On the Viable Paradise writing workshop
A week spent writing in Martha's Vineyard.
Hello friends,
Happy Halloween season! I am freshly returned from Viable Paradise, a one-week writing workshop hosted in Martha’s Vineyard. It looked something like this:
Viable Paradise also happens to be the subject of today’s newsletter. But first, some news!
News
At the end of September, I read my short story “Filtration Systems” on Story Hour. Here’s the recording.
On November 2, I’m teaching a one-hour workshop on how to apply the Hero’s Journey framework to short fiction.
I’ve got a poem forthcoming in Shakespeare Unleashed. The poem is a horror-leaning Shakespearean sonnet. It should be out in April 2023.
Viable Paradise 2022
Whoo! What a week!
Viable Paradise is a one-week science fiction and fantasy workshop, hosted annually in Martha’s Vineyard. They accept 24 students each year. There’s a lot to be said for Viable Paradise – the strength of the cohort, the beautiful location, the sheer density of information on offer – but when I got the acceptance email, I found myself most looking forward to working with the faculty, who are undeniable greats in the field. For example:
Hugo- and Sturgeon Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear
Hugo-nominated author Max Gladstone
World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Daryl Gregory
New York Times-bestselling fantasy novelist Scott Lynch
Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor-in-chief at Tor
Teresa Nielsen Hayden, consulting editor at Tor
Nebula-nominated author Nisi Shawl
Nebula-nominated fantasy novelist Sherwood Smith, who wrote Crown Duel, a highly popular novel among my sixth-grade set
World Fantasy Award-winning author C. L. Polk, who has also been a finalist for every award under the sun
Awards aren’t everything, but they’re not nothing, you know what I mean?
The workshop also turns out some stellar alumni. While I noodled over how to prepare and what to pack, I read postmortem blog posts from Kellan Sparver, Leigh Wallace, Cislyn Smith, John Wiswell, Benjamin C. Kinney, and A. T. Greenblatt. (Here’s my own packing pro tip: Bring earplugs, plenty of snacks, and, if you have one and live nearby, your car! I left my car on the mainland because I was worried it would be difficult to drive onto the ferry, but I think that was an erroneous assumption on my part.)
For one week, you get to work with these people, and with 23 other writers who’ve been specially selected for their work’s quality and interest and potential and skill. You get workshops on your short stories or novel excerpts; one-on-one meetings with at least two faculty; and a veritable bevy of lectures. You critique the fantastic work of your peers. You write a full draft of a short story in three days.
It’s hard, I think, to sum up Viable Paradise the way I’ve done with craft resources like Writing to the Point and Story Genius. The Viable Paradise community talks a lot about how some people leave the workshop raring to go, whereas others need weeks or months to process. I’m definitely in the latter camp. I’m gonna be honest: It was such an intense week that I spent most of it feeling really tired.
But I also got to have an experience that I wouldn’t have been able to have anywhere else. Viable Paradise is often compared to six-week writing workshops like Clarion, Clarion West, and Odyssey, although Odyssey shifted its model during the pandemic. (For more on the history of such workshops, read this amazing article by S. L. Huang.) Now that I’ve finished school, I’ll probably never be able to take six weeks off again, and it would be even harder if I had, e.g., family obligations or children. So Viable Paradise opened an avenue for me that otherwise would have been closed.
And even though I need more time to let the whole thing marinate, I can still tell you what happened on the island:
I had an amazing one-on-one conversation with Max Gladstone, who encouraged me to pursue the ambitious projects I’ve been balking at, to ask myself what it is in my work that I keep returning to.
Elizabeth Bear gave me careful advice on writing science fiction stories about grief.
After several months of stagnation, I drafted a full short story.
I realized – though no one told me this outright – that the endings of my stories aren’t consistently landing the way I want them to, and I’ve started to unpick in my own mind why this might be.
I took twenty-one pages of notes.
I got Sherwood Smith’s autograph.
I made a bunch of smart, creative, generous, wildly talented friends.
I’m so glad I got to go.
What’s been your experience with workshop environments like this one? Respond to this email and let me know!
And if you have any questions about Viable Paradise in particular – like if you’re reading this a year from now as part of next year’s class! – feel free to email me anytime.