Volume V, Issue 37 September 12, 2016 Dear ,
My friend Betty Seizinger was a force to be reckoned with. This former president of the League of Women Voters worked tirelessly to establish Civics 101 in Charlotte and repeal the North Carolina food tax. (That's why she's posing with a shopping cart in this
photo.)
Betty may not have gotten the food tax eliminated, but she did get it lowered, by gosh! We lost this dynamo in 2004, and I still miss her fiercely at times. She taught me so much, including the trick to
successful advice giving and receiving. (Did you know there was one?)
According to Betty, advice is a splendid thing that should be freely given and requested. It's important, however, that both the giver and receiver of all advice, whether solicited or unsolicited, establish beforehand that said advice may or
may not actually be taken, and there will be no hard feelings either way from either party.
This may not seem revolutionary to you, but when I set up this ground rule, it brought a whole new level of freedom to
offering and asking for advice. And made it much more fun.
So . . . as for that advice for writers promised in the subject line . . . I've got plenty for you, but I am turning you over to a true writing expert, the venerable and wildly successful Ann Patchett.
Ann is another writer I heard speak at Chautauqua, though sadly, my teaching schedule didn't allow for me to get my picture taken with her. I loved what she had to say about writing, and her own experience as a beginning writer, and immediately purchased her book that includes her essay with advice for writers, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Then I discovered that this very long essay (41 pages), entitled "The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir about Writing and
Life," is available as an e-book for only $2.51. Given how helpful, not to mention funny, it is, my advice is that you read it! Given Ann's level of success, it's heartening to hear that she struggled with the process as so many of us do.
You
can check out an excerpt below.
Love and light, Maureen
P.S. Great news if you've been wanting to write at the beach! We just had a cancellation for the Coastal Writing Retreat November 11th through 13th, and two spots have opened up. Details below and here. Call the Sunset Inn now to reserve if you'd like to come.
Upcoming WordPlay
THE GIFT OF MEMOIR COASTAL WRITING RETREAT (A Retreat Focusing on Memoir) 2 spots left!
You’ll learn and practice engaging tools and techniques to retrieve and record your adventures, loves, losses, successes, and more with ease and enjoyment, no matter where you are in the process. $418 for the weekend beginning Friday, November 4th through Sunday, November 6th. Includes two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included).
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9
North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 4 – Sunday, November 6, 2016* TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888-575-1001 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for you, our participants, they are blocked off as unavailable online. Register soon by phone — this is a popular event and there are only 2 spaces available. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card. *Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in the bonus opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 6th, at half price.
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(Writing—and
more—as Renewal and Inspiration)
2 spots left!
Renew yourself
and reconnect with your own creativity, whether you are a practicing writer, closet writer, or as-yet-to-pick-up-the-pen writer! The techniques and prompts we’ll use will spur your imagination, and can be used to create nonfiction, fiction, and/or poetry—the choice is yours. $418 for the weekend. The Coastal Writing Retreat includes writing sessions, two nights’ lodging, two breakfasts and Saturday lunch (hotel tax and Saturday dinner at a local restaurant not included). Additionally, for
those who might like to stay another day to work on their writing, or to just enjoy the beach, the Inn is offering to Coastal Writing Retreat participants only, the opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 13th, at half price.
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 11 – Sunday, November
13, 2016* TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888-575-1001 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call). Because the Inn is holding rooms for you, our participants, they
are blocked off as unavailable online. Register soon by phone — this is a popular event and there are only 2 spaces available.
*Also, please let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in the bonus opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 13th, at half price.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured Writer
Ann Patchett Photo from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-doyle-palmer-/lessons-learned-in-ann-pa_b_4208419.html
You can learn more about Ann Patchett and her writing here.
Featured Writing
An excerpt from The Getaway Car:
A Practical Memoir about
Writing and Life
by Ann Patchett
I was always going to be a writer. . . .
. . . No writers came to St. Bernard’s Academy for Catholic girls on Career Day, and so I marched towards the vision in my head without guidance or practical advice. This is where it got me.
I am now a veritable clearinghouse of practical advice, and since I have neither children nor students, I mostly dispense it in talks or short articles.
There is a great appeal in the thought of consolidating the bulk of what I know about the work I do in one place, so that when someone asks me for advice I can say, Look, it’s here, I wrote it all down. Every writer approaches writing in a different way, and while some of those ways may be more straightforward than others, very few can be dismissed as categorically wrong. There are people who write in order to find out where the story goes. They never talk about what they’re working on.
They say if they knew the ending of the book there would be no point in writing it, that the story would then be dead to them. And they’re right. There are also people, and I am one of them, who map out everything in advance. (John Irving, for example, can’t start writing his books until he thinks up the last sentence.) And we are also right. There are a couple of habits I have acquired through years of trial and error that I would recommend emulating, but either you will or you won’t. This
isn’t an instruction booklet. This is an account of what I did and what has worked for me, and now that that’s been said, I will resist the temptation to open every paragraph with the phrase: “It’s been my experience . . .” That’s what this is: my experience. . . .
This essay is available for purchase as an e-book (only $2.51!) here.
You can also buy Ann Patchett's memoir, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, which contains this essay along with many others, here.
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 "advice."
PROMPT: Write about advice given or received, taken or not taken . . . on any subject.
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 three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. One of her long-held dreams came true in July of 2015 when Garrison Keillor read one of her poems on The Writer's Almanac. 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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