Some writers’ workshops are thinly disguised vacations. (I’ve avoided them.)
Then there are the Workshops run by Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith. They’re held out on the beautiful Oregon coast, but in most cases you don’t get much, if any, time to enjoy the pounding surf and other enticements. You’re there to work on the craft you love.
A case in point is the Mystery Writing workshop I recently attended. In seven and a half days, each participant wrote six novel proposals and two short stories while learning a ton about the genre itself and all the sub-genres. Kris wrote the Smokey Dalton series under the pen name Kris Nelscott so she knows her stuff. (You haven’t read any Smokey Dalton? Go out and get yourself a copy of A Dangerous Road right now.)
This year I’m making three trips to Oregon workshops because I learn so much from them. If you’re serious about your writing, check them out.