Volume XI, Issue 5
February 2, 2022
Word of the Week: incident
Dear ,
Happy Groundhog Day! Having grown up largely in Pennsylvania, and having attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which has a branch campus in Punxsutawney, I'm a big fan of Groundhog Day, and of the movie of the same name. (Even the trailer makes me
laugh.) Now that's a movie full of incidents! And recurring incidents.
I've had incidents on my mind lately, because the award-winning short story writer, children's writer, and novelist George Saunders has just started a "Story Club." (Here I am with him several years ago at Sensoria, Central Piedmont Community College's Arts Festival.)
There will be a fee for full access to Story Club soon, but the first story, "An Incident," by Lu Hsun, along with reader exercises and a deep analysis that both helps
us to understand the story on a whole new level and teaches valuable story comprehension and creation tools, is free. Whether or not you want to sign up for Story Club, I encourage you to take advantage of this chance to "take a class" with George Saunders to analyze a story that gets more powerful with repeated readings and Saunders' insights.
Hope you enjoy it and find it as valuable as I have.
Love and light,
Maureen
Upcoming WordPlay
THIS SATURDAY!
WRITE NOW!
Whatever you're meant to do, do it now.
The conditions are always impossible.
~ Doris Lessing
I found the above quote in an essay on writing that artist and wordsmith Michelle Joy Handler gave me back in 2014. Use it as your invitation to pick up your pen again, and join me for this workshop I'm holding in honor of Michelle, who passed away last summer and is still an
inspiration. We'll write together, with ease and grace (and laughter, because no one could be with Michelle for long without at least one good laugh) through writing prompts designed to help your words flow.
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via Zoom.
WHEN: Saturday, February 5, 2 - 4 p.m. EST
COST: $35
TO REGISTER:
1. Email info@wordplaynow.com to let me know you're coming.
2. Make your payment:
- To pay with PayPal or a credit card: Click here
- To pay with Venmo, find me here: @wordplaynow
- To pay via Zelle (online banking), find me here: MRGatWordPlay@gmail.com
- To pay via check, or for more information, please email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions.
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COASTAL WRITING RETREAT AT SUNSET BEACH
Friday, February 24th - Sunday, February 26th
OR
Friday, March 3rd - Sunday, March 5t
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.
Give yourself time to write in community with others who love words and ideas, and time for solitude, too. There’ll be ample free time to savor your beautifully appointed private room at The Sunset Inn, with king-sized bed, private bath and balcony, and the coastal setting the Sunset
Inn provides. You’ll return home refreshed, with new ideas and energy for your writing — and your life.
Full details here: https://www.wordplaynow.com/coastal-writing-retreats-early-2022/
TO REGISTER: Please call The Sunset Inn at 1-888-575-1001 to reserve your spot.
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NEW!
WRITING OURSELVES WHOLE
WRITING WORKSHOP & RETREAT AT WELL OF MERCY
Tuesday, March 29 - Thursday, March 31, 2022
In this retreat you’ll learn and practice simple yet profound ways to use words to heal, to transform, and to grow, as well as to reflect on the way Spirit is working in your life. These methods can also be used to create stories, poems, and/or essays.
Our time together will be ideal for beginners as well as for seasoned writers as we renew and deepen our relationship with God, self, and others.
Well of Mercy offers a beautiful space to connect with yourself, nature and Spirit. Take this time and space for yourself.
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POETRY ROCKS!
Would you like your writing — prose and/or poetry — to be more graceful, powerful, beautiful? Do you sometimes find poetry confusing or intimidating and wish you could “crack the code”? Or do you enjoy writing and reading poems, but want a more thorough understanding of what makes a poem good? Then this poetry extravaganza is for you. Expect a good time exploring what makes a poem a poem, gaining the knowledge
you need to confidently create and revise poetry, and strengthening your writing skills in all genres. It would be a joy and an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you!
You'll receive 23 poetry creation tools, delivered one per day (Monday through Friday) to your inbox — in honor of National Poetry month. Use them as you get them, use them when you can, use them over and over to create poems. Each tool zeroes in on one aspect of poetry and provides an innovative method to approach writing a poem.
Learn more about these tools, and the course, here.
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via the web.
WHEN: Any time you want! And once you receive all 23 tools, they’re yours to keep, which means that you can keep using them for years to come.
COST: $45
TO REGISTER: To pay via Zelle, Venmo, or a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions.
To register for Poetry Rocks online, click here.
Six years have slipped by since I came from the country to the capital. During that time I have seen and heard quite enough of so-called affairs of state; but none of them made much impression on me. If asked to define their influence, I can
only say they aggravated my ill temper and made me, frankly speaking, more and more misanthropic.
One incident, however, struck me as significant, and aroused me from my ill temper, so that even now I cannot forget it.
It happened during the winter of 1917. A bitter north wind was blowing, but, to make a living, I had to be up and out early. I met scarcely a soul on the road, and had great difficulty in hiring a rickshaw to take me to S—— Gate. Presently the wind dropped a little. By now the loose dust had all been blown away, leaving the roadway clean, and the rickshaw man quickened his pace. We were just approaching S—— Gate
when someone crossing the road was entangled in our rickshaw and slowly fell.
It was a woman, with streaks of white in her hair, wearing ragged clothes. She had left the pavement without warning to cut across in front of us, and although the rickshaw man had made way, her tattered jacket, unbuttoned and fluttering in the wind, had caught on the shaft. Luckily the rickshaw man pulled up quickly, otherwise she would certainly have had a bad fall and been seriously injured.
She lay there on the ground, and the rickshaw man stopped. I did not think the old woman was hurt, and there had been no witnesses to what had happened, so I resented this officiousness which might land him in trouble and hold me up.
"It's all right," I said. "Go on."
He paid no attention, however—perhaps he had not heard—for he set down the shafts, and gently helped the old woman to get up. . . .
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 "incident."
PROMPT: Consider these words at the end of “The Incident”: Even now, this remains fresh in my memory. It often causes me distress, and makes
me try to think about myself. The military and political affairs of those years I have forgotten as completely as the classics I read in my childhood. Yet this incident keeps coming back to me, often more vivid than in actual life, teaching me shame, urging me to reform, and giving me fresh courage and hope.
Write about an incident that has had this kind of impact on you or one of your characters. (It may have given you/he or she a different experience than “fresh courage and hope”—the important thing is
that the experience has lingered and “keeps coming back” over a period of time.)
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.
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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