Yesterday, I attended a one day seminar from Larry Brooks in Medford, Oregon, sponsored by the Willamette Writer’s Group.  Larry Brooks is author of five thrillers and a very successful book on writing titled Story Engineering:  Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing .  Larry Brooks also writes the StoryFix blog, voted a top-10 blog for 2010.

I’ve read Larry’s book on writing and I can’t recommend it enough.  It provided for me one of those landmark moments of enlightenment in my own writing career where I really got something new.  I found Larry’s model and his approach to writing clearer than any other writing advice I’ve studied  to-date.  It immediately and measurably improved my writing and helped me identify the flaws in my epic fantasy novel which has since found an agent and hopefully soon a publisher.

Listening to Larry Brooks live was a great opportunity, and even though I was already familiar with the principles of writing physics he taught us, the one-on-one interaction helped clarify additional points for me.

In the past couple of months, other aspects of life have interrupted my regular writing schedule.  This month, as I get back in the saddle and dive into open projects, I am energized and eager to be productive both in quantity of output as well as quality.   This seminar ratcheted up that enthusiasm, and gave me additional clarity into my planned edits and outlining I’ll be doing this month.

I’ll post this week an update on the status of my various projects, and plans for a very busy last quarter of 2011.