He showed up a little late. Turns out he was looking at some sketches for the ENDER’S GAME graphic novel and had to send feedback. He asked us how the index card assignment went. Then he started to discuss the story openings on the handout. Mine was first.
He then proceeded to blast it into smithereens.
He joked about how he wanted to make at least one person hate him before boot camp started. He also said the author (me) shouldn’t whine, because at least he (I) got into boot camp. His comments were pointed, but true. It was easier to take than I thought. Nobody knew who the author was except for Cynthia, Nick, and Brennen, so I just laid low and smiled.
We got through the second excerpt and then had a brief break. Then two more excerpts, parts of which he liked.
Around 11:45 we had an earthquake. I thought someone had his feet on the back of my chair. It was a vague, swirling motion and lasted about 5 seconds. It primarily effected the Anaheim area. I guess they evacuated Disneyland. He let anyone with families in the Anaheim area, go make calls to see if everyone they knew was all right.
He did mention that the submitted pages did have redeeming qualities later that we were not seeing. Otherwise, they would not have qualified for boot camp.
After lunch, a few people got up and read an index card story idea they had developed and he commented on them. Then we broke up into groups and tried out our ideas on each other. My group helped me develop my mushroom idea as well as another idea about a war memorial.
From 4:00 to 6:00, we played a game as together. Together we had to brainstorm a new idea concerning the price that must be paid for magic. It was interesting.
Just before dinner, he met with all the boot campers. It turned out that there were 16 of us. He said two of the pages submitted were just too close to call, so they stretched the number.
He then explained that we would have all day Wednesday to write a short story based on one of our new ideas. He describe the format he wanted and gave us various deadlines. One would be at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. The next at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow. The final deadline would be Thursday morning. We had to write our story, print it out at the business center here at the motel and then turn it in. His wife would pick up our manuscripts and take them to make enough copies for everybody. Starting Thursday at 10:00 we would begin discussing them.
On the way out, after this meeting I got to talking to one of the other guys in the boot camper group. His name is Ty, a 20-year old from Florida. He was surprised to get into the program like me. We bumped into two other guys who attended the workshop and ate at Subway together. After that, I was itching to get back to my room and get started on my story, but I sat in on the lecture concerning the business side of writing and the Q & A that followed, going until 9:00 p.m. The whole time, I sort of half-listened while I brainstormed on my story idea, developing the characters, trying to form an outline, and listing things I wanted to research on the internet that night.
At 9:30 I went back to my room and used the internet to try and get some cool info concerning my idea. I found some helpful stuff and updated my outline based on this. I went to the business room of the hotel and printed off about ten pages of brainstorming notes and internet research and called it a night. I reread my notes a little, hoping all the stuff would whirl around in my head while I was asleep.
1 comment:
I am sorry that he blasted your Imp. He was probably giving you a taste of what Boot Camp is going to be like. However, I am sure that it was valuable and will help you in the future.
I was wondering what the earthquake felt like in San Diego. There is a person at my work that used to live in California and said the buildings would move like they were on skates.
I am glad you're making friends even if their vocabulary requires you to be accompanied by an adult. :)
Being social with a bunch of strangers is not my cup of tea.
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