At Antioch Writer's Workshop for the Week

I'm at my first writer's workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Before I tell you about it, let me preface it by saying I am an introvert. I make no apologies for it; there's nothing wrong with me. I get my energy from quiet. I literally require short spans of quiet to function normally. It keeps the skin on my neck from blotching out.

One problem with this workshop is there's no acknowledgment that some people (quite likely half, actually) need a few minutes of quiet here and there. I survived something like 12 hours of pretty much non-stop human interaction yesterday, but it wasn't easy, and I'm wiped out today because of it.

I'm not just an introvert - I'm also claustrophobic and so short that being in a room full of people makes me feel like I'm suffocating in their armpits.

So I'm hanging out in the lobby wishing the other people in the lobby would get the *$%k out. Can't they see I'm breathing here?

The great things about the workshop are:

1. I've already collected a new cast of characters for future stories.
2. The keynote speech by Andre Dubus III was very entertaining.
3. My hotel does not have bedbugs (that I know of).
4. I only got lost once but felt completely comfortable walking up to a man in his backyard who was hanging out with his chickens and his children - he got me back on my way. I seriously need GPS - not that it would have worked here. I am in farm country.

Next post: It's time to acknowledge there's more than one way to write a book. (Or whatever rant is on my mind at the moment I write it.)