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viable paradise
Viable Paradise is a unique one-week intensive workshop in writing and selling commercial science fiction and fantasy, taught by professional authors and acquiring editors. Now in its eighth year, Viable Paradise is a one-week residential workshop that concentrates on the art of writing fiction that people want to read.
I've never been to Viable Paradise (why does that sentence make me laugh?) but I am always tempted to order some of the stuff they sell at Cafe Press.
I’m A Professional Writer. I Tell Lies To Strangers For Money.You can get farther with beautiful prose and a plot than you can with beautiful prose alone.
Writing is about a lot of things, but being kind to the characters is not one of them.
If you don’t entertain your readers they won’t stick around to hear your message.
Your readers can always tell when you're bored.
February 14, 2004 11:04 PM
Comments
Viable Paradise is one of the best things I ever did for myself as a writer. The name is a great description -- the workshop takes place in this gorgeous setting, and it doesn't require you to abandon your job, family, etc. for six weeks the way Clarion and Odyssey do. The format is less harsh; whereas a Clarion-style workshop requires you to write a story a week while you're there and then have it critiqued by all the other students at once, at VP you send in your story ahead of time and have it critiqued by a small group of students (three or four) and one instructor. This "group grope" is a lot easier to take, and also gives people time to make more in-depth comments. You also get two one-on-one sessions with other instructors.
You don't actually write while you're there, unless everyone in your critique group points to a particular problem and Jim Macdonald says casually, "You should rewrite that scene as [whatever]... by Friday..." Instead you spend the week soaking up so much *stuff* that by the end of the week your brain is overflowing. There's a lecture every day from one of the instructors (on things like plot, language, etc.) and on the last day, when you just can't absorb any more theory, Patrick Nielsen Hayden gives you the state of SF publishing in a nutshell.
Evenings are fun, group-bonding time. There's a Shakespeare reading involving pizza and alcohol. There's a paranoia game that tells you who the excellent liars in the group are. There are expeditions to this rocky beach where you get to stargaze -- we saw the most incredible shooting star -- and watch the luminescent jellyfish flow under a bridge.
The people are the best thing about the workshop. The instructors are amazing. Two years later I can still name almost all 20 of my classmates, and several of us still critique each other's work.
I'm gushing. I'll shut up now.
Posted by: Stephanie at February 15, 2004 04:10 PM
What a wonderful recommendation. For people who really would like to find the right workshop, this kind of personal reference is very valuable.
Posted by: sara at February 15, 2004 04:29 PM
For people who are interested in going, there's a Yahoo discussion group here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/viableparadise/
I think membership has to be approved (we've had trolls) but as far as I know future applicants are welcome to join.
Posted by: Stephanie at February 15, 2004 05:20 PM