In recent years, Orson Scott Card, author of several sci-fi novels including Ender’s Game, has offered writing classes at different university locations. Having read more than thirty of Scott’s books, and long ago declaring him to be one of my favorite authors (right up there with George R. R. Martin), I took the opportunity to attend this year’s class offered at Utah Valley University and see what wisdom I could glean from his legendary sharp intellect. I got to sit in the front row.
Here’s the simple breakdown: For $175, the class was two days long, and went on for a full twelve hours each day. There were about sixty participants sitting together in a classroom listenning to Scott lecture in person, while breaking up periodically into small workshops groups. Among the sixty people were fifteen people who, for $750, were selected to stay for an additional two days for an extensive workshop known as boot camp. However, since I don’t do much with short fiction, I found that the cost plus the additional two days of missing work wouldn’t be worth the benefit, and so I didn’t even submit an application.
Aside from what he wrote in his books “How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy” and “Characters and Viewpoint” (both excellent books that I would recommend to all aspiring writers), much of what Scott taught came as a reinforcement and clarification of what I learned from the several writing classes I took while attending Brigham Young University (where some of you already know that Brandon Sanderson was one of my teachers). I suppose that it’s helpful to be reminded of even the bare basics every now and then, such as point of view and tense, but most of what I gained came from learning from the man himself, and hearing of his personal experiences with the writing life. I was able to ask him a few questions in person, and it helped put my own habits into context. All in all, the experience was worth it, and I would recommend anyone to go. Also, the man is quite entertaining.
Oh, and all of the thirty-six Orson Scott Card books that I own now have autographs! I had a bunch of them signed before during his frequent visits to BYU, but still, carrying some twenty odd hard-cover books gets heavy!