writing Archives - Page 4 of 151

May 2, 2019May 2, 2019

Remington Roundup: #Reading, #Writing, #Hosting

Roundup image: 1950s photo of woman sitting at Remington typewriter

March and April were full of conferences, conversation, writing ups and downs, and springtime observations. Here’s your Roundup of links to books, essays, and workshops to keep your mind musing and your pen moving.

#Reading

This is a stack of just a few books I’ve picked up over the last several weeks and miles of traveling.

I’ve got novels, a literary journal, a book on Native American medicines, and a book of fantasy fiction about a menopausal werewolf.

I’m gearing up for some major, very interesting, summer reading!

#Writing

Roundup: drawing of online symbol with symbols of people surrounding a paper and pencil

I’ve been teaching a great group of women in my Flash Nonfiction II course this Spring.

If you want to read some of their work (already published–these are real go-getters!), take a look at Gloria DiFulvio’s “Living on a Prayer” and Katie Vinson’s “Stealing Lilacs” on Life in 10 minutes.

This great online literary magazine speaks to my heart, encouraging writers to put pen to paper–just do it!–and start with 10 minutes. Because (as Founder Valley Haggard says) “it’s hard to convince yourself you don’t have 10 minutes.”

Outside of teaching on tiny essays, I’m spending the next several weeks revising my own, building a collection of essays and prompts to (hopefully) publish sooner than later. While you wait for that collection 🙂 you can read a few of the essays to be included here and here.

#Hosting

Roundup image: looking down on open laptop with woman holding coffee cup, phone and journal nearby, DREAM spelled out near laptop

You’re reading, you’re writing, you’re thinking about your next steps as an emerging author.

Hidden Timber Books is offering workshops for authors, with the first coming up soon!

Sign up by May 15th for Anne Clermont’s workshop on Author Websites: Your Calling Card for Readers. You’ll learn what makes for a great website that attracts readers, helps them discover your work, and keeps them coming back.

What’s on your reading & writing docket for Spring and Summer?

April 24, 2019April 25, 2019

Wood Violets and Rubies

tiny purple wood violets covering the forest floor, bare trees in the background

To burn off the weight of being inside for too long on a sunny day, I go for a walk, follow the wood violets into a park, into the smell of fresh wood chips and kids playing soccer. To avoid getting caught in conversation, I take to the perimeter, along a trail leading into the woods, past a painted turtle on a log in a shallow pond. Or at least his shell on a log in a shallow pond, no sign of his head, or feet. He, too, must have needed a break. I snap pictures on my phone–daisies, a kite, strange buds on a tree, and turn at the kitch-kitch sound of a ruby-crowned kinglet hopping through last year’s Fall and the bare branches of a shrub. I only know the name of that bird because I Google it right then and there–finch with red dot on head. I figure I’ll get a list of misdirected links but no, there it is, an image of the very same bird, red tuft of feathers right at its crown, with notes on its behavior, “forages almost frantically…seem nervous as they flit through the foliage.” Nervous, for sure, I can’t catch even one tiny photo of him. So I keep walking. On a bench at the top of the trail, I listen to the cars along the highway a short mile away and feel full of city with that noise in my ear and my cell at my hip, so I put the phone in my backpack, take out my pen and paper, write notes on my own behavior instead. Those notes stay in my journal, but here’s what I can reveal: the sun warm at my back, the way the wood violets push through, press forth along the forest floor, the vertical lines of tree trunks, limbs angled, branches fanned, hungry for the coming change.

March 13, 2019March 14, 2019

Grant Yourself Permission to Create

In a fews days, I fly out to teach with Elin Stebbins Waldal at our first retreat, Veritas Rustic Writing Retreat for Women. This year, our theme is on Permission.

Early on in our preparations, Elin and I divvied up the days, brainstormed ideas surrounding permission and writing and what holds us back from our own creativity. I offered to present on granting ourselves permission to fail and to succeed.

For the last several months, I’ve dogeared pages in my books, researched articles, saved links to essays; I’ve gathered perspectives and explored the ideas of failure and success.

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

~ Mary Oliver

image about Permission to create: book open with CREATIVE spelled out on spread of two decorated pages, with keyboard, glasses, and manuscript nearby

In that time, I’ve also been taking a closer look at my own creative aspirations, figuring out what feeds my creativity or what flattens it. I’ve sent out submissions, filed away rejections, quietly celebrated a publication here and there. I have embarked, head-on, into new adventures and wondered (…worried) what it will look like if/when I fumble and fall.

Not surprising, all my prep work to teach at this retreat is giving me insight into my own experiences in failure and success and helping realign my perceptions on permission to embrace both. Every page in a book I mark with a tab is saved for the workshop and for myself; each video I discover to share during a writing activity becomes another message from the Universe to pay attention.

Moving toward the unknown–a new story, the first lines of a difficult essay, a creative pursuit of any kind–is never easy. The journey is filled with excitement and fear, sometimes (usually) a little pain. We make mistakes–we have to make mistakes. We have tiny successes. We experience days when every action seems moot. But all of it–every rise and fall–is necessary.

“Don’t be afraid of mistakes; they tell you what you are trying that you don’t have control over. They suggest that you are venturing into new territory where you’re not yet sure what you are doing. They’re a sign that you are stretching yourself.”

~ Paul Skenazy on Brevity

What stories do you long to pursue? What creative opportunities are you pushing aside because of time, fear of failure, or what your mother would say? What is the risk in letting it pass you by? What is the risk in diving in?

Grant yourself permission; you may be surprised where the journey will lead.

Looking for online writing opportunities?

Flash Nonfiction II: Write, critique. Rinse, repeat. April 7-May 18, 2019. We meet online for 6 weeks and engage with lessons on voice, memory vs. memoir, omissions on purpose, and more. We write, we critique, we don’t stop for the inner editor. While flash nonfiction may not be your main form of writing, working on your short game improves your long. Only a few seats remain & registration closes April 4th. Read student testimonials and sign up HERE.

Study Hall: #AmWriting. Next session: April 7th, 3:30-5pm CST. Once a month we gather online to talk craft, read essays, stories, or poems. And we write write write. By the end of one session, you’ll have tackled 5 different writing prompts–and had fun! Registration is required. For the April session, sign up HERE by Friday, April 5th.

drawing of pencil with words on it saying, "Let's Write." Give yourself permission!