if there's no wind, row...

Day 3 (is it monday?) another 5am writing session, quick shower while I can still get one & then a reread of workshop material. breakfast was fruit and oatmeal again then another long walk in the woods before the 10am start to the workshop. In today's workshop we learned many things other than the fact that mr. offutt has great taste in shirts...some highlights: "run one experiment at a time" [this was the first sign that i should probably just put that manuscript in the shredder for real this time], "the writer is in service to the story" (and not the other way around), "tension results when the writer & reader know more than the character...when the writer and character no more than the reader" (it's not a good thing)..."dialogue can't just tell the story - it needs to also illustrate character..." it's important not to "squander action" by putting it in dialogue/flashback/etc. watch out for words like "looked, glanced, watched"...and then it was time for lunch followed by Matthea Harvey's seminar "the mercurial world of the mind: inventing new realities" during which I remembered it was indeed monday & i had "real" work to do...this was then followed by 3pm "planting the seed: growing good ideas in fiction" with francine prose, whitney otto & kevin canty, moderated by rob spillman. francine prose was brilliant & entertaining...some quotes from my notes:Prose: [every time I begin a novel I think] "you know, this is 'War & Peace'...then you get to a point when you have to read what you've written and that's when the trouble begins..." Whitney Otto: "I'm sorry, I have no advice for you. You're on your own - in the fog..." and Kevin Canty: "shut the editor up for a while - shut up that voice that says it sucks..." and Canty on process: "building a bridge & hoping there's land on the other side..."; and most importantly, Prose: "half the battle is showing up every day - 'if there's no wind, row'..." & finally, the Faulkner quote: "a good book is worth any dead grandmother...". 4:30 cocktail hour during which I started my weeklong habit of having a beer (or 2) in the sun while doing some work and having a conversation or four & watching aimee bender, nick flynn et al play tag on the lawn (scaring the baroque music society)...dinner and it's requisite plate of limp greens, tofu and whatever else I could scrounge was followed by one of those readings that left me equally devastated and inspired [oh shutup...] featuring two of my all time favorites - Chris Offutt and Nick Flynn. Offut read a compelling short story, "I Am Legion", from a collection he's working on (? sorry - can't read my notes...) and Flynn read from "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" - a memoir which I think should be required reading - at least for anyone who's ever had too many late nights, bottle in hand or lived with someone prone to such nights/days/years...this reading was done outside at the much fabled ampitheatre, which while beautiful, features bugs, poor acoustics, REALLY uncomfortable seats, and was generally too dark to take notes & I spent half the reading trying to keep my eyes off the TREES and on the writers...