really use when writing your stories? If so, what is it?

Yeah, I think so. I learned about dialogue, which I wasn’t totally sure about, so now when I write my story, I’ll know how to use correct paragraphs, etc… Also, I know now that it is important not to add to many ‘pictures’ to a scene, at the risk of confusing my reader, or turning them off because they can’t get through the first paragraph. In past writings, however, I’ve discovered that I don’t have barely any descriptions at all!

 
5) Where do you plan to go from here, writing-wise? (future plans for completing a story, etc. A title? A nutshell?) :-)

I AM GOING TO FINISH ‘THE STORMBLADE’! There, I said it, now I have to do it. It will be hard, I know, and sometimes discouraging, (like when you look back over your first three chapters and you have to edit all of them because you changed one minor detail in the first chapter!) But I can’t wait until it’s finished, and I hope that you all read it. I’ll keep in touch with you all, and Mrs. Marlow, you’re welcome to comment on any and all of what I post. After that? I don’t know. Possibly a sequel, or a new series. Anyway, for those of you who’ve just started this workshop, hang in there, when it’s all through, you’ll be VERY glad you did it.

Elizabeth