Be Aware

A fun chart. Check yourself for grammar goofs:)

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Wednesday Words

First workshop today–small but a start. If you’ve always wanted to write, enjoy talking about writing, and feel nervous about sharing your work, this is the place for you! Come write with us…Wednesdays at 11 am.

I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.
E. B. White

Another Try

I used to storm around my class, pronouncing Oscar Wilde’s: “Good writing is never finished, only abandoned.” Sometimes the theatrics would push my students continue to massage their writing.
On my run this morning, I listened to the podcast of Krista Tippett interviewing John O’Donahue about the “inner landscape of beauty.” At one point he read a poem he wrote for his mother upon his father’s death.

I slowed to a crawl, focusing on each word.

Beannacht
(“Blessing”)
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

I had been trying to write how the beauty and power of the sea can help put our own struggles in perspective, but it wasn’t working. His voice has given me a fresh way to rethink the poem.

I’m not giving up yet.

What’s Your Point?

A book review, an op-ed in the local paper, an academic essay–all take persuasive writing skills. This post on Write to Done from guest writer David Masters provides clear steps to persuade effectively. He references the PEEL technique:

PEEL: Point, Evidence, Evaluation, Link

You can apply the PEEL technique – originally designed to make academic writing more compelling persuasive, and easy to read – to your blog writing, journalistic writing and nonfiction books.
This technique makes your argument easy to follow and helps the reader see you are giving a fair and balanced point of view.

Check out the post and other writing tips on Write to Done.

Playing with words

After spending most of my life writing nonfiction, I am finding joy in experimenting with various genres now. A week in Turks and Caicos staring at Grace Bay gave me this. I’m still not satisfied, but I’ll keep playing.

Is it azure, I wonder.
No, shades of turquoise and ribbons of pale blue
Rippling water gently lapping the shore
Sand softer than a puff of breeze
A world larger than a day of troubles
Step by step, reclaiming my voice
Finding my way back
Letting the sea help me begin again.
Is it azure, I wonder.
No, shades of turquoise and ribbons of pale blue
Rippling water gently lapping the shore
Sand softer than a puff of breeze
The sea, a world larger than a day of troubles
Step by step, reclaiming my voice
Finding my way back

Is it azure, I wonder.
No, shades of turquoise and ribbons of pale blue
Rippling water gently lapping the shore
The sea, a world larger than a day of troubles
Step by step, reclaiming my voice
Finding my way back

Is it azure, I wonder.
No, shades of turquoise and pale blue ribbons
Rippling water gently lapping the shore
The sea, a world larger than a day of troubles
Helping me reclaim my voice and find my way back

Is it azure, I wonder.
No, shades of turquoise and ribbons of pale blue
Rippling water gently lapping  tickles the sand
The sea, a world larger than a day of troubles
In this moment, I breathe
And begin to find (give?) voice to my thoughts

Wise Words

I love Ira’s show, This American Life. He shares his thoughts about the writing (learning) process here:

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Keeping my Notebook

As I dragged myself to the gym this morning, my mind was filled with thoughts of my mother. And that’s another story.

But what kept coming to the forefront was a line:

She was the kind of woman who didn’t want to be alone.

I didn’t have my notebook with me, so I told David to help me remember the words. Why? Because you never know where those thoughts might lead.

I’ve been thinking about this woman for several hours now–who is she? why doesn’t she want to be alone?– and I think I have the kernel of a story.

The work begins.

Writing Our Stories

You asked for it.

I was surprised how many people stopped by the studio last week, asking for adult writing workshops. I miss the writing feedback, too. Sooooo, let’s give it a whirl. Starting Wednesdays at 11am, it’s Wednesday Words!

Join us for a writing workshop-style class (gentle feedback) for whatever writing you want to share. I love the Amherst Affirmations that Pat Schneider developed:

Time/day: Wednesdays at 11 beginning March 14

Cost: $15/session Please call to register/space limited

540-907-9732

Writing in my head….

Ever since I decided to spend more time writing, I can’t keep my brain from thinking about writing. Odd, isn’t it? The more we focus on something, the more we focus on it.

Today I labored over a poem about my grandfather’s workshop. Since my dad’s death nearly two years ago, the building and all the tools have remained untouched, forgotten. When I visited my mother last fall, I looked out the dining room window, staring at the shop, partially hidden by trees in the backyard. Abandoned, I kept thinking.

I’ve been trying to write the poem ever since. When I left the studio today to run some errands, images of the old building kept popping into my head, and I found myself trying to write and revise in my head as I drove around town.

A pleasant way to spend the day…..

On My Door Tonight