Writing Workshop

So, early tomorrow morning (very early) I'm off to the writing workshop. I'm not sure If I'll have much time for internet, but if I do, I'll try to post stuff about what we do.
It's just until Sunday, so it's not really long or anything.
The other thing I signed up for - the Writer's Residency Grant (where I could stay up at the Retreat for a week for free as I work on my stories) will apparently not happen yet. If I got in, I was hoping to spend the week after the workshop writing Katani's story. But we won't even know who gets in until September. Grumble. That's after school starts, so I'll have to wait till the end of the semester if I get in. But then it will be really cold, and possibly snowing up there. And one of the reasons that it would be great to stay up at the Retreat is that it's such a beautiful place (in the mountains with gardens and ponds and such). Writing outside would be great. So, I'll have to wait until after winter to go up.
It gets even more complicated, but I'll leave it at that. I gotta get in first.

Hiuuuuuuu. I finished the second chapter of Katani. I know I finished chapter one ages ago, and I should have finished chapter two ages ago too. But chapter 2 is really important. I mean, the first chapter is always the most important, but it's more like a prologue (despite all I've heard about prologues being undesirable). So, chapter two is where Katani and his friends are all introduced. I have to give enough information so that the reader can keep their bearings. Especially about the Retrievers and the GRA. But I don't want to give much information all at once either.
Infodumps = bad
So, it took me a long time of slowly sorting out all the details, and setting aside a lot of them for later.
Also, much of the chapter is Katani and his friends interacting. I need the dialogue to be good, and also revealing about their personalities.
Looots to deal with.
But now I'm fairly confident with what I got. It could use a bit more work, of course. Like more action among the speech. But it's something I'd be okay showing someone.
Big juggling act of getting everything sorted. Phew.

I've also been looking around at the programs nearby colleges offer. I'm trying to see what I might be able to do as a Master's thesis. There's a creative writing program that looks possible. I emailed in yesterday to get more information about it.

A little while ago, I watched the new Ghibli movie. From Up on Poppy Hill. It's made by Miyazaki's son.
I am heavily biased towards Ghibli. It seems like a movie that I might usually be neutral towards I end up enjoying, as long as it's made by Ghibli. But I did enjoy it. There was some nice stuff in it. I like the big club house.

Fact of the day:
Pigeon droppings have a high concentration of nitrogen, so they used to be important ingredients in homemade gun powder.