The WordPlay Word-zine Volume VII, Issue 17 April 30, 2018 Dear ,
Last week, you met Cheryl Boyer, a member of one of my Under Construction classes. (Remember, you're invited to Cheryl's drop-in book launch party for Counting
Colors this Saturday, May 5, from 2 pm - 4 pm at 9925 Providence Road West, Charlotte 28277. RSVP to cheryl@myferriswheel.com.)
And this week, you get to meet another member, Lisa Kunkleman. (That's Lisa, in the black top, first on the left in the bottom row. Too bad I
have my eyes closed—but don't I look like I've reached nirvana?) Tat's how happy these women make me!
Lisa has been a WordPlayer for more than a few years now (her empty nesters were five or six when we first met, as I recall), and it's been wonderful to watch her writing life blossom in a number of interesting directions,
including a blog called "Life Stories and Beyond."
One of the things I love about Lisa is that she brings a great sense of humor to both her writing and her life. Another is that we are so much alike, all the way down to our filing systems (and our love of alliteration).
You may not identify with Lisa's filing practices, but I'm willing to bet you know someone who shares them. And it got me to thinking about how files and filing are a part of everyone's life, in some way or another, and how we each have, as Eeyore says, "our own little ways" of keeping (or not keeping) our
files straight, whatever their content. (I bet you're already guessing what today's prompt is, so I'll just bring this note to a close so you can enjoy Lisa's writing and get down to doing some of your own, hopefully using the prompt.
Lastly, there is still one spot left in next week's Spinning Words into Gold
class at the John Campbell Folk School, so it's not too late, and, if you're interested in taking part in an Under Construction class this fall, you can check out how to do that here (and below).
Love, light, and happy
filing,
Upcoming WordPlay
SPINNING WORDS INTO GOLD
ONLY ONE SPOT LEFT!
Does writing fulfill you? Do you wish you were writing
more? Jumpstart your writing life and learn to keep your words flowing. Learn specific techniques and exercises to create nonfiction, poetry and/or fiction. Whether you would like to keep a journal for your own personal growth, spin stories for your loved ones, or further a career as a professional writer, experience the satisfaction of developing a writing practice that works for you—come spin words into gold.
WHERE: John Campbell Folk School. 1 Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC 28902 WHEN: Sunday, May 6th through Saturday, May 12th, 2018
COST: $630 (plus room and board)
TO REGISTER: To register, click this link to be taken to the John Campbell Folk School website to register.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
NOW TAKING REGISTRATIONS FOR FALL 2018!
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 and methods. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process, whatever your preferred genre. Through examples of accomplished writers, you’ll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process.
* For the benefit of participants, an audio recording of the class will be made each week so that participants are able to listen to classes they miss and/or review material covered at any convenient time and place. These recordings are available throughout the class session, along with all handouts, in a shared Dropbox folder.
WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, 28204. Click here for map. WHEN: Wednesday mornings from 10:00 a.m. – noon, starting in September 2018.
(Other class time/day of the week may be available.) COST: $435 TO REGISTER: Please email us at info@wordplaynow.com to start the registration process by filling out a short "Clarity
Tool" to share your writing dreams and goals and where you are in the process (anywhere you are is a perfect place to begin).
WordPlay Success Story "I love the camaraderie and helpful critiquing among my classmates and the expertise and guidance Maureen provides weekly." Meet Lisa Batten Kunkleman A former middle school counselor turned writer, Lisa Batten Kunkleman enjoys writing stories about daily life from a
humorous slant. Let’s face it, people are funny and so is nature. She doesn’t have to look far to spot something entertaining. A closet genealogist and preserver of stories, she is the family historian for a massive family, which is spread throughout America and beyond. That means her office is filled with family albums and file cabinets filled with ancestry research results.
Lisa has been published in a variety of magazines and newspapers but her proudest achievement was during the election season of 2012, being featured on NPR reading her commentary on Politics and Civility: Can They Coexist. She’s also pleased to be a nonfiction award winner
and reader for the Charlotte Writers Club. “Rest in Peace” won first place and is about a toad funeral.
Lisa and her husband Dan are parents of twenty-one-year-old triplets and their original model, a
married twenty-eight-year-old daughter. Lisa and Dan, now third-year, empty nesters, live on a farm near Charlotte, NC. Surprisingly, their grown kids flutter in and out of the empty nest, often bringing two-legged friends and four-legged grand pets for visits. No problem. Lisa and Dan have three dogs, a cat and two horses already so what’s a few more critters.
She spends far too much time letting her dogs in and out of the house, which slows the progress of her upcoming book, Life Stories and Beyond. She publishes essays regularly on her blog, which sports the same name. www.lifestoriesandbeyond.com. Lisa has written stories since she was a kid, to before she developed stretch marks, to the present, when she's embracing age spots, gray hair, and wrinkles. Lisa hopes that her stories will provide entertainment, as well as information for folks in that situation called life. Lisa also hopes you enjoy her blog enough that you might consider recording your
own day-to-day life. It's all life stories.
You can connect with Lisa: Facebook: Lisa Batten Kunkleman Instagram: lisakunk WordPress: www.lifestoriesandbeyond.com
What Lisa says about WordPlay "Over a decade ago, I wandered
into a poetry group at Barnes and Noble in Charlotte, led by Maureen Ryan Griffin. I produced my rhyming, humorous pieces, week after week, and was encouraged by the kind people who laughed in all the right places. Most everyone else brought serious and deep subject matter, which meant I stood out with my Dr. Seuss-ish ditties. After my failed attempts at more serious poetry, Maureen suggested I bring an essay to share with the group and I did. Sharing that essay felt like the real me was out in
public. Wow. It felt great to receive such fine accolades from everybody. Maureen even said, “Lisa, I think you’re an essayist masquerading as a poet."
I
picked up an assortment of classes wherever Maureen taught. Eventually, she suggested I take a semester-long class called Under Construction. I think I started in 2009 and have never missed a semester since. I love the camaraderie and helpful critiquing among my classmates and the expertise and guidance Maureen provides weekly. We write and laugh and sometimes cry. We critique each other’s work and are encouraged to reach for our individual goals. It’s such a treat to watch classmates complete
their books or projects, thanks to the Under Construction classes. Maureen is now helping me focus on publishing a book of humorous essays in the fall of 2018. I’ve come a long way from wondering if I’d have any ideas for critique group each time to knowing a thing or two about writing. I can’t say enough wonderful things about Maureen Ryan Griffin and Wordplay."
Today, while clearing some space on a bookshelf over-stuffed like me in Spanx, with photo albums, baby books, and home movies, I discovered an unlabeled, black, three-ringed binder. Opening the notebook, I was pleasantly surprised and
reminded of how organized I have always tried to be. Especially when paperwork is involved. I’ve done four baby books and journaled nearly every day of our kids’ lives, until now that our kids have flown from the nest. (Oh, and I've also written and gathered details about the lives of our extended family members, too.)
It used to be magazine and newspaper clutter and piles of papers that I had to deal with. Back a few decades, with no such thing as the internet, as a young parent, I saved helpful and interesting magazine articles on all kinds of topics but especially on parenting. In a controlled, organized manner, I made this big notebook with the highest quality, expensive,
acid-free sheet protectors.
My first thought was, Oh, yay: let’s clear this old stuff out and turn it into a notebook for another branch of our massive family tree. But as I was emptying the page
protectors, the articles caught my eye. Uh-oh. I should never read when I’m purging, but oh well.
The notebook was filled with good ideas like, “20 Things Bored Kids Can Do at Home,” and “How Real
Parents Handle Discipline Problems.” I like the titles, “When Your Child Won’t Go Out and Play,” “Mom, The Kids Don’t Like Me,” and “Kids and Stress.” Some issues are timeless.
Now that my kids are
adults, my second thought was, this will be great for when the kids have kids. Or for me when I’m a grandparent to somebody besides all my grandpets, one of which is this dog who’s lying on the bed, helping me sort through all these papers.
So I started, stopped, and restarted removing papers from the sheet protectors and decided maybe I should put them back in and present the notebook to whichever kid becomes a parent first.
Then I decided not to waste this notebook. But, just in case, instead of recycling these articles with information that may never be used, I chose to save them in a file called “Parenting Ideas.” Not a bad plan, since now I have a free notebook, complete with page protectors, and I’ll keep that file tucked away until I present it to one of my adult kids.
I’m sure he or she will say, “Oh, Mom, you realize of course that you can find all of this online anytime you want to.”
Then my feathers will flop because that truly was my first thought when I was about to recycle all these pages. But I shoved that thought away and allowed my conscientious, rationalizing, clutter-keeper side of my brain to win out once again. No need to recycle this pile of paper yet. I’ll get some more use out of it first.
And so my file cabinet has one more fat file folder, filled to overflowing with family fun. And there’s some fabulous alliteration for you.
You can read this online, and many other posts, at Lisa's blog here: https://lifestoriesandbeyond.com/2018/01/27/clutter-collectibles-and-critical-keepsakes-barriers-to-clearing-and-controlling-the-chaos-even-with-an-empty-nest/
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 "file."
PROMPT: Choose a character to write about, whether that's one of your fictional characters, yourself, or someone you know/knew.
Make a list of the kinds of things he/she has filed, from receipts for purchases to parenting tips to vacation spots to
recipes to work materials, like charts, reports, and marketing materials, to name just a few. Create a scene, essay, poem, story, or article that shows us this character interacting with his/her files in some way. Frantically
looking for something he can't find? Tidily pulling out last month's purchase orders? Lingering over tourist attractions in Maui? Rushing through recipes to find something to make for dinner? Or...
Lisa's piece above is
a great example of this.
Have fun!
It's
fun to play with prompts in community with fellow writers, and to be able to share the results when you're done. You can find out about WordPlay classes, workshops, and retreats here. 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. You can listen to it here. 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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