{"id":5901,"date":"2019-01-18T08:41:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T13:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/?p=5901"},"modified":"2019-01-18T08:41:15","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T13:41:15","slug":"odyssey-writing-workshop-expectations-vs-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/industry-news\/odyssey-writing-workshop-expectations-vs-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Odyssey Writing Workshop: Expectations vs. Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"J.Do any research on the Odyssey Writing Workshop<\/a> and you\u2019ll find alumni testimonials singing its praises, many calling it \u201clife-changing.\u201d After a while, reading through all that positivity can make your eyes glaze over. \u201cOh come on,\u201d you might think. \u201cIt can’t be that <\/em>good.\u201d<\/p>\n

I came to the 2018 workshop with irresponsibly high expectations. After hearing great things from a member of the class of 2016, I spent a full two years saving money and trying to level up my skills enough to attend the workshop myself. When I got my acceptance email, I had to go to my company’s bathroom so that my silent screams and hops of triumph wouldn’t alarm my coworkers.<\/p>\n

With so much on the line, it would have been easy for me to be disappointed. Had I attended any other program, I very well might have been.<\/p>\n

But not with Odyssey.<\/p>\n

I knew that I would learn a lot. I did not know that I would leave classes near speechless from repeated revelations and epiphanies. I did not guess that I would fill two entire notebooks with notes, nor go through a dozen pens in filling those notebooks, drafting my stories, and critiquing my classmates’ work.<\/p>\n

I knew that I would work hard. I did not know that I would be up until 2am on Day One, nor that pen calluses were a thing. I did not know how gratifying it would be to shine a spotlight on my weak spots, to struggle towards making them strengths.<\/p>\n

I knew that I would make great friends. I did not know how quickly and how deeply I would come to respect every one of my classmates. I did not know that Jeanne is not only a Dumbledore-level teacher, but a wonderfully kind person and mentor. I had no idea how hard I would laugh with everyone. I did not know how badly I’d miss them after we left.<\/p>\n

My friends keep asking me how \u201cthat Writing Program Thing\u201d went. My go-to response has become \u201cI aged 10 years, in the best way possible.\u201d They laugh, but I’m completely serious. Odyssey has given me an advantage of knowledge and wisdom that I could not have gotten anywhere else. I have yet to find a better way to convey the enormity of its impact.<\/p>\n

Really, I shouldn’t have been surprised. There is another pattern you’ll discover in Odyssey alumni testimonials: Again and again, the workshop exceeds even its students’ greatest expectations.<\/p>\n

I’d suggest that you calibrate yours accordingly.<\/p>\n

BIO<\/strong><\/p>\n

J.M. Plumbley writes fantasy, horror, and a blog about monsters. She is an active member of the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers and a proud graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. The bulk of her spare time is spent defending her keyboard from her cat.<\/p>\n

Find her online at jmplumbley.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do any research on the Odyssey Writing Workshop and you\u2019ll find alumni testimonials singing its praises, many calling it \u201clife-changing.\u201d After a while, reading through all that positivity can make your eyes glaze over. \u201cOh come on,\u201d you might think. \u201cIt can’t be that good.\u201d I came to the 2018 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[289],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5906,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5901\/revisions\/5906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}