wow. the motherfucking savages were out tonight. ok, perhaps it wasn’t that bad. but i think a few of our classmates were a little emotionally scarred by me and kelly’s workshops tonight.

actually i don’t think mine went that bad. it’s a rougher story, really. it’s been workshopped and rewritten once. it still needs a lot of work. i got dinged on the things i thought i would get dinged on. though i did get a couple nuggets of gold from me ‘mates, and that’s what it’s all about.

i went first because i am a class-A freakshow before workshop. i will obsess and freak and obsess and think about puking the entire time before i have to read. once i’m done reading, i’m okay. but until then. . . freak city. and, since i really wanted to talk about Kelly’s story, i thought it’d be best to get my reading out of the way.

so blah, blah, blah my workshop was boring. it was a little on the harsh side, but like i said a rough story. what i did like is that two of the men in class came up to me during the break to tell me they thought everyone was really harsh and my story wasn’t that bad. ha!

but kelly’s workshop was brutal, and i’m not just saying this because i adore her. her story is fucking tight. it’s an awesome, moving story filled with the kind of details i always wish i could figure out how to put in my story.

but she got dissed early. the guy who will henceforth be known as Salinger said, “i’ve read Catcher in the Rye 40 years ago. i am so done with coming of age stories.”

what?

and Miss Beadle. . . oh Miss Beadle. she offered up a ‘plot suggestion’ which is something i’m generally morally opposed to. Miss Beadle suggested that perhaps Kelly totally change her story. i mean totally change it.

it was everything i could do not to go across the table at her. i immediately and quickly jumped to the story’s defense. i hate when people suggest such things. to me it totally invalidates their comments because now all i think in my head is ‘they are critiquing the story they wanted me to write and not the story i wrote.’

really, the class was fucking awesome, i love workshops. LOVE THEM. and now that my story is out of the way, and i’ve seen how people are conducting themselves, it’s like game on. i love when i don’t have to hold back.