Freelancing

So I took a class on writing last Saturday.

Well, not really "writing" writing, as in how to use the language to get people to feel something or experience an emotion. No, this class was designed to teach you How to Be a Writer, or how to write for a living, which is something that, more and more, I think I might just try to accomplish. All of the updates from my friend Brent, and my experiences with a friend here at work, Steve, have helped me to believe that this is something that I not only would be halfway decent at, but also something that I could make a halfway decent living at. (How's that for a budding writer's sentence!)

The class itself was an eminently practical excercise. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mr. Dennis E. Hensley, published author and director of a local writing program, instructed me and seven others on the finer points of writing novels and short stories. What was interesting about him was how compelling he was as a salesman, an ability he used in order to illustrate his points in a captivating and memorable way. It made me wonder if all writers had to be like him, because if that was the case, it certainly wasn't for me.

Of course, that was only if you listen to how he was saying it. If, as I did, you listened to what he was actually saying, you came away with more hope than that. With the proliferation of media has come a proportionate proliferation of publishing houses and presses, making it even more possible to get published someplace. The thing that gave me the most hope? Mr. Hensley talked about how one of the things writers must do is to continue to read, both the classics and modern works, esp. in your chosen genre. Reading? Now that's something I know I can do.

I'll keep you, my faithful and loyal readers (all six of you) posted on how this little odyssey turns out.

BillG