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Writing Workshops

I only began teaching writing workshops because I had taken so many of them. At first, I had wanted to write children's books. It was sort of an obsession of mine from the time I was little. I had kept all of my first books, and carefully preserved them for posterity. I frequently reread The Little Engine That Could, Goodnight Moon, and all of my other childhood favorites. I imagined that, one day, I too would be composing masterful children's literature.

When I could not seem to get any of my books published, I decided to take a children's writing workshop. The teacher was very inspiring. She had a passion for kids books that matched my own, and a lot more experience in the field. She liked my work, but advised me to take more writing courses. She believed that I was a bit too undisciplined in my own writing, and that this was getting in my way when I tried to get my stories finished and published.

Instead of doing what she advised, I took some business writing workshops. I felt like I could take care of the discipline myself. What I really wanted to understand was how things looked from the other side – how publishers decided what they wanted, and how to make a query letter that was out of this world. I have to say that the business writing workshop was not quite what I thought it would be. It did teach me a nice sideline in grant writing which helped to pay the bills, but it did not really help me all that much in my goal of publishing a children's book.

After that, I took a few writing workshops which focused on refining and polishing your own work. During that period of my life, I was able to take some of my best ideas to finished products, and I was really enjoying myself. Unfortunately, I also discovered that I did not really have what it took to be a published children's author. I was not a good enough writer to make it in the big time. What I was becoming good at, however, was understanding the writing process. I had seen all the popular techniques, and I could guide someone through from beginning to end. All in all, I knew what I had to do. I had to start my own business as a writing workshops teacher. Although I would never succeed as a writer, I could help others to.

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