A Note To Everyone About the August 2013 BTS Class

[Wandering Author]

For a very specific reason, I think everyone, not just the usual suspects, may be interested in the August Back to School class, which is on Emergency Preparedness. Before your eyes glaze over, all of us who are serious about writing hope to continue to be able to write no matter what Life – that practical joker – tosses our way. But it isn’t always that easy.

As someone interested enough in the topic of emergency preparedness that I wrote an entire BTS class on the topic, I’ve given that matter more thought than many of you probably have. However, in a practical illustration of the concept of irony, while revising the class I taught on the old boards back in 2009, I was forced to discover just how well some of my plans worked. The result wasn’t as bad as it could have been – but I got some nasty surprises as well.

As I note in my intro to the class, I’m hoping to be able to write up the lessons I’ve learned, in time to post them at the end of the class as a “bonus”. I’m hoping it will give all of you something to think about: even if you would never have made the mistakes I did myself, the point is that it’s always possible to miss something important. And peering over someone else’s shoulder as they make mistakes is often instructive.

And, yes, I do also believe that emergency preparedness is a useful “lens” – a way of viewing the world – that can be incredibly useful in writing fiction. Some day, I hope to explain that in more depth in a book. In the meantime, if you’re interested, come check out the class.

[zette]

I have often found that understanding ‘real world’ problems is a great way to add depth to a story. This looks like an excellent class for that reason, even if you don’t think you will need to apply what you learn to your own life.

But then you never know. My Nebraska born and raised husband was more than a little shocked when he started having to deal with hurricanes while he lived in the New York.

[Author]

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