{"id":508,"date":"2008-10-17T07:53:10","date_gmt":"2008-10-17T11:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=508"},"modified":"2008-10-17T07:53:44","modified_gmt":"2008-10-17T11:53:44","slug":"the-muse-online-writers-conference-is-educational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"The Muse Online Writers Conference is Educational!"},"content":{"rendered":"

My eyes hurt, I’m tired and a callous is forming on\u00c2\u00a0my mouse wheel finger.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the current cost of The Muse Online Writers Conference<\/a> this year.\u00c2\u00a0 Great, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

When I first heard of the conference I thought to myself, “It’s online and it’s free.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s probably not going to be very good.”\u00c2\u00a0 I signed up last year\u00c2\u00a0with no\u00c2\u00a0idea of what to expect.\u00c2\u00a0 I was armed only with the knowledge that I’d be out of the town for the end of the conference and miss out on the last few days.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me describe for you what the conference last year was like.\u00c2\u00a0 Overwhelming.\u00c2\u00a0 Educational.\u00c2\u00a0 Fantastic!<\/p>\n

Last year I learned about how to world build, where to find grants, why vampires are so loved and so on.<\/p>\n

The workshops\u00c2\u00a0the last two\u00c2\u00a0years\u00c2\u00a0were held in week-long forums hosted on Website Toolbox<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and were easy to use.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the software being used this year too.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve ever used forums before these are basic and pretty easy to use.\u00c2\u00a0 The “smart quotes” from Word don’t translate well so be prepared – turn off that feature in Word if you’re going to copy and paste your work into the forums.\u00c2\u00a0 There is so much information, critiquing and networking being done.\u00c2\u00a0 The organizers pay to\u00c2\u00a0keep the\u00c2\u00a0forums\u00c2\u00a0open a few weeks longer than the actual conference so participants can review missed discussions.<\/p>\n

The chats have been held through Parachat<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and have a maximum capacity of 100 logins before it starts bumping people out.\u00c2\u00a0 I signed up for a lot of chats last year.\u00c2\u00a0 The organizer hopes to have enough donations from this year to upgrade the software or switch to something else for chats.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each year the conference gets better based on constructive feedback.\u00c2\u00a0 I wasn’t there for the first\u00c2\u00a0 year, but the workshops were held in Yahoo!Groups.\u00c2\u00a0 Yahoo!Groups is a great tool but it can be difficult to follow multiple discussions at times.\u00c2\u00a0 Last year a request was made for transcripts of the chats.\u00c2\u00a0 And this year most of the chat sessions have transcripts available afterwards.\u00c2\u00a0 I wonder what will be in store for 2009?<\/p>\n

After experiencing the conference last year I cut back on the chats and only signed up for the workshops I thought I would participate in.\u00c2\u00a0 During this year’s conference:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I’ve reworked a short story that’s been through several drafts already.<\/li>\n
  2. I’ve received good\/helpful criticism on a short story that’s been rejected several times but is dear to me so I don’t want to trunk it.<\/li>\n
  3. I’ve begun a new short story with elements of suspense.<\/li>\n
  4. I’m exploring some of the scenes that will take place in my next novel.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It’s only Friday morning.\u00c2\u00a0 There are so many more exercises to do and things to learn before the week is over.\u00c2\u00a0 It may be a free conference but the time and effort that went into the week really shows in the quality of the presenters and the participants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My eyes hurt, I’m tired and a callous is forming on\u00c2\u00a0my mouse wheel finger.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the current cost of The Muse Online Writers Conference this year.\u00c2\u00a0 Great, isn’t it? When I first heard of the conference I thought to myself, “It’s online and it’s free.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s probably not going to be very good.”\u00c2\u00a0 I… Continue reading The Muse Online Writers Conference is Educational!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,54],"tags":[66,10],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","category-writing","tag-the-muse-online-writers-conference","tag-workshop","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}