Tod McCoy - Pocket Workshop

For those unfamiliar with it, Clarion West is a writing workshop which provides instruction and insight into the art and craft of speculative fiction writing. The workshop has been operating continuously since 1984a full thirty-five years at the time of this printing, fifty years since its origin in 1971.

Each summer, the Clarion West Writers Workshop, the flagship program, offers six weeks of in-residence instruction for eighteen students from around the world, with each week led by a different writer or editor from the fields of science fiction, fantasy, or horror. To date, more than 600 writers have passed through the summer program, many of whom have become professional writers or editors and are still active in the field.

But theres more than just writing instruction in the workshop. Living and working alongside so many like-minded people creates a sense of community, builds bonds with other writers, allows for experimentation in a safe environment, builds confidence, opens an awareness of the diversity of people, and offers a journeymanship into the field unlike most other writing workshops in existence. It is not JUST a writing workshop.

This book is intended to be a reflection of the workshop itself, a way to give backby delivering thoughts and insights about writing and process from writers who have taught at Clarion West over the past thirty-five yearsto members of our community who may not be able to attend the workshop. And what was originally conceived to literally fit in your pocket grew into a much larger tome. We apologize that all of this wisdom may not fit anymore.

Maybe youve made a sale, maybe youve written a draft or two of a novel, maybe youve made the decision that THIS profession is your calling, and you need more information to keep going. Maybe youre simply trying to get out of the slush pile. Within these pages youll find advice distilled from nearly four decades of writing acumen. We hope they will nudge you forward and help you move on to the next level of your writing career.

We wish you the best of luck, and keep writing! Onward!

Tod McCoy, Editor
Clarion West Writers Workshop Chair
Publisher, Hydra House Books

Co-editing Pocket Workshop has been nearly as immersive and transformative as attending Clarion West, and Im honoredand humbledto have poured myself into the project.

Tod wrote about the books what , why , and for whom , so Ill focus on how : specifically, how the essays are arranged (and how to spite our prescriptive sequencing and find your own best path).

We began with a nominally thematic scheme: pieces heavy on technique to the front (youre here to hone skills? cue the nuts and bolts); theoretical and philosophical essays following (what does it mean? how do you figure out what you want it to mean?); next, practical advice (research; get it right; use it well; keep on writing; keep on keeping on; dont get distracted; unblock yourself; pass it on); and finally, at the end, deep introspective musings on living as a writer (is your muse obsessed? are you lost? can writing save? what paves the road to writers hell?).

It was a lovely idea, sorting the essays by type. Until it fell apart. Or, rather, together.

The more we read, the more each essay grew connected to every other. And they werent just connected, but entangled, symbiotic. (Cory Skerrys mushrooms on the cover are the product of his own inspiration, but they complement my conceit: these essays are fruiting bodies of a great writerly mycelium.) I sometimes suspected the authors of conspiring. Theyd all, independently, written pieces whose common threads (hyphae?) wove themselves into a single fabric, and we could no longer label any one essay as only practical or theoretical or introspective.

So, we pondered, and shuffled, and unshuffled, and finally quit worrying and trusted our editorial guts. We settled on a right sequencebut its not the right sequence. The right sequence is the one you follow. Ask yourself what you, as a writer, need. Consult the table of contents, select a toothsome title, take that first Alice-like nibble (yes, mushrooms again), and be affected.

OK , maybe I can help a little: Are you blocked? Read Going Through an Impasse. Need a kickstart into your story? Tap Tapping the Source, with a chaser of We All Have to Start Somewhere. Doubting your storys logic or structure? Trust in Coincidentally and Setting the Scene. Obsessed with perfection? Indulge in Thickening the Plot, The Devil Is in the Details, and Something to Cry About. Characters not cooperating? Get an assist from Status and Neowise. Feeling generic? Look to Channeling Voices. Pondering symbolism? Meditate on The Old Marvellous. Or perhaps writing has gone from your world; youre not alone. Run to the embrace of "*Take As Needed, and bask a while in Matters of Life and Death.

Of course, if you choose to read the book start-to-finish, youll be fineBeing and Becoming a Writer is a perfect beginning, Proverbs of Hell for Writers, a marvelous dnouementbut do read what you need when you need it. Some essays may not speak to you (at first), while others sing in your mind for days or years. If you read a favorite dozens of times before youve read them all even once, well done. But as you eventually unpack the rest of this books pieces, may each prove as vital and nourishing to your story as their whole has to mine.

M. Huw Evans, Editor