As a soon to be alumna of Cat Rambo's "Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction Short Stories" Workshop I would like to take this opportunity to share my experience.
Disclaimer: No, I am not a paid actor. This is not a dramatization
The online workshop was singularly one of the best experiences I've had.
Money, time, and travel constraints have always made me hesitant to consider writing workshops and boot camps. It's simply not easy to drop everything and just go for several weeks and indulge in the sheer joy (and sometimes anguish) of writing.
Cat Rambo's classes are online and take advantage of Google+ Circles and Hangouts. During the two hour classes my classmates and I were all lined up like little Brady Bunch squares on the bottom of the screen. It was wonderful to be able to connect with other writers - we had students connecting from Japan, Philippines, UK, Canada and USA. All in all, the technology worked great.
The classes were wonderfully structured and paced. We used the Milford Model for critiques. We had fun assignments that really get you thinking about the process of writing a story.
Of course, what made it all work was the incomparable Cat Rambo herself. Her experience as both an editor and writer is simply invaluable and she thoroughly answered all of our questions about writing. She is simply a wonderful human being - candid, friendly, and highly knowledgeable. These qualities make her a great teacher.
I encourage everyone to take a look at her future class offerings.
P.S. I also took her Flash Fiction workshop. That was excruciating(tons of timed writings) but very, very fun.
Posted by snapper (Member # 7299) on :
Sounds like it was fun.
Q: what is the 'Milford Model' for crits?
Posted by redux (Member # 9277) on :
Essentially, it's a writer's workshop model where each person gets a few minutes (in our case 2 minutes because it was a full class) to give our critique of one of the stories volunteered for the process. Only after everyone in the workshop has had their turn, the floor is given to the author and they can ask questions or comment on their own story.
I was attending Cat's editing classes. Highly recommended! Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
Sounds Good in more ways than one.
But what time was the class your time?
I might be able to figure out when it would be my time.
Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :
Sundays, 9:00 AM PST.
Posted by redux (Member # 9277) on :
To figure out the time of the class for your location just add an hour to PST as you move across time zones from West to East (if you're in North America).
For instance, her 8am PST Wednesday class would be 9am Mountain, 10am Central, 11am Eastern.
LDWriter, according to your profile it seems you're PST so no need to adjust for time differences.
Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :
Actually, I did know that. About the figuring the hours not that Foste is in PST.
How many weeks was this class and how long was each one?
That's a bad time for me- and no I ain't sleeping then- but maybe something could be worked out-- here that is.
Posted by redux (Member # 9277) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)