Graduate Essay: “Developing a ‘Second Sight’ for Writing” by Shay Kauwe

Shay Kauwe is a Your Personal Odyssey graduate and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) author from the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi. She grew up on the Homestead in Waimānalo but moved to Russia because she fell in love with a boy. Shay holds an M.Ed in Education and was named an NCTE Early Educator of Color in 2021. In 2022, she was awarded an Empowering ʻŌiwi Leadership Award by the Hawaiian Council for her work in storytelling and literacy. Her debut urban fantasy THE KILLING SPELL is forthcoming from Saga/Solaris Books and will be the first traditionally published adult fantasy novel by a Hawaiian author.

I came to Odyssey with a problem. I was gearing up for the publication of my first book and had been on a writing spree since but knew something was wrong. While I’d noticed a jump in the quality of my writing from book one to book two, I hit a block after that. My manuscripts were good—but they weren’t great, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

I took stock of my work and realized that it wasn’t some mystical thing holding me back but a skills issue. So, in my application, I wrote a lot about a dragging middle, certain that this was the flaw keeping me from reaching the next level of writing. When I got to Odyssey, I discovered that was dead wrong. I had far more to work on than just plot. 

Character. Dialogue. Prose. Grammar. Jeanne took the building blocks of a good story and pulled them apart at a subatomic level so that we had time to peer at them under a microscope. I’d never done this much reading and writing since college—and I was an author! How had I not realized, pre-Odyssey, that authors must read and write far more than the average person? How had I not realized that I could learn from those I admired by analyzing their works? How had I not realized that I could improve by analyzing my own? 

Odyssey was a mind-expanding experience from start to finish. The depth that Jeanne goes into provides you with a new perspective on writing as a craft and on who you are as an author. Writing is intensely personal, and Jeanne knows that. Her individualized attention and support are the backbone behind the whole program, and it’s something I’ve never felt before from this industry. 

It’s true that after Odyssey, you may never be able to look at a book the same way again, and that this “sight” is both a gift and a curse. You’ll see the moving cogs behind each story and understand the mechanics needed to pump that engine forward. It takes away some of the magic of reading, maybe, but only because Jeanne’s giving you the tools to become a magician of your own standing.

So take that first step and apply. Magic awaits you at Odyssey.

The application deadline for Your Personal Odyssey is April 10. For more information visit https://www.odysseyworkshop.org/about-the-workshop/