Last summer I went to Clarion UCSD writing workshop and I can honestly say it was a singular experience. Basically, you go to a San Diego University campus with 17-19 other writers and an instructor for six weeks. The instructor changes weekly and technically, every week the writers are supposed to deliver a new short story for critique by peers and the instructor and to critique everyone else’s story in return. I’m still trying to digest all the lessons I learned during my time there, but I can honestly say that Clarion made me into a better writer. Even during those six weeks, I grew immensely as a writer, just by virtue of the process.
And I want to make sure that other people can have that experience as well.
Every year, both Clarion UCSD and Clarion West hold a write-a-thon, during which writers from all over come together, post a goal and beg people to pledge and hopefully get to that goal. This year is no different. Starting tomorrow, June 24 and running all the way to August 4, you can help writers reach their goal.
I’m joining the Clarion UCSD write-a-thon with a goal of 150 hours of butt-in-chair time. I’m due to deliver a novel draft for a workshop I’m doing with some friends on the 28th, which means I’ll be working on my novel for the first five days, then editing some short stories to get them back out into circulation, hopefully writing a new short story, critiquing the manuscripts of other participants to the aforementioned workshop, and outlining my next novel. Because my projects are so all over the place right now, it seemed wiser to go with butt-in-chair time as the measure. 150 hours over the next six weeks is doable but a bit of a stretch since I’m also working full time at the day job until the beginning of August.
There’s also a list of the other fine writers who have joined!
If you’re a writer yourself, you can also sign up to write and be sponsored!
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