I just realized that I haven't said much about the class I'm teaching at the local community college. It's called "Fiction Writing for the Beginner," and last night was our third class.

I'm happy to report that the class is really hitting its stride -- I'm really enjoying the teaching and moderating I'm doing, and the students have really stepped up to the plate to discuss the stories and give excellent feedback. Last night we shared the openings to the stories they're working on. Everyone had to bring copies of the first page or so of their story/novel chapter, and after passing them out, everyone got to read their excerpt out loud.

I realized quickly that I should've budgeted more time for the mini-critique session (we spent the first hour or so looking at John Updike's wonderful short story "A&P" and picking it apart to figure how he did it so well). Everybody got into the act of making suggestions that were constructive and helpful. I'd given my little speech about the purpose of a workshop like this was to improve the story, not to be some sort of competition and whatnot, and that seemed to help.

So we ended up chatting about each story starter, all of which were surprisingly good, and made me want to read the rest of the story immediately. It was a lot of fun, much more fun than the discussion I was leading for the first hour of class.

I love workshopping stories! Always a lot of fun, and it showed -- we ended up talking until 9:45, 15 minutes past the time we were supposed to leave (class is held at a local high school, and the secretary who stays late to supervise was poking her head in the window of the door to the classroom at about 9:31).

So I'm really enjoying the teaching gig again. I may even start doing some substitute teaching at the local high schools. Crazy, huh? But I've found out the secret to teaching. It's called PREPARATION (yeah, I know, Lisa told me all this months ago, but I had to learn it on my own, the hard way!). That's why I didn't enjoy teaching college freshmen at NC State -- I never put much effort into the prep. Now I know. It's so obvious, in hindsight. Prepare, prepare, prepare...

Speaking of preparing, I gots to prepare my romance chapter and outline and get that sucker in the mail today or tomorrow! So I gotta go! Later.

Now Reading:
Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

Now Playing:
"Singles," The Smiths

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