Lions and Tigers and Writers, Oh, My ...

So yesterday I did the writing seminar for Oregon Writers Colony. It was held at the Standard TV and Appliance store's meeting room, in Beaverton. Beautiful store, airy, well-lighted, spacious. full of fridges and stoves and televisions and all like that.

There were twenty of us in the room. I babbled and danced and did my dog and pony show from ten to five, with breaks for lunch and to go pee.

They were a good crowd, bright, ranging in age from the twenties to the seventies, pretty much evenly split between boys and girls.

I threw a whole buncha stuff at them, too much in too short a time. Kind of like trying to wash your hands using a fire hose. I lectured, we did Q&A, a few writing exercises, and it seemed to go over pretty well.

What you hope, as a teacher, is that one or two things of some value will sink in. Won't be the same couple things for everybody, but my goals are pretty simple: That the students will learn some tricks that will help them teach themselves how to write a little sharper or cleaner. And that they will leave with a heightened sense of enthusiasm and possibility.

It's always good if you have a natural talent, a gift for words. That can pave a lot of roads. But for many of us, talent is only the smallest part of the equation. In my case, I realized a long time ago that persistence will get you through times of no talent better than talent will get you through times of no persistence. (With a tip of the hat to Frank Freak.)

Um. Anyway, I had fine time, and now I can go back into my introvert's cave for a while ...