OYAN Summer Workshop 2012 pt. 2

And now... I bring you what you have all been waiting anxiously for. (Or so I hope). Part 2 of my Summer Workshop postings! If you haven't read part 1 yet, you can find it right here.

http://glimpsinguncertainty.blogspot.com/2012/03/oyan-summer-workshop-2012-pt-1.html

Let me just start out by saying that it is now official! I am going to the Summer Workshop 2012 FOR SURE!! The Lord willing, of course. But my parents have given me their consent, and all that is left to do is book our flights, fill out all the needed forms and send them with money, and then WAIT!

There are 97 days left until this spectacular event! The time couldn't go any slower, in my opinion! But when I think of all the words I have to write before then, all the chapters I have to accomplish, and all of the stubborn characters I must overcome, it makes the time seem a lot faster. Plus, I have the millions of other things to do, such as finishing up school, preparing for music recitals, critiquing someone's book (which I promised to do a long time ago), reply to important emails, and... OH! And get a video filmed for an OYAN Video Contest I'm hoping to participate in. It's supposed to be a 25-65 second video on how much I love OYAN. Which should be fairly easy, aside from the fact that I will have to face my fear of cameras and speak straight into one. The deadline for the contest is March 31st. Yes, I still have time. But time is running short... VERY short.

Back to where we started! Reasons I'm excited for the Summer Workshop:

1. First and foremost, I'm excited to meet the people! As I mentioned before, the OYANers are like family to me. Now, one cannot simply go through life without meeting family, correct? And having known most of these people for over two years, I feel like the time is way overdue to meet them. I get to meet up with my sisters for the first time! And a multitude of other people. Adrienne, Kenzie, Aimee, Christy, Jess, Lauree, Greg, Matt, Kyle, Mig, Daniel, Pip, Wooton, Braden, Janie. Just to name a few! And of course, I must not forget the infamous Mr. and Mrs. S!! They are the two amazing people responsible for creating this wonderful course. Without them, I would never have known all of these crazy, nerdy, homeschooled writers. ;)
Here ish a website on Daniel Schwabauer: http://www.danschwabauer.com/

2. I'm excited for the sessions. I heard (and watched some) that the lectures last year were AMAZING and truly inspiring. Well, I'm definitely going there prepared for some awe-inspiring talks! This year, we have people like Mark Wilson from Oregon, Stephanie Morrill, who is a fairly well-known authoress (here is her blog: http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com/), Jeff Gerke, who is an editor, and of course, Mr. S. I'm looking forward to learning a LOT about writing this summer. :D

3. The critique groups. As is the custom, all of the students will be split off into small critique groups where we will, well, critique each other's work! We'll each read off a portion of our novel (O.O), and then receive helpful feedback. We may even have one of the speakers sitting in with us! I think it'll be extremely good for my novel, and for me as a person. I generally don't like reading off stuff I've written to other people, so this should be a great experience for me, and should help me in that area. Also, I've heard it's not just seriousness for 2 hours, or however long it goes for each day. I've heard that it's a real bonding time with your fellow OYANers. Each group comes up with something crazy, and one group (the Laughing Lothlorien Ladies) even created a whole play! The play was to make fun of popular "detached limb" mistakes in a lot of novels. Of course, I can't explain it to a full extent, so you must watch the video!



That should conclude it! Needless to say, I am VERY excited for this workshop and I anticipate it with a great deal of enthusiasm and hope. I can't go a day without dreaming about it. Dreaming about the manner in which I'll meet the people (whether I'll greet some of them with a scream, or a glomp, or just with my usual calm self), dreaming about my first reaction to every aspect of the workshop, and dreaming about the six days of epic epicness that I will be taking part in at last.

May the Lord be with you and give you many blessings this day!