Volume III, Issue 31 September 1, 2014
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Happy Labor Day! I found this
great undated image of the Women's Auxiliary Typographical Union taking part in a Labor Day parade on the U.S. Department of Labor website, where I got the official definition of this holiday: "a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength,
prosperity, and well-being of our country."
Thank you for all you have done to contribute to the "strength, prosperity,
and well-being of our country" -- and also your own family and communities. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. We are all working together in our individual ways to create a loving, peace-filled world, and I am grateful for your part in that!
And sometimes, that part includes writing -- both for what it does for your own well-being (we really do have to put on our own oxygen masks first, right?) and for the well-being of your readers. (I know that your writing is life-changing, or at the very least, in-the-moment attitude- or
perspective-changing!)
Now, here's the dirty truth about writing: It is labor with a capital L, at least some of the
time. Yes, I know I am always talking about WordPlay, not WordWork, but there are many moments on the way to a finished, publishable product, whether it's a story, an essay, a poem, or an entire book, where I have to sit longer than I think I want to and get words down, shape them, cut them, and then send them out to someone else in some fashion, whether it's here in a zine or in a submission to an online or print publication, or to an editor who is ready for my manuscript already when it isn't
ready.
Yes, it's work that feels good much of the time, but not all the time. I'm not trying to discourage you, truly --
quite the opposite. I just know I am doing you a disservice to not point out the hard truth, and, of course, to support you all along the way. Look no further than today's prompts!
And, because I am a writing teacher who writes (and shares the joys and struggles), I'm also sharing a poem from my new poetry book coming out sometime this fall, and a bit about its journey from idea to completion, so you know that you are not alone on the writing journey.
Meanwhile, have a wonderful rest of Labor Day, and if you would like some company as you labor to bring your writing to completion, check out the WordPlay offerings below. Upcoming
WordPlay
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: YOUR WRITING
(Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing)
Starts this Wednesday, September 3rd, or this Thursday, September 4th! Full details here. One spot left in
the Wednesday morning class; two spots left in the Thursday evening class Want to talk about whether this is a good fit for you? Call me at 704-494-9961.
WHERE: Both classes will be held at Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street,
28204MORNING CLASS:
WHEN: Offered Wednesday mornings
on the following dates: September 3, 10 &17, October 1, 8, 15 & 29, November 5 & 19, December 3, 10 & 17, 10 am to noon.
COST: $395 for 12 classes
TO REGISTER: Register online here. Or email info@wordplaynow.com or phone 704-494-9961 for details on registering in-person. EVENING CLASS:
WHEN: Offered Thursday evenings on the following dates: September 4, 11, & 18; October 2, 9, 16, & 30; November 6 & 20; December 4, 11, & 18. Hours: 7 to 9 pm
COST: $395 for 12 classes
TO REGISTER: Register online here. Or email info@wordplaynow.com or phone 704-494-9961 for details on registering in-person. -------------------------------------------------------------- WRITE
LIKE A GENIUS (Expanding Our Creativity; Learning New Tools for Our Writing and Our Lives; Creating New Writing) Starts Sunday, September 21st at the John Campbell Folk School, a wonderful place to spend a week --think summer camp for grown-ups, with delicious, healthy food and creative people of every ilk from all over the country. Full details here. Two spots left! Discover your own genius as you learn to apply seven fascinating approaches of Leonardo da Vinci to your writing at a week-long writing
class in the North Carolina Mountains. These techniques enliven non-fiction, poetry and fiction. Expect fun, inspiration and writing galore in your preferred genre, with opportunities to share your work. WHERE: John Campbell Folk School, 1 Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902.
WHEN: Sunday, September 21 - Saturday September 27, 2014.
COST: $594 for one week-long session, plus lodging and meals.
TO REGISTER: Click here.
-------------------------------------------------------------- FALL WRITING RETREAT
(Writing - and More - as Renewal / Creating New Writing)
Renew and delight yourself.
The Fall Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or new possibilities for our lives. Enjoy various seasonal prompts; they have not failed to elicit beautiful material that can be shaped into essays, poems, stories, or articles. After a communal lunch, you'll have private time which can be used to collage, work with a piece of writing from the morning, or play with a number of other writing prompts and methods. You'll take home new ideas, new drafts, and new
possibilities. $97 includes lunch and supplies.
WHERE: South Charlotte area. Details will be provided upon registration.WHEN: Saturday, October 11, 2014, 10 am - 5
pm
TO REGISTER: TO REGISTER: Register online here. Or email info@wordplaynow.com or phone 704-494-9961 for details on registering via mail.
-------------------------------------------------------------- COASTAL WRITING RETREAT
Connect with Your Creativity at the Sunset Inn (Writing-and more-as Renewal and Inspiration)
Full details here. Register now if you want to come: just two spots left!
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 7 - Sunday, November 9, 2014* TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call).
-------------------------------------------------------------- COASTAL WRITING RETREAT: PROJECT BOOK GET YOUR BOOK
OUT OF YOU AND INTO THE WORLD (Writing; Publishing Your Book-length Writing Project)
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
e) all of the above Full details here. WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 14 - Sunday, November 16, 2014* TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call).
More WordPlay opportunities here. Here is a poem of mine that will
appear in my upcoming poetry book, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong. It seemed a good one to share this week, as its words "the industry of our longing" refer to what leads us to labor, and it speaks of an Alpha and Omega -- as each job we take on does have a beginning and an end. I can tell you that it took me from August 19, 2007 until August 28, 2014 to finish it in a way I'm completely satisfied with, and that I took it through 18 revisions during those years. (Yes, I confess that
I can be a bit obsessive-compulsive about my poems.) While I didn't keep track of my actual hours, I know that I took it to at least two poetry groups, one led by a poet of some renown -- I took some of his advice, but not most of it! (That was a good year and a half right there. I had to put the poem for a good while to get back my own vision for it; his was quite different from mine.) And that I abandoned it for over four years while I worked on other projects, which may have been the best
thing I could have done for it. And its "alpha" was not labor but sheer fun: The reason I know what day I began working on it is because I was listening to The Writers' Almanac instead of reading it on that particular day and thought I heard the words "The simple fact of bridges." (You can listen to -- or read -- the real words here.) I fell in love with the idea and syntax of
"the simple fact" of something that was both a real thing and a metaphor for something more than itself, like a bridge. And I thought that word was taken, so I looked down to the "water under the bridge" to play with this concept. (Labor makes me punchy sometimes, and even punny, sorry!) Reading over Nan Cohen's poem, I can see how her thoughts inspired mine.I knew I'd reached the Omega when I read it aloud to my Thursday night Under Construction class at our last summer session and didn't want
to change anything but one line break and the deletion of one unneeded "is." And between the beginning and end, there were many line break changes and many rewordings!
I hope my labor of love inspires some writing of your own! Before you even get to this week's prompt (plus a bonus writing habit), you may want to write about rivers you've
known...
The Simple Fact of Rivers
by
Maureen Ryan Griffin I wish I remembered learning
the word. River. What I have instead
are fading lines
in a geography book -- Hudson.
Susquehanna. Monongahela and Allegheny
uniting to become
the Ohio, a name given by the Iroquois,
ohiyo. Great river. And more, shimmer
of sun on the Fleuve Saint-Laurent
on a sunrise drive from Montreal to Quebec.
The Green lulling me to sleep next to a campsite
I tell myself I could find again.
How extraordinary the drive across
the M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i so many years
after learning to spell it,
to see that, unlike the River Styx,
it is more than myth. Then again,
isn't any myth
more than it seems? Like any
river. Like Moses in his bulrush basket
by the Nile. From river sprang
boat, ferry, bridge, oh arc and span, girder
and pulley and cable and motor -- Is there no end
to the industry of our longing? Ours to fathom,
the current, float, and flow --
no simple gift, the simple
fact of rivers. Their bounty
ours for the taking, the slippery
fish, slippery transport, slippery truths,
like our passage down
from that source through which
we all arrived. Yes, says the River Styx.
And don't die without
a coin for the ferryman
in your mouth. An Omega
for every Alpha in the
alphabet of rivers, their Deltas
that await, those mouths
opening wide to take us in.
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
"labor." Here are two activities, one a prompt and the other a writing habit:
PROMPT: Write about your own, or a character's, labor. Start with a list of work
activities done for money (or love). A few of mine: office clerk for a doctor's office when I was fifteen, Dunkin' Donuts cashier and donut preparer (yum!), Bob's Big Boy waitress (for a summer in Flagstaff, AZ -- what fun). Then pick one and create a scene, story, essay, poem, etc. which features you or your character "in labor."
WRITING HABIT: Take measure of your writing labor. Begin to keep a log of the time you spend writing and what you do in that time. You can use anything from a fancy color-coded Excel spreadsheet or wall chart to a simple list in a notebook or Word doc. Notice how good it feels every time you can give yourself credit for even fifteen minutes five days a week (enough, over time, to really add up!) of listing ideas, writing out notes, crafting a few lines or paragraphs, or polishing what you have to sound more lyrical or descriptive. It's been proven that measuring positive behavior tends to make that behavior increase.
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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! |
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