Those that can...teach

Maybe I should have been a teacher the way my high school instructors claimed. I enjoyed teaching my on-line Man Talk class with the Low Country RWA chapter. And last week I loved being part of the guest faculty at the DePaul University Summer Writing Workshop. (As the new kid on the block I got the Sunday slot for the weekend workshop, but even though that meant driving into downtown Chicago at an ungodly hour, I still loved every minute)  All you introverts out there, there is hope, I am a bona-fide member of the top three percent in introversion, and yet I've learned to do, and love, the public speaking thing.

I was part of the YA writing tract, along with fellow authors Jim Klise (I own a signed copy of his book Love Drugged a story about a gay teen struggling to go “straight,” and Trina Sotira. I enjoyed their lectures. Jim discussed Nuts and Bolts for Revising a First Novel for Teens and Tina lectured on Make Your Fictional Characters as Complex as Their Readers.

My topic was Writing for Young Adults and New Adults and I'm happy to say some people dropped in because they wanted to hear about the New Adult market. My students even gave me new ideas, including working with an improve group to help grow new characters.

It’s true, the best way to really learn something is to teach it…and to listen to your students.