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#AmWriting, #AmReading

“One writes out of one thing only–one’s own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art.”

~ James Baldwin

#AmWriting

The VERITAS Writing Retreat for Women (July 23-27, 2020 in Bay View, WI) is bordering on full! If you’d love 4 days of workshops, writing, and community on PLACE, PERMISSION, & PRODUCTIVITY, register soon. Once on-site lodging is filled, only Day Retreat options will be available. 

This year we also have two stipends of $100 each available to help with lodging and tuition. Apply by Feb. 29th; recipients will be notified by March 7th. 

Also open for registration is Flash Nonfiction I. This 4-week online course runs from March 7-April 4, 2020 and offers lessons on the genre, plenty of prompts, and a great opportunity to connect with other writers. Seats are limited. REGISTER SOON!

*If you have taken this course but would love another gentle push to get you back to the page (or screen), know that while lessons will remain the same I am happy to mix up the writing prompts. 

#AmReading

February is Black History Month.

#AmReading: Black Ink ed. by Stephanie Stokes Oliver and When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele

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Tiny Essay: It’s simple, she said.

Sitting on a bench in my favorite tiny woods, I heard the twigs crack in an uneven rhythm and expected to see a chipmunk hop and scurry past. Instead, I turned into a gaze of intention, steady and unwavering, which made me question my intentions. I was used to being the one who watches to determine when it might be safe to stay, or to go. I barely took a breath, moving with caution to snap a photo of her in the wild. I wondered if this would break her focus. But she was direct, she would not be moved. Not by fear or by doubt or by question. Not until she so desired. I admired such character and her willingness to sit with me in my own moment of doubt. I had questions for her then, but her eyes fluttered as if to say, This isn’t the time. It’s simple trust. Her expression relaxed, and so did I.

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On Walking & Writing

I just finished reading Antonia Malchik’s A Walking Life. I took my time with this book, partly because I was traveling a lot in between reading and partly because this book is full of places where one should pause, reflect, return.

Walking & Writing, image of woman leaving footprints in the sand.

In one particular section, Malchik writes about the importance of leaving our footprints behind. She quotes author Robert Macfarlane who says, “To make an impression is also to receive one.”

Then, Malchik herself hits on something I can completely relate to:

Where our feet land leaves a story for those who can read it….

This week I met with a writing friend for lunch, and we talked about parallel experiences as writers. We each started a story years ago that was left dormant until we were ready to pick it up again, ready to finish it and send it out and share it with others.

In a few days I will also bring a summer session of Flash Nonfiction II to a close, a class where stories are thrown down on the page (or tossed up on the screen) in quick succession, some just skeletons of a story, others an essay to which the writer has returned. “This is one I wrote back in my twenties,” one writer said. And the story is still presses on her today.

What I am reminded of in all of these experiences–in walking, writing, and returning to an essay we had set aside, is that we are easily frustrated because these things take time. I have to park a mile away from work and am irritated that the walk inside will take me 10 more minutes; I write a novel only to leave it unfinished because I am not yet ready; I return to an essay time and again in hopes I might finally discover what I really want to say. In everything, purpose and ideas flitter in and out of focus. All that remains some days are quick steps from here to there, scratches of notes, puzzle pieces still in play.

But (and this isn’t a new idea), none of this energy is ever wasted.

In the early pages of Malchik’s book, she says “Walking is often described as an act of faith. . . . It is closer to an act of trust….” I say the same of writing. Faith and trust in the process is nurtured in time, in community, in willingness to return.

So we keep on keeping on, through bits and pieces, through marathon manuscripts. To that I say, Good. Because your story matters.

If you want to learn more about A Walking Life, watch for my author Q&A with Antonia Malchik soon.

Walking & Writing, Liz Prato

If you’ve written your book and you’re ready to take the next step and send it out, Hidden Timber Books is hosting another author workshop: Nail Your Query Letter with Liz Prato, author and editor. Your query letter gets your foot in the door with publishers and agents. Join Liz online for tips & techniques Saturday, July 27th, 11am Pacific.

Learn more about the workshop and register HERE!