I’m writing this on the first of March when the snow has decided to fall in Dublin, blanketing the city in a Winter Wonderland. For some unknown reason I’m feeling quite inspired to get back on the horse of sharing my writing journey.
Last time I posted something I was doing the twelve week Write your Successful Children’s Novel course with Imogen Cooper and the Golden Egg Academy. One of the opportunities offered by the course was to submit two thousand words for review to an editor and if your work is good enough, they will offer you a place on their more intensive twelve month Writing for Children’s and Adults course, led by Charlotte Maslen. I submitted and…I was accepted!
Hurrah!!!
I’m now on my sixth module of the new course and am LOVING IT! The course is broken up into three terms. Each term there are eight modules, six hour-long live sessions, a full-day Zoom call and the opportunity to send eight thousand words of your work to a designated editor for feedback, followed by a forty-five-minute video call with said editor. There are weekly exercises to carry out which are hugely beneficial in developing your story. And that’s not mentioning the Facebook group, reading lists and opportunity to meet like-minded writers embarking on their own writing careers.
One of the things that struck me about the twelve week course was how it challenged the way I saw my own work. I’ve been writing the novel I’m working on for at least six years now. That sounds rough. It’s even rougher considering it probably only took me a month or two to write the first draft. The Golden Egg Academy has made me pinpoint a lot of the mistakes I’ve been making and educated me on how to improve on them. It’s also given me hope that this project of mine could grow into something great once it goes through the required makeover.
And this learning has increased tenfold since I joined the twelve month course. Deep-diving into things such as character motivations, stakes and internal journeys has completely transformed how I write and plot. I’ve learned so much already. At times it’s daunting. At times it’s scary. At times it’s truly exhausting when I figure out something about my novel that needs to be changed. Not only will it change in one place, but it could have a butterfly effect on the rest of the novel, leading to big rewrites.
But I know it’s all worth it. After years of what felt like writing stagnation, I finally feel like I’m chugging onwards.
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