The long and the short of it

The Geneva Writers Group has been my literary ballast for the past 21 years. Originally it was small with meetings held upstairs at the Café du Soleil. (photo above). From those days when we were about 20 writers, we have grown to almost two hundred, put out a bi-annual magazine and run a writing conference that draws lecturers and attendees from all over the world.

A good percentage of our members have had major successes in publishing their work.

The group has been led by Susan Tiberghien, who at 80 is still giving workshops that inspire.

We no longer fit at the Café du Soleil. Most of our meetings are at the Press Club in a beautiful old mansion (photo  below), that is, except when we are too many and then they are moved to Webster University.

Much of my craft I learned at these workshops. I suppose I'd have developed as a writer even without them, but they short-circuited the process.

I may have published nine novels with the 11th due out next April. See my website.

Someone might think I would be wasting my time, still going to workshops.

I'm not.

I never leave one without learning something that improves my writing.

Part of today's workshop on Flash Fiction (stories under 800 words) included a section on pacing which included the way to build or slow tension and emotion by the use of long and short sentences.

I'd played with this in my writing before, but never had I heard it explained so clearly.

I did get a piece out of the workshop, posted at http://flashfictionexercises.blogspot.ch/ 

That the long and short of it.