Fictional Graduation

Well I finally graduated from Popular Fiction I, sponsored by the University of Washington's (UW) Professional & Continuing Education Program.  The course, which started back in October, was broken up into three, 10-week quarters, each corresponding to the number of acts found in a story:  The beginning, middle and end. 

This was a workshop-orientated class, where students worked on writing scenes of their proposed novels.  My own work-in-progress (WIP) was, Breakout from Bongolaan: Book One of the Star War Redshift Chronicles. This will be an on-line graphic novel that I'll begin posting on this blog and is based on a Star Wars RPG (role-playing game) adventure.

Our instructor was none other than Pam Binder, president of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association (PNWA).  She was a very supportive and encouraging instructor, but also quick to point out where our stories needed improvement.  More often than not, "Expand on this," was written in several places on each of my assignments.  I have over two dozen, three-page scenes with these and other editorial comments, along with; in-class notes, classroom handouts and an asundry of comments I collected from our critique sessions. 

Pam brought out the best in her students.  One classmate is a finalist in the upcoming PNWA writers competition, while another won a competition at a conference in Texas.  Pam will be teaching Popular Fiction II, starting this fall quarter, so I'm sure there'll be more competition finalists and winners next year.

http://www.pnwa.org/

But before I plunge back in to my YouTube movie and graphic novel projects, it's time for a little summer celebration music.

Take it away, Alice...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qga5eONXU_4