This organization is where I have been enrolling for creative writing workshops since the fall of 2010. I started with no more lofty goal in mind than to do something different and to fill some empty spaces in my life after Mr. W died earlier that spring.

Almost right out of the gate, I loved it.

This month they are having a series of special events more or less all day every day for two weeks, and I have gone over as a volunteer a couple of times this week and will be over there again next week, both as a volunteer and as a workshop participant.

Something clicked in my head yesterday as I listened to a writer and his agent discuss the process of (1) working on a book and then finding an agent; and (2) bringing that book to an identified market. Earlier in the week, I listened to another agent who represents authors of young adult fiction; and in another session to an author who publishes both fiction and memoir. All the discussions I listened to were intriguing, but one common thread ran through all of them.

To identify a market; to identify your own personal style as a writer; to, when it comes down to it, know what you are doing, you need to read as well as write.

Both agents went into detail about how they guided the writers who came to them hoping for representation. "What have you read in the genre in which you write?" When the answer did not mention a book that had been published in the recent past, the agent would send the writer off to the book store to look for books that are selling well NOW, to identify how to meet the market that exists today.

And the author who publishes both fiction and memoir read extensively to the audience. Almost all of what he read was poetry. Every poem he chose illustrated a point he was making about developing character.

I have been a voracious reader literally for as long as I can remember. No one needs to tell me to read. But I've discovered as I've been learning to write, that the way I read is changing. I pay more attention to what my instructors at The Lighthouse call "craft." And in the last few days, I've been thinking about some of my workshop experiences at The Lighthouse. The critiques I received from two fellow participants in two separate workshop sessions were far less than adequate. And I've realized that neither one of them read the submissions from the other participants. Their return comments were shallow and, more often than not, completely off the mark.

I've heard more than once from other people that they see me as strange because I read so much. One set of these comments came from a book discussion group I was in! One of the pleasure of the blogging experience is the responses from you all when I update my book lists here. And just this week, I realized that all my reading is helping my nascent writing work. Whether or not anything will ever come of what I'm learning at The Lighthouse, I'm learning a lot and enjoying every minute.