Wednesday night (October 14), I held my first Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers lecture, a condensed version of my six-week course.
As I'd mentioned in an earlier posting, I'd been apprehensive about the lecture because I couldn't fathom what the participants' level of creative writing would be.
I spent the morning nipping and tucking my presentation, which refused to print in "Notes" view. So I had to copy all the notes for the slides into a Word document, and hope for the best.
Afterwards, I went over to Waltham to teach my 2:00 class there, and hoped my lecture audience would be half as engaged as my Waltham students.
Back home, I collated everything and put the handouts into nicely colored, plastic pocket folders. My business cards arrived 30 minutes before I left home, so I slipped them into the folders, too.
At Minuteman High School, where I was to present, no one met me in the gigantic cafeteria area as planned. But someone with a walkie talkie managed to locate the adult education coordinator, who took me to the room where my class was to take place. The laptop worked, but the projector didn't--until the program director frowned over it and fiddled with it. Then suddenly, voila.
An even bigger voila: My husband Joe was standing in the door. He had just registered for the course moments earlier and showed up to offer me support. The man is truly my treasure.
The students arrived. I started my presentation. I didn't need my notes after all. (The group I forgot to mention--Chicks Who Write--my husband reminded me of.)
Two class members had already written novels (impressive). One wanted to write articles and essays (my specialty). One wanted to write a nonfiction book about science (my hobby is reading science books and articles). What could have been better? We had a blast.
I've seen one of the evaluations. It's glowing. I'm thrilled.
In my next post, I'll tell you what I covered in the presentation. I hope it will help you.
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