Reflections (Holly Schindler)

Reflections is sort of the perfect word to sum up the summer. 

I started teaching again this summer. I launched my first video writing course. Really, though, I've been teaching in one way or another for more than 25 years. It started in (ahem) 1999, when I taught my first collegiate writing course. I was a TA at the time, and I wasn't totally clueless about writing by any stretch of the imagination...

But 25 years later, I have soooo much more to say. 

My course on chapter breaks meant that suddenly I wanted to talk about how to write scenes, which meant I also wanted to put together a guide on narrative transportation. Not to mention plotting with 5 acts...

You get the idea. 

But I can't put together what I've learned without also thinking about where I've been. The cold queries via snail mail and the first call I ever got from an editor and the very first contract I've ever signed. The near misses and the tears and the frustration. The hope and the belief that ran through all of it that I would get there. 

Listen: you can too. 

It doesn't matter where you are right now. It doesn't matter how bleak it looks or how far you think you have to go. You'll get there. 

Part of this renewed love of teaching means that I've also dusted off a long-dormant YouTube channel (I used to post regularly after selling my first books, but then things just kinda...died). And I have a new series called (drumroll) I Have an Idea for a Novel. Now What??? The first vid addresses what makes a good scene (and contains a link to a free download). 

See what I mean? Soooo much to say. I hope you'll join me.
~

Holly Schindler is the author of The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky.