We were not disappointed! Mr. S delivered a wonderful talk on the differences between 'showing' and 'telling' and the proper uses of each. After a short break, we returned to hear from Prof. Mark Wilson, who drew a striking analogy between life and the shipwreck in Robinson Crusoe (life...inhales quickly! SW attendees, you know what I mean!)
Around noon we returned to the cafeteria for lunch, where I joined my friend Eli and his dad for some very entertaining conversation before meeting with the other critique group leaders (yes, I'm a leader this year...FEAR ME! :D) for prayer before gathering with our groups for the next 2 1/2. We read and critiqued and laughed and had a wonderful time! I'm leading a Fever of Stingrays, and was blessed to have two of my friends (Andrew and Eli) in my group!
After the critique groups, we had an hour of free time before dinner. Eli was kind enough to spend some of his time helping me fix the bed-cover on our pickup truck which was severely damaged by the extreme cross-winds we drove through on our way down. WI, IL, MO and KS were being buffeted with CRAZY winds yesterday...which, of course, makes interstate travel interesting. Let's just say I drive like a Crooks, which means I spent more time passing people than anything else, but in a full-size pickup, with lots and lots of semis on the road......well, it can get exciting with winds like that!!
Anyway! After he fixed our topper-thing (THANK YOU! You're my hero. :P :P) we headed back to the Bell Center, which is the AMAZING and GORGEOUS building that we are occupying this week (so much larger and nicer than the Cook Center of last year, which we thought was incredible at the time!) for some 'chill' time before dinner. After dinner we were back in the theater for our evening sessions.
Boy, were we in for a treat! The first evening session was scheduled to be Mr. S talking on great characters - what makes a great character, and how to create and develop them, and then what to do with them then.....except that he didn't end up speaking at all. He introduced us to a friend of his that made a special trip to join us. Mr. Samuel Clemens, everyone! For those of you who don't know, that's Mark Twain. Now, I can hear all your doubting voices, and YES, I know that he died many years ago. Obviously. :P However, it was a wonderful session full of humor and talent, and some incredible tips to boot!
After a short break, then, we returned to our seats for a talk from Mr. Jeff Gerke of Marcher Lord Press. What a blessing! He shared with us how to write a publishable novel - how to start your novel in such a way that people want to keep reading, so that they make it to the actual meat of the story. It was awesome, but also a little discouraging, as I looked back at my story... But, I'm not thinking about that tonight!
Truth be told, I'm not thinking about much other than going to bed! I've got to be back up at 6am. If the days weren't so epic, the short nights would not be worth it!
Will, hopefully, update again tomorrow!
Semper Fi,
Jacki
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