Only four days left...

So, my first day of Tinker Mountain Writer's Workshop has occurred.  It began with an excellent craft seminar on subtext.  I don't think I really got the gist of the lecture, but I hope that by going back over what we covered I may understand better.  I don't believe I have any subtext in my writing.  I don't believe I can force subtext onto my writing, but hope, if I can find a small thread, I can develop it into something that works.  While in the class, I did have some idea about how to develop at least a small thread into what has already been written.

Then, in the afternoon, I had my first class with Fred Leebron, Advanced Novel.  Here are my notes from the first hour of class.

Please excuse the low quality picture; this was taken with my cell phone at the first break when I was stunned by all the new things I had to consider.  The rest of the class only added to my new information, and I am more than excited to see what else I learn this week.

After class, before the evening readings, I had an awesome discussion with another of the students in my class.  He had read my manuscript submission for the class (even though we aren't discussing mine until Thursday), and he had several questions.  The best thing ever is that, in answering his questions, I had several new revelations about my novel.  I completely understand things I didn't understand before.  It was so odd, because when he asked me questions, the answers just came right out of my mouth even though I had no idea what I was saying, if that makes any sense.  I didn't know that I knew those things about my characters.  I now know how to get to the next part of my novel.  I now know what happens basically all the way through until the very, very end.

According to Fred, I only need to know how to get to the next word.  I know how to get to the next word now.  There are only four days left, and I already feel as if I don't have enough time.  My new, rather ambitious, goal is to get as far as I have imagined in the novel.  I think it will be equal to as far as I've gotten so far.  An additional 50K words in a week?  I don't think so, but...

I only have to get to the very next word. :)