Writing Salon Mistress Muses

Writer Unboxed » Thankful for the Writing Life

Here's a nice homey inspirational blog post to tide you over until I can get a new series going on THIS blog!

"23 years ago, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I sold my first book...

Read full post here:

via writerunboxed.com

 

The World of Art...Laying One Brick Upon Another

Margaret, one of my Daily Write "Round Robin" students, was kind enough to send this quote to me, so I am passing it on to all of you:

“I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time: the world of art is the only such realm. I entered it without any apparent talent, a thorough novice, incapable, awkward, tongue-tied, almost paralyzed by fear and apprehensiveness. I had to lay one brick on another, set millions of words to paper before writing one real, authentic word dragged up from my own guts. The facility of speech which I possessed was a handicap; I had all the vices of the educated man. I had to learn to think, feel and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink. The great majority of artists are throwing themselves in with life-preservers around their necks, and more often than not it is the life-preserver which sinks them.”

Henry Miller, “Reflections on Writing: The Wisdom of the Heart.”

It's a good quote, don't you think? I could even see putting it at the top of the Writing Salon website's home page for a while.

 

How to Find Time to Write - Josh Mohr

Welcome to the final installment of this fun and enlightening 9-week series on how to find time to write, written by nine of our guest-blogging teachers. We hope you enjoyed their suggestions and insights.

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JOSHUA MOHR is the author of the novels Termite Parade which was an Editors' Choice on The New York Times Best Seller List, and Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine's Top 10 reads of 2009 and a SF Chronicle best-seller.  He has published numerous short stories and essays in publications such as The New York Times Book Review, 7×7, the Bay Guardian, ZYZZYVA, The Rumpus, among many others.  His third novel, Damascus, was published in October 2011. 


Nocturnal Creations

I wanted to chat a bit about insomnia, which in my humble opinion has gotten a bad rap over the years.  I’m an insomniac, and I’d like to sing its praises for a minute.  My best work gets done between midnight and 5 a.m., in the hours liberated from cell phones and emails and “real world” responsibilities.  Sometimes, I think I’m better suited for my imaginary worlds anyway.  Real life confuses me.

What I Know about Writing - by David Nelson-Gal

This post by is another in our weekly series, "What I Know about Writing."  These short writing exercises were done within a 10 to 12-minute time limit, for a Daily Write Round Robin class. They are raw writes, not revised.

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David Nelson-Gal has been a closeted writer since he was in the seventh grade, quietly writing short stories, song lyrics and journal entries to a mythical audience of woodland creatures. He graduated with an MS in Computer Science and has worked as a Silicon Valle engineer and software executive.  He has three children -- all boys -- three dogs, one wife, a home in Palo Alto and six guitars.

"Welcome to our studios here at the Rockefeller Center," Interviewer said,  acknowledging me with a nod as I sat next to his desk in a surprisingly stiff arm chair. "We have today, David Nelson-Gal, an amateur writer with no real publishing credits to his name. And later, we have a sit down with ex-Representative Anthony Weiner. All this and more, after the break!"

Studio lights dimmed as a Cialis commercial's audio track played in the background. I looked down at my fingers and tried to steady their trembling. An assistant came up to Interviewer with some papers to look at and they whispered while a makeup person dabbed his forehead with a sponge. When the stage manager announced "30-seconds!" the assistants and make-up people scurried away. At 10-seconds, Interviewer turned to me and said "You're going to do fine." "Five," the stage manager said, holding up his hand, fingers extend and counting down lights coming up. "Four. Three." Two and One were just pantomimed with his fingers.

How to Find Time to Write - Aurora Brackett

Here's another weekly installment in our "How to Find Time to Write" series, written by our guest-blogging teachers. Enjoy!

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Aurora Brackett’s writing has been published in Eleven Eleven, Alimentum Journal, The Portland Review, Fourteen Hills, Tinfish and other journals. She has an MFA in fiction from San Francisco State University where she received the 2005 Wilner Award for Short Fiction and the 2008 SF Browning Society Prize. She works as a writing coach for kids and adults in Oakland, CA, and teaches our Raw Writing/Intro to Creative Writing "combo" class in Berkeley.

There is something about living a life – a kind of urgency to meeting obligations and paying bills, and keeping things in order – that seems to run counter to the creative impulse.  At least in my experience.  In my classes, we often talk about the inner critic.  And I do think that beneath the question of “finding time to write” is the question – “what is stopping you?”  Because, as other bloggers here have said, we all have time.  In her book What It Is, Lynda Barry suggest setting a timer for an hour and then going about your business.  Wash the dishes.  Work. Return phone calls.  And when the timer goes off, look back and ask yourself – what is an hour?  Did you use absolutely every second of that hour?  Could you have done something else with that 10 minutes you spent reorganizing your files?

I'm a writer who doesn't write - Since You Asked - Salon.com

I'm writing constantly in my head. How can I find the time to put these things on paper?

Read whole article by advice columnist Cary Tennis here:

I'm a writer who doesn't write - Since You Asked - Salon.com

What I Know about Writing - by Andrea Pierceall

This post by is another in our weekly series, "What I Know about Writing."  These short writing exercises were done within a 10 to 12-minute time limit, for a Daily Write Round Robin class. They are raw writes, not revised.

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Poet Andrea Pierceall, a longtime Writing Salon afficianado, says: "I'm a Round Robin devotee. I can do it no matter where I am. Writing becomes like brushing your teeth - you do it everyday. It makes me a nicer person and others enjoy being around me. Try it!"

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1. You need to do it everyday
2. There is truth in the Michael Chabon "Splendor in Crap" rule. Write enough crap and a bit of splendor will emerge.
3. As corny as it sounds, you have to write from the heart. It has to be true to you.
4. Contrary to popular thought, it does matter what others think. Share what you write in safe places.
5. Try not to spill your guts. It gets tiresome. We all suffer in different ways.
6. Try using pencil and paper once in a while. It changes the thinking process.
7. Don't be afraid to plagerize. It will be unrecognizable by the time you give it your own spin.
8. Understand the import of your writing. Treat it like exercise, food or brushing your teeth.
9. Be kind to other writers. It's good karma.
10.  Read other people's work. You cannot be a good writer without reading. Reading comes first. Remember 1st grade. You read before you write. Otherwise, we don't have much to say.

Li Miao Lovett Reads from her novel, In the Lap of the Gods

This just in from former Writing Salon student Li Mao Lovett:

Dear friends & fellow writers,

I'm doing my last reading of the year from my novel, In the Lap of the Gods, on Nov. 9th. So much has happened since the book debuted eleven months ago. China has cracked down on its writers and artists in the wake of the Middle East uprisings -- I don't take my freedom as an American for granted. And I wrote a book that would likely be banned in China... Oh, but there's a love story too, between a widower and the baby girl he finds by the riverbank.

Hope to see you at this San Francisco reading -- before the holidays spirit you away! I will be also showing slides with rare footage from China's Three Gorges region.

Cheers,
Li

How to Find Time to Write - by David Rosenthal

Here's another weekly installment in our "How to Find Time to Write" series, written by our guest-blogging teachers. Enjoy!

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David Rosenthal lives in Berkeley with his wife and two teenage daughters, and teaches kindergarten and first grade in the Oakland public schools.  His poems have been published in several print and online journals.  You can read some of them and find out more about David at http://users.lmi.net/rosen4

There is little I can say to improve upon what has been said  already about finding to time to write.  Instead, I would like to  focus on the closely related issue of maintenance.

As an activity that is difficult to maintain, writing is matched  only by diet and exercise.  Distractions come in many forms and  dimensions, and rationalizations are even more diverse and  numerous than the distractions themselves.  Whether you write regularly, or you are simply trying to use the time you manage to find, any break in routine or forfeited opportunity can lead to a habit of habit-breaking with disappointing ease.  The only way to  stem the precipitation is to simply begin again.