And then of course, Kingfisher Barn

In the first few days of November I have three Boot-Campers for two days, then a fourth and five on the last day, all at Kingfisher Barn for a face-to-face course. These are utterly DRAINING, for me (and the delegates) but they really do seem to make a difference.

There are some things that are damn hard to transmit over the web, no matter how many stories are written and critiqued. Bring some people together for a few days (with evening wine) and anything is possible, including tears.

A lot of BC 1-2-1 (Kingfisher Barn) is about finding stories, and finding the right way into them. They deal a lot with voice, tone, language, "colour" theme and character, and always focussing on that first page because if the first page is right, the rest follows. This time we have a day on editing, too.

The hardest thing to teach writers is how to let go and let the unconscious produce ideas while the fingers work on automatic.

Of course, for the latter to happen "without thought" you need to write so much, so often that the physical act of writing is automatic.


Alex