Monday, November 30, 2009
writing groups
hey! have any of you participated in face-to-face writing groups, workshops, etc. since we graduated? i'm hoping to find some people locally to take on julia cameron's the artist's way, a 12-week program with daily commitments. has anyone tried this? or, what methods have worked to trick yourself back into a habit that used to come so easily? what's worked, not worked for you? i'm totally serious.
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6 comments:
Laura is in a group right now. It is motivating and inspiring for her.
I should have said she's in a group doing the artists way.
Rewarding myself with cookies does not work. I just end up eating the cookies. :(
I tried an email story swap with a guy from ASU. It so didn't work. I think the not being face-to-face made it hard. We both completed our stories and commented on the other's work, but tone through email came off wrong, things became strained.
I wish I could be in your group!! Sounds so fun.
Sometimes I can get very inspired by a word and its synonyms. I like to copy these down from thesauruses. It's not about finding a crazy-long word I didn't know existed; for me it's about being reminded of the words I knew were there at my disposal but I forgot about them for a few months or something. Like preventative. Or hasty.
Now I'm going home to eat cookies! Yum!
I like Carolyn See's "Living a Literary Life." It's also a daily practice - 1000 words per day. I rarely hit all 1000 words, but I definitely reserve the hours of 10-midnight for getting some of those words down. She also suggests this weird thing where you contact at least one other writer (daily?!) and tell him/her why you think he/she is awesome.
I've actually done that a couple of times - I wrote to Shawn Vestal because of a story of his in Tin House...he wrote back, too. I've also just written handwritten notes and sent them off to the publisher.
Thanks, everyone. I'm going to check out See's book. The Artist's Way group already dissolved, and it feels impossible to try alone.
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