Free writing workshop, anyone?

One reason why I don't want to go back to school and learn the essentials of writing is because I know I can learn all of those from workshops and other materials that some successful authors have generously shared on their blogs for the internet to see. Look, I absolutely have nothing against you if you're currently taking creative writing class, but I feel like I can spend the three years doing some more productive stuff than sit in a classroom with my professor berating me about what I am still doing in his class after I've published five books (oh yes, this happened to one of my friends). My writing career is purely consisted of knowledge from free writing workshops, wisdom from the experiences of other authors, and determination to go through the entire process of writing and publication - write a story with roughly 30,000 words, draft a nice email and send it to publishers who may or may not ignore it otherwise look and pay for professional editing, choose the book cover and see the actuality of my coffee-stained passion project through the finally printed book.

The goal is to add more to this pile.

I never understood the essence of having a formal training in writing until I went into some, albeit being free and everything was mostly done online. I learned the importance of research, that my characters and their worlds should still be parallel to what's normal and contemporary unless I am writing fantasy (well, technically I write fantasies but you get what I mean). I found out that it's always wise to leave proofreading and copyediting to someone else, preferrably professional. I started to allow a few trusted friends to have a glimpse of my draft and ask them what they think about it, if it's passable to be read by many.

I know that paid workshops can be expensive for a starving artist to pay (and most of the time I am too cheap to pay for one so I always watch out for something that's free). And I also know that there are still lots of stuff about writing that I should learn. But hey, I've done both traditional and independent publishing and I have printed five books so maybe I can share with you a thing or two of my experience. Writing is fun, but challenging at the same time. But best of all, it's rewarding. So on my next posts I'll be sharing with you my writing experience. Maybe you can learn something. Maybe we can learn together. Or maybe, just maybe, this could be fun!

xo