Okay, not really death, but maybe a class on death.  I’m taking a month-long course taught by Phyllis Middleton on Death Scene Investigations. I told myself that this was a necessary research class since Debussy and I are plotting out a Lawrence and Myrna mystery that involves the death of a former Horror Host of Channel 11’s Terror Time (be there and be scared). It will be useful to know how coroners, forensic teams and police approach a death scene and how much the public is allowed to interact with them.

But really, I have an obsession with online learning. Ever since I joined the RWA last year, I’ve had access to dozens of classes on writing, research, marketing, and self-publishing (not to mention the RWA convention which was craft classes 8-5 every day). I’ve simply glutted myself, attending three or more a month for the last twelve months.

And what did I learn from all of these classes you ask?

1.  If you take too many classes you don’t have time to actually write. 😛
2. You are not expected to participate in these classes but you get so much more out of them when you do.
3. My writing is not as bad as I feared it was.
4. My writing has lots of room to improve–and it will every time I write something new.

This has led to  a new resolution for 2014–one class per month only with an attempt to schedule no classes at all.  I realized that my signing up for so many craft classes was stemming not from the need to learn, but from my own writer insecurities. There are a lot less expensive and time-consuming ways to calm those insecurities such as through meditation.

So this year, less classes, more meditation, more writing!  I published one story in 2012 and two in 2013. I want to see if I can make 3 or more for 2014. Wish me luck!