Dear
,
Epiphany, the official "twelfth day of Christmas" that commemorates the Magi bringing Baby Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, has always been one of my favorite holidays. What's not to love about, as the
unscholarly-but-oh-so-entertaining Wikipedia puts it, "an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective"?
If one of your epiphanies as this New Year begins is that you -- no kidding -- want to "birth" a long-held writing dream, and you live in the Charlotte area, I have a FEW spots left in my two upcoming Under Construction classes. (No hype, I do mean few, because I keep them
small to best serve the participants.)
Under Construction is designed to provide
accountability, inspiration, and support -- plus good companionship with fellow writers -- so that next year, you, like Ann Campanella (see below) can say in January 2015 that you were committed to completing a writing project last year, and you did it!
To serve you, I offer a choice of morning or evening for Under Construction. Both meet at 1000 E. Morehead St. in Charlotte -- one on Thursday evenings (begins this week) and one on Wednesday mornings (begins next week). See below for all the
details.
If you don't live in the Charlotte area and are interested in an online version of Under Construction, shoot us an email at
info@wordplaynow.com -- 2014 may be the perfect year for us to create one!
Because the holidays are a time when many of us are away from email and you may have missed it, I've included last week's
New Year's writing prompt, along with some inspiration from writer Ann Campanella's new memoir, in this email.
If you haven't checked out the writing prompt, it's a perfect way to spend a few quiet moments with the best part of yourself as the New Year begins.
Whether or not Under Construction is for you right now, I wish you every success with your writing dreams and goals and a year full of epiphanies!
May you follow your own "star of wonder, star of light" in this year to come!
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: YOUR WRITING (Fulfilling Writing Dreams and Goals;
Creating New Writing; Revising and Polishing Your Writing) Available Both Mornings and Evenings This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You'll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You'll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools. Jumpstart your pen and
receive the knowledge and inspiration you need to write, whatever your preferred genre. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process. Through examples of accomplished writers, you'll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process. $407 for 13 sessions. WHERE: Both morning and evening classes will be at Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Morning Class, Wednesdays, 10 AM to noon. January 15 & 22, February 5 & 19, March 5, 19 & 26,
April 2, 9, 16 & 23, May 7 & 14; Snow date, May 21 TO REGISTER: Email info@wordplaynow.com to be sure there's still an open spot for you. Then pay by check with the attached registration or
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR MORNING UNDER CONSTRUCTION via PayPal/credit card.
WHEN: Evening Class, Thursdays, 7 to 9 PM. January 9, 16 & 23, February 6 & 20, March 6, 20 & 27, April 3, 10 & 24, May 8 & 22; Snow date, May 29 TO REGISTER: Email info@wordplaynow.com to be sure there's still an open spot for you. Then pay in class with check, cash, or credit card. Or
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR EVENING UNDER CONSTRUCTION via PayPal/credit card.
PROJECT BOOK: GET YOUR BOOK OUT OF YOU AND INTO THE WORLD (Writing/Publishing Your Book-length Writing Project)/2 Saturday Sessions A hands-on workshop for any writer who would like to write and/or publish a book and
1) doesn't know how
2) doesn't get around to it
3) feels
a) intimidated
b) confused
c)
overwhelmed
d) uninspired
4) all of the above
You will gain working knowledge of the steps you need to take and the procedures and documents that are necessary (query vs. cover letter,
book proposal, overview, synopsis, outline), as well as an introduction to today's publishing world (major publishers, university presses, small presses, self-publishing, and print-on-demand). Note: Class doesn't include critique of your book manuscript. $197 for 2 sessions, includes lunch for both days.
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204. Click here for map.
WHEN: Saturdays, January 25 and February 1, 10 AM to 4:30 PM
TO REGISTER: Click Here or pay by check with the attached mail-in registration form.
See http://wordplaynow.com/current.htm for more details and more WordPlay opportunities. WordPlay Success Story Over a year ago, I made the commitment to do whatever it took to finish [my memoir] by the end of 2013....I knew I needed to take the next step. I needed an objective editor. I wanted it to be someone I knew and trusted, but it had to be a person who didn't know my history and the details of my past. I also wanted someone who I respected and who would have a heart for the material I was working with. After considering several
different people, I chose Maureen. I couldn't have made a better choice. Meet Ann Campanella Formerly a magazine and newspaper editor, Ann Campanella writes creative nonfiction and poetry. Excerpts from her recently published memoir, Motherhood: Lost and Found, have been recognized by the Isak Dinesen International Creative Nonfiction Competition, the North Carolina Writers' Network and the Charlotte Writers' Club. She was honored to receive the Poet Laureate Award twice from the North Carolina Poetry Society, and she is the author of What Flies Away, a full-length poetry collection. Ann's writing has appeared in local and national publications from literary journals to the bestselling A Cup of Comfort series, and her poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor's
The Writer's Almanac. She has a degree in English Literature from Davidson College and lives on a small horse farm in North Carolina with her family and animals. Learn more about Ann at http://www.anncampanella.com/
Motherhood: Lost and Found by Ann
Campanella is available on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/n4et7ng
WHAT ANN SAYS ABOUT WORDPLAY: Motherhood: Lost and Found is a memoir about losing my mother to Alzheimer's while I was trying to become a mother myself, set against the backdrop of my love of horses. Writing this book was a labor of love that took me 20 years to complete. Now that's a long incubation period! Admittedly, I was busy with a few other things, such as teaching horseback riding lessons, being a freelance writer, trying to get pregnant and caring for my mother. But still! Over a year ago, I made the commitment to do whatever it took to finish the book by the end of 2013. When you've worked on a project as long as I have, you become intimately acquainted with every scene and can practically recite every sentence. Many of my writer friends had read drafts of the memoir and had given me wonderful feedback. But I knew I needed to take the next step. I needed
an objective editor. I wanted it to be someone I knew and trusted, but it had to be a person who didn't know my history and the details of my past. I also wanted someone who I respected and who would have a heart for the material I was working with. After considering several different people, I chose Maureen. I couldn't have
made a better choice. Maureen and I spent the better part of a day discussing my book. As we went over my manuscript page by page, she shared her impressions, which helped me know what was missing and where I was on target. We talked about themes, language, characters, structure, and more. She asked every question she could think of, challenging me to find the emotional core of each scene. She knew this memoir was deeply important to me, that I wanted to get it right, that I wanted to take my
readers on a journey through grief and leave them in a place of hope. I took volumes of notes, but knowing it was impossible to write down everything we discussed, Maureen gave me an audio recording of our session. I listened to this recording as I was driving to the beach and lived with her words and questions for several days on a solo writing retreat as I
pondered how to go deeper. Many of my writer friends have been midwives for Motherhood: Lost and Found, and I am
grateful to each of them. Maureen coached me through those difficult final stages of labor, then gave me guidance on cleaning and swaddling "the baby," making her presentable for publication. Thank you, Maureen.
Featured Writing an excerpt from Motherhood: Lost and Found by
Ann Campanella
A cold front moves across the piedmont of North Carolina. The wind lifts my horse's mane from his neck, causing us both to shiver. He stands like a statue as I mount. His ears are alert, catching the sound of stray leaves being stripped from trees. The sky is clear, but the sun feels farther away
than usual. In another hour, darkness will fall and frigid air will sweep across the fields, the ground below the ring will begin to harden, and a layer of ice will form on the puddles left behind from last night's rain. I urge Crimson forward, feel the lift of each hind leg as he walks. Before going into the ring, we warm
up around the outside. Crimson is lazy by nature, but with the wind behind us, he launches into a loose, flowing trot. I give him his head and he seems to float for an instant above the ground before pushing off with diagonal legs. The cold breeze stings my cheeks and my eyes water, but I wouldn't give up this feeling for anything. I am thirty-three years old and have been riding horses since I was nine. From the beginning I was entranced with their power, their muscled fluidity. I was a typical young girl in love with horses. But there was more -- a nuance I couldn't articulate, and still struggle to name. Call it a connection, an invisible fiber that runs between me and these four-legged creatures, as if we are one and the same. Crimson's large brown eyes, his very skin seem to absorb every sensation and
emotion that passes through me. Standing in the aisle this afternoon, brushing his coppery coat, it was as if he intuited something was different, that I was different. Could he feel the new life growing inside me? The wind howls eerily and Crimson gives a gentle, rolling buck -- the kind that shows that, while he'll go
along with it, he's ambivalent about working. I wish I wasn't, but I'm ambivalent about being pregnant. Having a baby feels like the most incredible gift anyone could ever receive. But I didn't grow up dreaming of being a mother. As the youngest in my family, I hardly spent any time around children younger than me. I was
much too self involved. Now, facing the idea of raising a child scares me. I'm unequipped, and there's so much at stake. What if I don't have any mothering instincts? Or, what if, on the other hand, I fall madly in love with this baby? Will I lose myself in the caretaking as my mother did? Who would I be if I gave up my love of horses and my passion for writing? Joel and I have worked hard turning our dream of having a farm into reality. We've lived off his salary, saving every check I earned as a magazine and newspaper editor. We own the land, but we still have fencing and a barn to build. Will the vision of bringing Crimson home disappear if I have a baby? And how will Joel and I handle the stress and exhaustion that come with a newborn? His long hours at work and his travel schedule are already
a source of tension between us. I want him to partner with me in raising a child. And, last, the thing I'm most concerned about, the thing I don't like to think about: I inherited a chromosomal abnormality from my mother that gives me a fifty percent chance of having a miscarriage. I could lose this
baby.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's
"new." Today is the perfect day to honor the old year and create a few plans for the new one. This is one of my all-time favorite rituals:
Set aside a quiet hour alone, and make yourself a hot beverage of your choice to sip as you write. Find a candle to light, and allow yourself to settle into a bit of "divine communion" with the
love that surrounds you in each moment. If you have a quote, affirmation, or book passage that helps you do that, read it. Here's one I like, a passage from William Hutchison Murray's The Scottish Himalayan Expedition: ... but when I said that nothing had been done I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money -- booked a
sailing to Bombay. This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events
issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it! Now, spend at least fifteen minutes listing your favorite moments of 2013. Just allow your mind to meander through the year, and capture enough detail so that if you come back to this list years from now, the moment will come alive again. What events, get-togethers,
experiences, accomplishments made you joyful? beloved? grateful? fulfilled? It's quality you're after here, not quantity, though as you write, one moment of bliss tends to bring to mind another. When you're finished, allow yourself to read over your list and bask in the good feelings. And remember that you can always go back and add to your list if other memories arise. (Hint: this list is a great source of material for essays, poems, scenes, etc.) When you've finished savoring the sweetness of 2013 (and no doubt some bittersweet along with it), turn your attention to the New Year ahead. Rather than the typical resolutions, focus on what you'd like your experience of 2014 to be. One way that I like to do this is to choose a Word of the Year, a la life/business coach Christine Kane. Last year's word was "belove" --
with all that transpired in our family,it turned out to be a great year to sink into the experience of, as poet Raymond Carver puts it "know myself beloved here on this earth", and also to "be love" for those in my path on a daily basis. Practice has not come anywhere near making me perfect, but I am present to more love in my life than I ever have been before. This showed up in my writing life, as well as my family life. I've chosen "honor" for the year ahead -- I'm going to focus on honoring
the Divine in myself and others, body, mind, heart,and spirit, and honoring the gifts and dreams of all those I serve, in and out of WordPlay. You don't have to pick one word if that doesn't inspire you. Try writing for a few minutes about how you'd like to feel as you move through 2014's days, weeks, and months. Once you have a sense of this, make a list of what you'd like to create in 2014 that will allow you to
experience this feeling often. Ask yourself if, in order to have a fabulous 2014, there are things you need to do more -- or less of. A list with one item is perfect, as is a list of 20, or even 52; suit yourself here. (Maybe you'll choose to try something new each week of the New Year. Maybe you'll choose to put completing a book or volunteering to read to a schoolchild who needs a mentor as the one priority you'll focus on, knowing that you'll naturally accomplish many other things as
well.) When you feel finished, read over what you've written. Is there anything else? Write that down, too. When you're done, you're not finished; you've only just begun. I invite you to honor this list. Put it in a place where you can refer to it often -- at least once a month. Share it with someone who cherishes you and will encourage and support you. Very few of us accomplish anything important all by ourselves.
Now, write down one small next step you'll take to "get on the horse" and set a time to start riding. And as soon as you've completed that small next step, write down another one, and complete it. Ride on, ! And remember, if you're looking for writing support and community, WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats are waiting for you. |
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and two collections of
poetry, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn -- and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
|
|
