I spent last weekend learning how to write a better story. The second annual Grand Mesa Writer’s Symposium was again held at the foot of Colorado’s Grand Mesa in beautiful downtown Cedaredge, Colorado. I was eager to immerse myself in the writing community for the weekend and reconnect with the friends I made at the last symposium.

The Meet and Greet was a little different this year than last, as the town didn’t have the Friday night live music. Instead, we gathered in the Grand Mesa Arts and Events Center, socialized for a while, then listened to the workshop leaders read from their works. Being a fiction writer, I’m guilty of paying more attention to those readers than the memoir and non-fiction authors or poets.

Shelley Read was, once again, a workshop host at the Symposium. First Reader and I listened to part of Shelley’s novel Go as a River as we traveled, and I compared her reading to that of the audiobook narrator. (I much preferred Shelley’s reading.)

Craig Childs read from one of his real-life bicycling adventures. His books describe the world, and he writes about his journeys in a very fiction-like style—he includes vivid descriptions of all senses, dropping the reader into his experience.

Paolo Bacigalupi read from his latest novel Navola. Many of his novels have a real-world theme running in the background. I got his book, The Water Knife and look forward to reading it. I have to thank Paolo for his encouragement to accept rejection as a kind of trophy. He has me thinking about a short story I need to work on and submit somewhere.

Wendy Videlock, sixth Poet Laureate of Western Colorado, presented a workshop and read her poetry. I have to admit, I’m not much of a poet, and I don’t consider my writing to be particularly lyrical, but I relish listening to Wendy read her work.

During each of the workshops I attended, I could stretch my creative writing muscles on the fly. Before my coffee kicked in, the first workshop leader had the group writing (you have five minutes to put in as much detail as you recall) about how we felt when we first arrived at the symposium. We weren’t supposed to concentrate on one sense, but dig into each sense as we recalled our experiences. One workshop had us comparing one of our characters to different inanimate objects—an animal (lumbered, bear-like), a smell (carried the scent of fresh rain), a food (skin silky as a peach). The leader had us using different ways to bring imaginary characters to life. The third workshop gave us insight into seeing the natural world around us.

How do we, as authors, experience our respective worlds? Do we encounter it as it appears, or do we scratch below the surface to find hidden meanings? Both questions lead to digging deeper into the worlds we create as we look for ways to bring those imaginary places to life, even when those places are based on our real-world exploits.

I have more tools in my writer’s toolbox now, and am revisiting my yet unfinished novel to add more visceral details to the story. Plowing through my TBR (to be read) pile is still on my agenda, and I still struggle to make time to sit and read. Every time I write that, I hear a little voice in my head saying: ‘Just do it!’ and tell myself to build that reading habit back.

I plan to attend the event again next year and look forward to learning even more from writers who know more about writing than I do. In the meantime, I’ll work the latest lessons into my writing.