My future is unwritten, for now.

I stayed home from the festival events on Wednesday in favour of doing things around the house. Thursday night I was back at the main stage working the merchandise table, Friday I hung out with Lisa, and Saturday was my marathon day that began at 10am with a writer's workshop with Gilles Blunt.

The workshop was great. I've taken a few writing courses and listened to a number of authors speak about the writing process but each time I do manage to take away something new and helpful. Gilles spoke about the structure of a good plot. I love hearing about structure and method in writing. Even though writing is a creative art there are common elements and patterns to good stories. I think it's important to understand those basics and from there a writer can apply the creativity to create a new story.

Blunt also commented about how there's a lot of bad writing out there that some how makes it to the best sellers list anyway. This was refreshing to hear. I get frustrated when I pick up a book that has commendations from the New York Times and yet find myself not enjoying it at all.  I wonder if he thinks the same sometimes applies to books that have won literary awards. One book he kept mentioning as an example of good story-telling and writing is No Country for Old Men. I'm going to read that one and maybe start working my way through the classics. I used to love reading when I was a kid, but it seemed like it was a lot easier to find quality stuff in the kids and young adult genre. Is it any wonder then that I like working in that genre myself?

I met a lot of people this week and usually after we traded names the next question was, "so, are you a writer?" I wish I could have said yeah, I'm working on something right now, or, I've had some stuff published. Instead I say that I blog, I work in corporate communications, and I'm trying to get back into writing more. I don't like that that is my response. I wish I was doing more. I don't want to be one of those people who never does anything with her talent. I was in a room with 50 other aspiring authors in that workshop. How many of us will actually publish a novel? How many of us already have? I don't want to be in the group who doesn't make it. I'm just going to have to find a way to do it.

No cute poets this year, no winning of door prizes, only one book purchase, but I did get a good nudge to get on with  putting time back into writing.