Having trouble viewing this zine in its proper format? Read it online at http://www.aweber.com/t/92XV4
Dear ,
Please forgive my very punny subject line. Water just does something to me. And I'm not the only one. After a blessed afternoon walking alongside the
Bosque River in Waco, Texas, with my dear friend and fellow writer Vivé Griffith, earlier this month, she sent me an email with
a quote from Wallace Stevens: "Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake," and added, "Sometimes a good river will do the trick."
Water has also been the inspiration for many fine pieces of writing, including E.B. White's classic essay "Once More to the Lake," which is what I thought of when I read the Stevens quote. (White's essay is a must-read for any writer, so there's a link below if you haven't yet had this pleasure.)
Maybe we love being around water so much because, by any account, our bodies are comprised of at least 50% of it, and like attracts like. Maybe it's because we spent our first nine months surrounded by the comforting feel and sound of it.
I was mulling on our love affair with water again on my morning walk today here at Sunset Beach, between two Coastal Writing Retreats. After four totally grey, mostly rain-riddled mornings, look what I saw:
I thought of the words that Claire, one of last weekend's retreat participants, sent out to our group on Monday: "After a weekend of wonderful and reflective writing, I feel like I am glowing from the experience. Holding on to it all."
I feel like I'm glowing, too, Claire! When you're a writer, there's not much better than hanging out by the water with other writers. And it was pure lagniappe that Barbara, another participant, chose to write about water and was willing to share her musings with you through in this week's zine. (See below.)
You may not be able to make it to the Bosque River, or even to Sunset Beach this weekend (though I hope you can -- there are still spots open for the writing retreat that begins Friday night and the forecast is looking good!), but you can get yourself to some water one way or the other, and I hope you'll do that.
After all, when author Sue Monk Kidd was writing The Secret Life of Bees, she would periodically, she said, "leave my desk in order to sit on the dock overlooking the tidal creek behind our house and engage in a stream of reverie about the story. I considered this earnest work."
What kind of glow would this water-y kind of "earnest work" give you? So whether it's the WordPlay Coastal Retreat, a nearby river, "Once More to the Lake" E.B. White style, a creek in your neighborhood, a dewy morning walk, or a luxurious soak in the bathtub, give yourself the gift of some time by the water this weekend. And read on for a water-inspired writing prompt.
Love and light, Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
COASTAL RETREAT A LA PROJECT: BOOK AT THE SUNSET INN, SUNSET BEACH, NC
(Writing as Renewal and Inspiration WITH a bonus: Resources and Information to Help You Complete Your Book-length Writing Project) / 1 weekend session
In addition to the fun, stimulation, and satisfaction of creating new work through a variety of prompts and techniques, there will be support offered for writers who would like to write and/or publish a book and 1) don't know how, 2) don't get around to it, 3) feel a) intimidated, b) confused, c) overwhelmed, d) uninspired, 4) all of the above! In a beautiful coastal setting, you will gain knowledge of the steps you need to take to write and publish a book and begin creating your own personalized plan. Note: Class doesn't include critique of your book manuscript.
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, March 1 - Sunday, March 3, 2012*
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). Register soon -- there are only a few spaces left.
New Offering!
JUMPSTART!
(Generating New Writing; Learning New Ways to Enter the Writing Process) One session
Painters have colors. Potters have clay. And we writers have words. Our job - and what a lovely job it is - is to love them. If you've forgotten the joy of language, join me to jumpstart your writing in this workshop filled with wordplay. After all, play is the way we learn best -we're free to question, to experiment, to break through to something new, all our own. Surprise yourself! If you don't yet have Spinning Words into Gold
, you'll need a copy, available for $23.54 (includes tax).
WHEN: Wednesday, March 13, 10:00am-12:30pm
WHERE: Queens Sports Complex on Tyvola Road near Fairview, Charlotte
TO REGISTER:
http://www.queens.edu/Academics-and-Schools/Continuing-Education/Program-Categories/Writing---CE/Writing---Jumpstart-with-Maureen-Ryan-Griffin.html New Offering!
SPINNING WORDS INTO GOLD
(Fulfilling Writing Dreams and Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising and Polishing Your Writing) / 6 sessions
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. You'll need a copy of Spinning Words into Gold, available for $23.54 in class (includes tax).
WHEN: Thursdays, March 28 - May 2, 1 - 3 p.m.WHERE: Queens Sports Complex on Tyvola Road near Fairview, Charlotte
TO REGISTER:
http://www.queens.edu/Academics-and-Schools/Continuing-Education/Program-Categories/Writing---CE/Spinning-Words-into-Gold.html
For details about more 2013 offerings, visit www.wordplaynow.com/current.htm.
|
WordPlay Success Story
Funderful: that's my word for fun and wonderful describing our weekend retreat How lovely to share the talents and feelings of such fine folks.
Thank you for doing this.
Meet Barbara Allen
Barbara travels with her husband Donovan, working on some photo journalism. They are putting together materials from travels in Europe, Japan and Canada. After retiring from teaching Latin in Guam and South Carolina, she is happy to spend time with her two daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grands, and to explore her love of the written word.
What Barbara says about WordPlay She says "yes!" (This is Maureen reporting here.)
In fact, Barbara actually said, "Yes, yes, yes" several times in a very fun poem she created, not knowing before she came to the WordPlay Coastal Retreat that she would have so much fun exploring her desire to write.
She also said "yes" when I asked, after she shared the writing below ( a response to the prompt "Write about an experience you do not want to be forgotten"), if I could share it in this zine.
And when she sent an email that said, "Funderful: that's my word for fun and wonderful describing our weekend retreat How lovely to share the talents and feelings of such fine folks," I told her she'd said all she needed to say about WordPlay!
The retreat was funderful indeed, and I know this weekend's will be as well --come if you can.
Featured Writing
Experience the Water
by Barbara Allen
How do you separate yourself from the water? The ocean with its sound and surge and song
The creek, our Cohansey Creek, crab ridden, muddy and marshy
where we sailed our little moths
Grandma's claw-footed tub
where she measured our bathwater when she baby-sat us
on Saturday nights -
Date-nights for our parents way back then.
"Bobbie, you're four years old, four inches of water for you.
Can you measure?"
"Can I have four inches of bubbles, Gramma,
please, please, please?"
She never said no.
Water all over the bathroom floor?
That's what towels are for. Did we rise from the primal ooze?
I think we felt the silk
not the slime. "To dust returneth?"
I don't think so. I want to slip back into the sea.
~ Barbara Allen
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 "water."
1. Get thee to some water, whether it's to Sunset Beach for the Coastal Retreat, a nearby river, "Once More to the Lake" E.B. White style, a creek in your neighborhood, a dewy morning walk, or a luxurious soak in the bathtub.
2. Make a list (long or short) of the "water experiences" you or one of your characters most enjoyed, as Barbara did above. Then write about one of them.
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.
|
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! |
|
