{"id":27265,"date":"2019-11-18T18:08:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T23:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=27265"},"modified":"2019-11-18T18:08:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T23:08:46","slug":"sinclair-presents-the-46th-annual-writers-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/11\/18\/sinclair-presents-the-46th-annual-writers-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinclair Presents the 46th Annual Writers Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sinclair students got the opportunity to listen to experts and test their skills on Nov. 4 at the 46th Annual Writers Workshop<\/a>. The workshop, held every year, is meant to help potential authors learn about the process of writing, give advice and talk about publishing. Four authors each spoke to students, with a panel discussion held at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local author Sharon Short<\/a> was the keynote speaker. She started out by discussing her history as a writer and how when she was 15, she was able to have dinner with the keynote speaker from this same workshop.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She then started talking about pie and how it is important to her. She described pie as something that allowed her to be creative and no one can reject it like people do writing, thus, inspiring her to bake many different types of pie and causing her to write a book named \u201cDeath by Deep Dish Pie,\u201d<\/a> which has nothing to do with pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main question she asked was \u201cwhy?\u201d Why do you want to write, and there is no wrong reason to want to write. She talked about all the different books she had published and the whys for each one of them. She then had everyone in the room take five minutes to write down their whys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She then discussed the infrastructure of writing. The parts of this infrastructure are place and tools, time, knowledge, community, mindset and toughness. When it comes to places to write, anywhere that surrounds you with inspiration and a mindset to write are perfect. The same goes for tools, whatever is comfortable and works for you is perfect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Short in the middle of her presentation. (Taken by Staff Photographer Brian Walker)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to time she said a common thing she hears is \u201cI would love to write more but I do not have enough time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She disagrees with this stance because if you want to do it there should always time. Finding what it is that is wasting your time can help tremendously in increasing the time you have to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using snippets of time to write instead of going through social media, watching tv or other time-wasters is key. The last thing she mentioned when talking about time is paying yourself first, meaning that you should take care of your body and not cut out self-care to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowledge, one of the other parts of \u201cwriting infrastructure,\u201d is simply using resources you may have. Some resources she gave were many local workshops<\/a>, Writersdigest.com<\/a> and picking the brains of other writers. Community plays a part in writing also. Finding fellow writers to talk to about ideas, reading books and visiting libraries will help in the long run in becoming a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a good mindset and toughness can help you keep going. Likewise, having the creativity to create character, storylines and a whole different world is absolutely required. Yet writers must also be honest with themselves on why you are doing it and what you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one needs your story but the world is hungry for stories,\u201d said Short at the end of her speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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