yourpassions.tk

It’s been nearly two years since my Muse, Sarabelle, introduced herself to me. Those of you who have read my occasional reports of Sarabelle’s influence know that she tends to be a bit feisty at times. This morning as I sat musing about some seldom visited memories from long ago, Sarabelle tapped me on the shoulder and delivered some surprising news: She is only one of the entities on my Inner Writing Team. In short order she introduced me to Gretchen, my Inner Censor/Critic, and Betty, my Inner Editor. Then, as suddenly as she appeared, Sarabelle vanished, leaving me to my own devices to get acquainted with her colleagues. With a bit of trepidation sparked by her forbidding appearance, I choose to begin with Gretchen. I ’m immediately transported to the hallway of a prison, in front of iron bars across gray cells. The cells are surprisingly bright, lit by a small barred window, high on the wall. Despite the light, there is no color in this scene. Gretchen stands before me, a study i...

Writers must read. Writers must also study what they read. Few writing workshops can surpass the value of careful perusal of the work of other writers. This is true whether the writers have received the Pulitzer prize or deserve to be pulled from the shelves of their own local library. I can learn as much from poor writing as excellence. For several decades of my life, way beyond academia, I read with a highlighter and pen in hand. I highlighted key points and made interpretive notes in margins. As far as I was concerned, books were designed with margins so I could write in them, and my annotations contributed to my mastery of their content. In the last many years, I abandoned that habit, for two primary reasons. One is that I turned largely to libraries to supply my reading material. Beyond the obvious economy of this move, my shelves are full. I’ve reached the point where “no net increase in acquisitions” has become mandatory. If I buy a new book, I must donate an old one. Who wants ...

In the last post I wrote about the “ Great Pelican Rescue Adventure ” and the advantages of sharing stories like that in an e-mail or other written form to get them recorded while the detail is fresh in your memory and passion still high. Using e-mail to record stories is especially effective, because you'll probably write in your most natural voice that way, and you can immediately share your work with family and friends. I strongly suggest you save the story in some other format rather than leaving it solely as an e-mail. E-mail is probably the most fragile or volatile form of digital information storage I know of. I've lost large chunks of e-mail at various times, but never lost a word processing file. Some of the e-mails have been lost when changing from one e-mail management form to other. Through the years I've used Industry Net, Juno, AOL, Adelphia, Comcast, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and a few others. It's not easy, and sometimes impossible, to go back and find ol...

Have you ever had something happen that is so exciting you can't help telling everyone you see about it? These are events that deserve to be memorialized in story form. You may eventually want to embellish the written account with metaphor, dialog or other literary devices, but the most compelling account may be the one you spontaneously dash off at the first opportunity, without any editing. In fact, an e-mail account can serve nicely, at least as a first draft, to the memorialize such an event. Last week I had such an experience during an Elderhostel about and in the Everglades, and this is the account I sent: I'm so excited — we helped rescue a pelican that had a large fishing plug stuck in the tendon along the front of its upper right wing. We were walking along the boat slips behind the hotel, and a fellow was casting bait in the water. A pelican was lurking around, eyeing the bait. As we took pictures, we noticed something in its wing that we thought was a wildlife marker...

Ties to places can be surprisingly strong. Although this wasn't news to me, my understanding of this fact was recently deepened. At one point during a program I attended, the speaker got into a short interchange with an audience member about the evils of Los Alamos, New Mexico. “... glows in the dark ... all those toxins ... total denial ... doesn't it just make you shudder?” It certainly made me shudder, but not for the reasons they were discussing. My family moved to Los Alamos the day I turned seven. I left when I went to college, and my parents moved elsewhere within five years. Over the past forty some years, I have been back only four times, and briefly at that, but Northern New Mexico in general and Los Alamos in particular will always be “home” to me. Although I've always felt a special attachment for Los Alamos, I had not realized how deep it ran. As they rained invectives on a place so dear to my heart, images of golden aspen groves dotting the panorama of the Jem...

Today I had the strongest sense of the end of a beginning. While I was in Austin for the Story Circle Network conference, I also got to spend some time with my youngest grandchild and her big sister. Anna is still a baby, cuddly sweet and always smiling. I swear, this baby smiles even when she's crying. She is so amazingly happy! As I held her extra tight this morning, for one last time, breathing deeply of her sweetness, I realized this is probably the last time I will see her while she is an infant. Next time she's likely to be toddling around, trying to keep up with everyone and everything, with little interest in snuggling against Grannie's shoulder. But this wasn't about the end of Anna's infancy. This is about the end of the Grandbaby era. One can never be sure, but I suspect our quota of grandchildren has been amply filled. In truth, each time I see any given one of them, I enjoy them a little more, and it's exciting to notice the way their minds and per...

Writing groups and writing buddies are among the most powerful incentives to keep writing and to find inspiration for new stories. I've belonged to many writing groups over the last dozen years, some short-lived, and others have endured for years. I've never left a group meeting without inspiration for dozens of stories, and a warm satisfied feeling from listening to the stories other members read, and some of my dearest friends have come from writing circles. Right now I'm attending the Story Circle Network Conference in Austin, and finding a tremendous inspiration and guidance from the presenters in the sessions, and from talking to other members who are writing their own stories. Not surprisingly, each approaches writing in her own way. Some are just beginning, and experimenting with various forms and types of topics. Others have been writing for years. Some write daily, others when they have a Story Circle (writing group) meeting, and a few are feeling stalled out, hopi...