Last week I participated in a free 5-day Story Clarity Challenge hosted by Traci Skuce. I’ve done some summits where she was one of the presenters and I decided maybe this could help me get my enthusiasm back for my Quest Therapy story. I’m so glad I did!
Each day started with a question/prompt sent via email. I was able to complete each one shortly after they arrived in my inbox because they came at 8 AM. Then there were live discussions on Zoom in the evening. I was only able to do 2 of the 5 live sessions because my Squirrel had a performance the other three evenings. There were recordings, but I’ve found it very difficult to make myself watch recordings of live sessions. Partially because I have a hard time setting aside enough time and partially because I can’t see the chat and I feel a little lost. I still got quite a bit out of completing the prompts, though!
Traci invited everyone to a FB group to facilitate community and discussion. She encouraged everyone to post each day’s insights to the group by offering a drawing for anyone that posted all 5 days. Being who I am, I posted every day. Not because I necessarily felt a need for the prizes offered, but just to see if I could.
Well, I got first prize, which was a 45 minute coaching session with Traci. And oh my goodness when I saw that I’d won that particular prize (the others were copies of her writing books), I almost had a panic attack. It freaked me out to think I’d need to talk to this person one-on-one and I had no idea what exactly happened in a coaching session. But I wanted to push past my anxiety, so when I messaged her to set things up I let her know about my social anxiety. (I’ve found that it’s easier for me to show up when I’m not also trying to hide my anxiety.)
That coaching session was yesterday. I had zero expectations of how things would go and I worried that I would not be able to ask the right questions to get help. But I shouldn’t have worried (which is often the case with my anxiety). Traci asked questions and helped lead me to a plan for getting back to writing this story. She also was very encouraging about the story itself. I explained a little about it and how I usually write (intuitively) and she helped me to see how I can use the questions she had us think about in the challenge to enhance the writing, particularly as I revise.
She has a 6 month intensive course that will be starting today, but I have an in-person class at the same time for the next 7 weeks. When I explained that I have a hard time watching recordings of live sessions and didn’t think it would work for me at this time she explained that she will be offering the course again in February. I told her that sounded like it would be much more reasonable for me, as hopefully I’ll be at the revision phase by then and she added me to the list of who to send a message to when that opens. She also let me know that there will be more free workshops between now and then.
I had also signed up for a free 5 day course with Sage Adderly (Idea to Outline), but I calculated the time zone incorrectly and it turned out I was not available at the time of the live sessions after all. Again, I’ve got all the recordings, but I have yet to watch any of them. She is offering a Book in 90 course that I could possibly participate in if I change the day I work, which might be a good pairing with the February intensive. I could use the 90 day course now to get my first draft finished, then take the 6 month course with Traci to get through revisions. They both cost a considerable amount of money, but if it helps me get my writing to a complete novel maybe it’s worth it?
Leave a Reply