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TNEO is an invitation-only, eight-day workshop exclusively for Odyssey graduates. Started in 1998, TNEO is a unique program in which writing professionals and near-professionals work together to improve their skills. As more and more Odyssey graduates have built successful writing careers for themselves, the level of writing, discourse, and critiquing at TNEO has grown stronger and stronger.
As director, I oversee all aspects of the workshop, including the schedule, curriculum, activities, organization, and facilities.
MAIN COMPONENTS:
- four-hour workshopping sessions held in the mornings
- a Master Class on a particular element of fiction held in the afternoons. Each year, we'll focus on a different element, such as plot, point of view, characterization, and so on. Odyssey graduates will provide advanced, graduate-level lectures on various aspects of this element
- daily writing hours
- a brainstorming session, novel synopsis critique session, and Barnes & Noble story slam
- in the evenings, the TNEO Salon Fantastique will be open for literary discussions, read-aloud sessions, and relaxing
I participate in the workshop alongside you rather than teaching it. Instead, I work closely with an Odyssey graduate who serves as moderator.
Susan Sielinski, the Odyssey administrator, provides logistical support and serves as general problem-solver
TNEO is a week of hard work that embodies what Odyssey is all about: the lifelong journey toward becoming the best writer you can be. You can come together with your peers in fellowship to discuss writing, to learn, to share insights, to commiserate, to encourage, to laugh, and to improve.
SCHEDULE:
Dates: TNEO is generally held the last week in July, starting on a Friday (the final day of Odyssey) and continuing for eight days until the next Saturday.
Arrival: Participants may arrive as early as Friday morning, but all participants must arrive by Friday at 7 PM for the joint Odyssey/TNEO mixer.
Departure: Attendees should plan to leave on Saturday afternoon, after the morning session.
EXPECTATIONS:
TNEO participants are expected to attend all workshopping sessions and lectures. If you will be unable to attend some sessions, you must discuss this with the moderator before enrolling.
You are also expected to provide professional-level critiques on all submissions of those in your group. Written critiques should be more advanced, sophisticated, and in-depth than those you did at Odyssey. Concrete, specific observations and extensive line edits are expected on every work.
SUBMISSIONS:
Each participant may have three stories or novel chapters critiqued during the workshop, with a 5,000-word limit per submission. If your current projects cannot fit within these limitations, you must make special arrangements with the moderator. Do not turn in a submission longer than 5,000 words without consulting him first.
Manuscripts must be turned in before TNEO begins, because participants need to critique some, if not all, of the submissions ahead of time. We will likely be workshopping four stories per day (as opposed to two on most days at Odyssey), so if you want to eat or sleep during TNEO--never mind write--you need to get most of your critiquing done in advance. Most TNEO participants complete all of their critiquing ahead of time and have a much more enjoyable and useful week because of that.
Failure to meet one of the submission deadlines means a participant foregoes the opportunity to have one story critiqued. All deadlines will be firmly enforced.
- First story due: April 15
- Second story due: May 15
- Third story due: June 15
All attendees are required to submit at least one story. So get writing! (Insert whip crack here.)
Participants in the novelists' group (see below) have the option of submitting a synopsis of their novel for the synopsis critique session. The synopsis is due June 15 and must be under 1,000 words. The total word count for your three submissions and your synopsis should not exceed 15,000 words. The moderator will provide more details once you enroll.
HOUSING AND FACILITIES:
TNEO is held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, one of the top liberal arts colleges in New England, which has a beautiful campus. Workshopping sessions and lectures will be held in two air-conditioned classrooms, and we will have access to the air-conditioned computer lab, library, cafeteria, and coffee shop. Food can be purchased on an item-by-item basis, just as at Odyssey.
You should check with the moderator for information on housing, since it may vary from year to year. Usually, TNEO participants are housed in two-bedroom apartments on campus at Benedict Court. Benedict Court is made up of buildings #21-25 on the campus map. They are not air conditioned, but they have 1 1/2 baths, an eat-in kitchen with stove and oven, a living room, and high-speed Internet connections. Each participant will receive a linen package that includes sheets, a pillow, pillowcase, blanket, hand towel, bath towel, and face cloth.
As in previous years, no guests are allowed to stay in the college housing, and no guests should be spending an extended amount of time on campus. We need to comply with college policies, so that Odyssey and TNEO have a home for the future. If you have someone dropping you off or picking you up, and your guest plans to stay in Manchester overnight, you should make other housing arrangements for that guest. The moderator will provide a list of hotels in the area with future information.
If you have any questions regarding Saint Anselm College, please contact the moderator or me, not the college.
For those who prefer more luxurious (and air-conditioned) accommodations, we have a special arrangement with the Highlander Inn. They have saved a block of rooms for us at a special discounted rate. The hotel is located near the airport, about a fifteen-minute drive from Saint Anselm College.
If you plan to arrive at TNEO a day before the workshop begins or stay a day after, and you'd like to use the Highlander Inn, you will also be eligible for the special rate.
ENROLLMENT:
If you are interested in attending and you have not received an invitation from me, or you have lost your invitation, you may contact me for more information. The enrollment deadline is APRIL 1.
We generally split attendees into two groups (of 10-16 people each) for the first two rounds of workshopping. (The first round of workshopping involves critiquing everyone's first submissions; the second round covers everyone's second submissions; the third round covers the third submissions.) Attendees will be separated into novelists and short story writers. The groups will remain the same for the first two rounds, which means that the same people will critique your first two submissions. For the third round, each group will be split into several smaller critique groups (of 4-6 people each), to allow for longer, more in-depth verbal critiques and more discussion. This overall plan allows novelists to have the same people read multiple chapters of their work and get a better sense of it, and it allows short story writers to have the same people read several of their stories and find common strengths or weaknesses.
You will need to specify on the enrollment form whether you intend to submit novel excerpts or short stories. The novelists' group is structured for those who want to submit only novel chapters. If you would like to submit a couple short stories and a chapter of a novel, then you will be assigned to the short story group. Participating in the short story group does not prohibit you from submitting novel excerpts.
Shortly after the enrollment deadline, you'll be informed whether you will be in a single or double room. We'll do our best to accommodate your requests.
COSTS:
I'm excited to inform you that TNEO will once again receive a Gandalf Grant, to help keep costs to participants down. The anonymous Odyssey graduate who funds the Gandalf Grants wants to help support writers wishing to further hone their craft by attending TNEO. Rather than singling out any individual, the Gandalf Grant for TNEO offers aid to all attendees, by covering the costs of photocopying and mailing submissions, which are among the greatest expenses associated with TNEO. I hope you'll join me in thanking this very kind donor, who supports us all in our writing efforts.
Unlike Odyssey, which charges separate fees for the workshop and housing, TNEO combines everything into a single fee. The costs will change each year, but as an example, the costs in 2007 were as follows:
- $325 for a double room
- $450 for a single room
- $200 if you plan to live off-campus
Once the moderator informs you whether you'll be in a single or double room, you should submit payment. Checks should be made out to Odyssey and sent to P. O. Box 75, Mont Vernon, NH 03057 by APRIL 15.
To get the most out of TNEO, you need to begin planning--and writing--now. Those deadlines aren't far away.
I hope to be seeing you and reading your latest work this summer!
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