Volume V, Issue 43 October 24, 2016 Dear ,
I couldn't resist sharing these words of writer Erin Rose Belair's from an essay in
Glimmer Train with you today, with only a week to go until Halloween: "My stories come from little obsessions, ghosts that won’t leave me alone." What a perfect comparison—ghosts and obsessions.
I was taken back to my one of the first books on writing I ever read, Writing Down the Bones:
Freeing the Writer Within, in which Natalie Goldberg devotes an entire chapter to "Obsessions,” which do, in fact, haunt us.
We all have memories (and other things) we obsess about, whether we are writers or not. Goldberg asserts that, since your obsessions will
“probably take over your life whether you want them to or not . . . you ought to get them to work for you.” Are you on good speaking terms with your obsessions? One of my obsessions is my mother. I never expected—or wanted—to write
about her. In fact, if someone had told me when I was a teenager that many of my most successful pieces of writing would be about my mother, I would have called her a liar and run from the room screaming. Goldberg’s advice nudged me to put into words the tangled emotions wound up in my relationship with my mother. With that rich skein, I’ve knitted poem after poem, essay upon essay. Writers do write about their obsessions; any savvy reader can tell that’s so. You may want to sleuth through your favorite writers’ books and figure out what their obsessions are. I love poet and memoirist Mark Doty’s work. Art museums are clearly an obsession of his, and he’s put that obsession to use in his books Still Life with Oysters and Lemon and Seeing Venice, both beautiful meditations on the relationship between art and the human spirit.
Why not use this week to mull over your obsessions? Erin Rose Belair's essay "On Making Good with Your Ghosts"—and this week's prompt—will get you started. Love and light, Maureen P.S. Great news if you've been wanting to write at the beach! We've had a cancellation for the Coastal Writing Retreat November 11th through 13th. There is currently one spot left. Details below and here. Call the Sunset Inn now to reserve if you'd like to come. We've also had a cancellation for our Gift of Memoir Writing Retreat on November 4th through 6th. There is currently one spot left. Details below and here. Call the Sunset
Inn now to reserve if you'd like to come. Upcoming WordPlay
GIFT OF MEMOIR WRITING RETREAT (Telling the Times of Your
Life)
1 spot left!
Our stories are a precious legacy. Writing them is a gift, not only to ourselves, but to those who love us—they’ll be treasured for generations to come. Memoir is a popular genre for
readers as well, should you be interested in sharing individual essays or creating a book-length work. 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
Gift of Memoir 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 Gift of Memoir Retreat participants the opportunity to stay Sunday night, November 6th, at half price.
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 is only 1 space available.
*Also, please
let the Inn know when you call if you are interested in staying Sunday night, November 6th, at half price. The Inn will hold your reservation with a credit card.
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COASTAL WRITING RETREAT (Writing—and more—as Renewal and Inspiration)
1 spot 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 is only 1 space 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.
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WINTER WRITING RETREAT (Writing as Renewal/Creating New Writing/
Tools for a Writing
Life)
Renew and delight yourself. The Winter Writing Retreat is an opportunity to create new pieces of writing and/or possibilities for our lives. Enjoy various seasonal prompts; they 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, December 17th, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. Click here to pay online, using PayPal.
More WordPlay opportunities here. Featured Writer
Erin Rose
Belair
Erin Rose Belair is a multi-genre writer based in Southern California. She is a recent graduate of Boise State's fiction MFA program
where she wrote her first collection of short stories, Vinegar. Erin is currently working as a travel writer and tinkering with a collection of nonfiction essays. She is interested in the vast territory and complexities of love, the fault lines of heartache, and what sort of moments shape us into the particular people we become. "Rare Items from the Universe" is her first published story. Photo and bio from http://www.glimmertrain.com/bulletins/essays/b116belair.php
Featured Writing
On Making Good with Your Ghosts
by
Erin Rose
Belair
My stories come from little obsessions, ghosts that won’t leave me alone: maraschino cherries, a dead deer in a river in Montana, something my 4th grade teacher told me at first snow fall, the smell of the soap in my grandmother’s bathroom after she died. I used to think stories had to come from some higher order, some grand tale. But I only started writing
stories when I learned how to make peace with those ghosts, when I learned how to listen to what I was already telling myself. They come seeping out the cracks of the life you already have...
To continue reading, please click 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 "ghosts."
PROMPT: Begin a list of your obsessions. Here are a few ways to get started:
- Read Erin Rose Belair's essay "On Making Good with Your
Ghosts: if you haven't yet (see above)
- Keep a running tally of your thoughts for a few days, and notice what keeps cropping up.
- Consider what stories you find yourself telling over and over.
- Notice, when you read, what feels
familiar, what you're reminded of.
- You can also ask the people you spend time with what your obsessions are. Believe me, they know.
Once you have a few things on your list, pick one of them and create a poem, essay or story about
it. You may want to return to this list from time to time, to add to it and/or to pull writing ideas. 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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