{"id":419,"date":"2009-08-30T22:42:30","date_gmt":"2009-08-31T04:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/?p=419"},"modified":"2009-08-30T22:42:30","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T04:42:30","slug":"clarion-west-2008-part-3-of-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/30\/clarion-west-2008-part-3-of-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarion West 2008 – Part 3 of 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This post is the third in a series of ten about my experiences at Clarion West Writers Workshop<\/a> in 2008. I’ll talk about the first week of the workshop, when Paul Park<\/a> instructed. Here’s Part 1<\/a> and Part 2<\/a> of the series. I ended Part 2 by saying that at the mysterious space station in geosynchronous orbit above Seattle, where the workshop is held, I started the first week proper by thinking about characterization.<\/p>\n

\"Seattle,<\/a>

Seattle, far below the space station<\/p><\/div>\n

Because characterization is what Paul Park began by talking about.
\nPaul, a tall, fit guy, struck me and others as confident and intense. Among other books, he’s written the Roumania Quartet<\/a> novels and the short story collection If Lions Could Speak<\/a>. He seemed very much a ‘thinker’, and that partly explains why I could easily relate to him and what he had to say. Since it was only the first week of the workshop, no one had turned any stories in; so, instead of the Milford story-critiquing method<\/a> that drove the workshop through weeks 2 to 6, Paul lectured — mostly in a Socratic way. Sometimes he used exercises he asked us to hand in as the basis for his lectures.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/a>

Paul Park, standing left, Clarionites in the foreground<\/p><\/div>\n

Paul said that on the whole, our Clarion submission stories, while packed with whizbang ideas, didn’t make him invest in the characters strongly enough. So throughout the week he gave us a bunch of tips about characterization and other aspects of fiction-writing. I can tell you without looking at my notes what tips Paul gave that stuck with me the most. Bear in mind I’m paraphrasing.<\/p>\n