Improvements in 2007 - Tom C's experience

Interest post from Alex below. As one of the attendees at his January course, I feel I ought to give my experience.

Ever since the course (early January) I've found it much, much more difficult to write. Last year I knocked out about 275,000 words, many of them sub 1000 word flashes. I could do them relatively easily, without thinking. Most of them were okay but nothing special, 94+ in Grid terms, with some hitting 100s, which is reasonable for flashes.

But, since the course, when I do write, the stories are more focused, more concentrated. It's one of those strange things - when you're writing a story you sometimes know that you are stepping up a gear, and as long as you don't get frightened by that you can sustain it and produce something much better than your normal work. This is what has happened with something like five out of the past six stories I've written. My scores have been consistently higher than I've ever had before.

The only thing that has changed in the past year is me attending that course in January. I remember Alex saying to me, as I left at the end of the course, that I shouldn't be surprised if my brain turned to mush for a few months, but then it would all start to resolve itself. It's one of those things you accept without totally believing, but I have to say it is all coming uncannily true...