informal workshop

My friends and I are helping each other improve our craft in writing, and one of the exercises we're doing is writing vignettes with certain elementary (in the sense of element) goals in mind. We all share a single sentence and go off and try to hit the mark. The results are certainly impressive and I wish I could post all of them here or better yet they could post theirs in their own blogs. Everyone was literally a revelation. Why? Because unlike artwork that is shown and passed around for comment, prose was rarely given the same consideration. Until now.

Jason is developing his voice for his preferred modes and I know that in the future something great will come, complete and defining.

Carl's lovely pieces mix a poet's sensibilities (see how multi-talented he is - he should be taxed or something).

Marco is a gifted storyteller, not just in his comics, but in prose as well.

Vin's work shows that there there is yet hope for the epic.

And Nikki, well, the craft is so well-developed I actually have to think of nasty things to say.

And I feel young and intelligent again, exposed to other writers who are currently writing, and writing well.

But we can all improve, because the bar is outrageously high (that's what you get when you ask me to critique). The goal is not some award or prize, the award is the improvement in writing, the prize is in the trying itself.