Word of the Week: location
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Having trouble viewing this zine in its proper format? Read it online at http://www.aweber.com/t/OkZMw"WordPlay ALERT": Last chance for "The Gift of Memoir," which starts tomorrow morning, Thursday, January 17th, and "Under Construction," which starts tomorrow evening.
Details here.
Dear ,
No, I am NOT looking for real estate in Denton, Texas -- my husband and I are plenty happy for now in our little rental duplex! (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you missed the breaking news story in last week's zine and can read it here:
http://www.aweber.com/t/OzdUo)
Though we are looking for art -- what do you think of this piece for over the couch?
Ha ha! JK (just kidding, for those of you who haven't been around a teenager for a long time). This is a bit out of our price range, given that it's the earliest known painting by Michelangelo, "The Torment of Saint Anthony," modeled after an engraving by Martin Schongauer when he was only 12 or 13 years old. (Funny how, even back in 1487-88, adolescent boys were still fascinated by monsters!)
According to the plaque on the wall of the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth where we saw this painting on Saturday, Michelangelo's earliest biographers "recounted
that to give the demonic creatures veracity, he studied the colorful scales and other parts of specimens from the fish market." In other words, he went "on location" to get what he needed. We writers need to do that, too.
We need to give veracity to our writing subjects by being willing to go "on location," whether it's a fish market, a middle school classroom, or... wherever in the world your fascination takes you.
While I'm on the subject, given that I have just begun a life that requires that I change locations often, may I suggest that you try "Writing Where You've Never Written Before"? As in, in a new location?
Here's what I wrote about that in Spinning Words into Gold, not knowing that I would need my own advice a few years later:
"You have a favorite place to write. So why would you want to write anywhere else? Well, for one thing, it's good to stay flexible, so that if circumstances in your future require a lot of travel, or time in waiting rooms, you will not be rendered "write-less." Naomi Shihab Nye, for example, spends much of her time
giving lectures and workshops across the country. If she could only write at her favorite table, she wouldn't be the prolific writer that she is."There's also the thrill of adventure that comes when we boldly write where we have never written before. (Sorry, I took a class in college on the Age of the Enlightenment, and our professor -- who sucked cough drops continually and wore the same tan corduroy blazer all semester despite its increasingly odorous
condition -- was such a Trekkie that his entire syllabus related the Enterprise'svoyage to the Enlightenment. As our grade depended upon memorizing episodes of Kirk and crew, my mind just goes there every so often.) Where was I?"Oh, yes, boldly writing in new places. There's energy in this practice. I often ask students to write in a place they've never written before, and offer a prize to whoever comes back to class having written in the most interesting
place, as voted on by the class...."A great guy named Russ Case was the clear winner in his class the week he wrote a poem in the car as he and his wife Bonnie were returning to Charlotte from Charleston in the fringes of Hurricane Frances. Russ didn't let the fact that he was driving stop him; he asked Bonnie to take dictation. What dedication! Russ earned extra points by also writing about writing in a new place." You can read the results below, along with some of Ross's thoughts on WordPlay.
I hope you'll go "on location" this week and "boldly write where you've never written before!
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
Last chance for this:
GIFT OF MEMOIR (Preserving Family History through Personal and Family Stories). $207 for 7 sessions includes handouts and an
audio recording of all classes.
WHERE: 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204.
WHEN: January 17, 31, February 14, March 7, 28, April 11, 25, 10:00 am - noon.
TO REGISTER:
You'll receive confirmation and details within hours of registering online via PayPal or with a credit card by clicking:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UPZ9UC7QAV6HW
(Or paste into your web browser.)
Last chance for this, too:
UNDER CONSTRUCTION (Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing) $397 for 12 sessions of inspiration, support, and feedback on your writing project. Top of Form
WHERE:
1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, 28204.
WHEN: Thursdays, 7- 9 pm, January 17 - April 25, 2013 (No class on February 7, 28 or March 21).
TO REGISTER: You'll receive confirmation and details within hours of registering online
online via PayPal or with a credit card by clicking:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=LD26F7KU4ERQG
(Or paste into your web browser.)
This one starts next week: EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT POETRY (But Were Afraid to Ask)
(Poetry Knowledge, Tools and Techniques). Introductory price of $97 includes a toolkit with 21 poetry-building tools!
WHERE: South Charlotte area. Details will be provided upon registration.
WHEN: Wednesdays, January 23, January 30, and February 20, 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
TO REGISTER:
Click here to download a printable registration form to mail in. Or register online via PayPal or with a credit card by clicking:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=66WGQ54T9J3YJ
(Or paste into your web browser.)
For details about more 2013 offerings, visit www.wordplaynow.com/current.htm.
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WordPlay Success Story "I am privileged to be a member of the "Maureen Corps
."
Meet Russ Case
Here's Russ "on location" at the Erie Canal, a place that's very special to us both! You can connect with Russ on Facebook as Russ Case
and he has a blog at http://piperchief.wordpress.com, although he confesses, "I am not very disciplined about posting in it." What Russ says about WordPlay My first encounter with Maureen was at least ten years ago. As a career mechanical engine
er, I had written many technical articles, but in retirement was looking for something from the other side of my brain. Central Piedmont, the local community college, was offering an introductory writing class taught by a Maureen Ryan Griffin. The class was at a convenient time and location so I signed up. When I arrived at the classroom building, I encountered a woman behind the reception desk. Thinking her to be campus security, I asked her where the assigned classroom was. She replied, "I don't know, but I'm the teacher, let's find it together." I've never looked back. My genre is travel writing but over the years I have taken courses from Maureen in poetry, character development, and inspirational writing as well as fiction and non-fiction. My poem,
An Ode to Hurricane Frances was written as a class assignment and was published in Maureen's book Spinning Words into Gold. I have also written articles for the North Carolina Traveler and Carologue,
a publication of the South Carolina Historical Society. I am currently working on a historical fiction novel based along the Erie Canal in the early 1800's. Maureen has been my inspiration and cheerleader. With apologies to Richard Alan Taylor who coined the term, I am privileged to be a member of the "Maureen Corps."
[Note from Maureen: This term may have been coined by Marianne London. She, Richard, Russ, and I have mutual admiration societies with each other!]
Featured Writing
An Ode to Hurricane Frances
by Russ Case
The assignment given, we did embrace
We were to write in a different place.
I'm trying to write in the park today,
But the rain keeps washing the ink away.
The deluge that does me impinge
Is part of Frances's outer fringe.
I have the time, my muse is set,
But the writing pad keeps getting wet.
The grass is soaked, the path is soggy,
The baseball field has gotten boggy.
The sodden skies so warm and gray,
Have put a damper on the day.
But wait, the rain has stopped, the sky is clearing,
Perhaps these words will get a hearing.
~ Russ Case
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 "location."
1. List at least twenty places you could write. Make at least half of them
places where you haven't written before. Then pick one and go write there this week! Over time, schedule writing "dates" with yourself and write in all of them.
2. Go "on location": What writing piece are you working on that could benefit from a hands-on, eyes-on, ears-, nose-, and perhaps even taste buds-on experience, like Ross got from going to the Erie Canal and I got at the Kimbell Museum (our literary versions of Michelangelo heading to the fish market)? Sally forth some time this week!
Want to be featured in a future Word-zine?
Send in a piece of your writing that you think could inspire other WordPlayers to write. 500-word limit, please.) You can send something inspired by this writing, or anything else of your choosing. Email your words to WordPlay here and your piece may be chosen for a future Word-zine.
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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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