Good afternoon from Oistins, Barbados! It’s the first day of the Wayward Wormhole writing retreat proper, offered by Cat Rambo’s Academy for Wayward Writers. This morning was our first didactic session with author and Barbados resident Karen Lord.
I come to you now from a breezy front porch as clear, dry air pushes out an overcast sky and high humidity. In a few moments I’ll dive into the writing exercise Karen suggested for us as a follow up to her workshop on finding our novella’s core.
Meet Karen Lord
Yesterday afternoon was a meet and greet for the workshop participants and first-week teachers, Cat Rambo and Karen Lord. Our venue is a spacious condo just off Maxwell Road near a well-known local music spot, The Sage Bar and Stage. I loaded up with sunscreen, bug spray, a straw hat as well as a flowy sundress and water bottle for the short walk. I’m determined not to get sick or injured on this trip. I don’t have time.
Karen shared a lot of local area knowledge as well as reading suggestions, and the group chatted about everything from the Burning Man Festival to how would highly intelligent dogs behave, really. We each received cool swag bags.
I don’t need a tropical climate to crave an afternoon nap, so after a little sleep I was able to join what turned out to be most of the group for dinner. A Zoom call with the people at home was a nice way to say good night.
I’m relying a lot on the local ride sharing service PickUp Barbados. Sidewalks (“pavement” is the local term— the things I’m learning!) are inconsistent and vehicles are on the “wrong” (i.e., not what I expect) side of the street. And go fast sometimes! So I’m selective about walking to places.
Today’s Lesson: The Core of the Story
I’ll probably do a whole future blog about this morning’s writing lesson, but in a nutshell, we were challenged to ask ourselves “What is the story about?” Not the plot but rather the core theme or issue. Ideally, in just a few words. This is kind of mind blowing because, in my experience, theme reveal themselves as I write. That pretty much guarantees that I need to do a quick plot-focused draft zero to write myself into the story’s core. Doing this for our novella work-in-progress is the exercise assignment for Wednesday. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Tomorrow is a free day, and I intend on finding the ocean. It’s around here somewhere.
Meanwhile, enjoy yourself with my latest novel, The Talking Cure.
“The Talking Cure is a marvelous story—an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery infused with a strong sense of the Weird… and a hearty dose of magic on the side. It’s ideal for all fans of the sinister, the surprising, and the strange.”
—Cherie Priest, award-winning author of Boneshaker
Find The Talking Cure at these fine locations:
Left Bank Books in St. Louis
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If you enjoyed this blog, you might like to read about Plotting.
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Wolfhearted is also available as an Audible audiobook, here.
Earlier this year, St. Louis Writers Guild published Weird STL, an anthology celebrate the strange, spooky, and just plain wonderful stories of our hometown. This volume of short stories, poems, a play, and essays includes a Sean Joye universe short story, “Big Magick.” Joseph Arwald, one of the baddies from The Big Cinch, tells us what really happened to the Ferris Wheel from the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair.
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