I'm thrilled to announce RedWallFreak (AKA Elizabeth) has completed the Reach for the Stars writing workshop. I'm going to miss her creative lessons. Never one to do a half-way job, lessons often turned into complete scenes, which hopefully she will be able to somehow incorporate into her exciting fantasy story, The Stormblade-a tale of choices. It's a gripping story, and I hope she makes a widget soon so I can get it posted over on the left sidebar for others to take a peek at the on-going saga of another world.
Here is Elizabeth's graphic for this site:
 But I'm going to have trouble remembering this is RedWallFreak, as I'm used to seeing a different avatar when I visit her site:
 So perhaps if I see them together long enough, I'll make the connection.
At any rate, congratulations, Elizabeth, for a job well done and a story that is very much on the way to becoming a fantastic novel. Just don't give up! As you'll see in her question and answers below, she didn't begin The Stormblade until after she started the writing course. That is especially exciting to hear--that Reach for the Stars gave Elizabeth her "start." (Remember me, Elizabeth, when you are a rich and famous author!) 
Keep reading, and you'll find out what aspects of the writing workshop RedWallFreak enjoyed most and learned the most from. Then, don't forget to hop over to The Stormblade and check it out!
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
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Sarah zipped along with the workshop lessons at an incredible rate (especially for one of the younger students). Sarah was always willing to go back and expand her lessons when I asked her to! A great, teachable young lady with lots of writing potential. Here is the link to her blog:
