The Magpie's Pen

The Magpie's Fancy: In Memoriam Wislawa Szymborska

2012-02-02T03:54:00.000-05:00

I've written a short piece about Wislawa Szymborska over at The Magpie's Fancy. Come read it here:

The Magpie's Fancy: In Memoriam Wislawa Szymborska: Wislawa Szymborska died yesterday , and I am torn between the need to write what she has meant to me, means to me still, and my utt...

The Power of Fear

2011-11-09T10:44:00.001-05:00

I have just one simple thought to share today, but it's the foundation of much good writing.

When you are afraid to finish a piece, that's the best time to keep writing. If it frightens you, this story or poem or essay you're crafting, then it's worth finishing. I don't mean it frightens you in a ghost story, horror film sense. I mean that some significant truth is at stake for you in the writing. I mean that as you write it, your palms sweat or your gut aches or your scalp prickles. I mean that you've taken a leap off something very high, although you know not what--nor do you have any idea where or how you will land. Whether it ends up being a graceful plunge into the ocean, like you're a seasoned cliff diver, or an awkward cannonball off the high dive into the deep end that soaks every onlooker, you will have taken the leap. And you can leap again. And again. Nothing will stop you after that first leap, because that one is the hardest.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Do one thing every day that scares you." Yes. Do it. Write it.

Some of the Best Writing Advice I Know

2011-11-07T01:45:00.000-05:00

“Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music--the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”

~Henry Miller

What I Know That No One Else Knows

2011-06-20T10:15:00.001-04:00

Sandra Cisneros

The title of this post is inspired by an interview with Sandra Cisneros in which she talks about her inspiration for writing The House on Mango Street when she was a 22-year-old graduate student at Iowa. You can view a wonderful segment of the interview here. Cisneros talks about one of the key things she teaches her writing students. So often students struggle to get inspired--or to stay inspired. She says to them, ask yourself this: "What can I write about that no one else can write about?"

If you watch the video, you'll see how she arrived at this productive question. The question will often lead to uncomfortable, but powerful answers, and these answers can provide the writer with rich territory for writing. If you are feeling stuck in your own writing, take a peek at the Cisneros interview for a morsel of inspiration.

I'm going to take a hiatus from Freewrite Fridays for a bit because my own writing schedule is too full right now, but I'll be posting tips and ideas here all summer long, so I hope you'll keep visiting!

In the meantime, Cisneros's question is my own question to you: What can you write about that no one else can write about?

Freewrite Friday: A Distant Memory

2011-06-10T01:34:00.000-04:00

For today's exercise, try freewriting in your writing notebook for at least a half an hour about a very distant memory. In fact, it may be a story from your life that is so vague you're not sure if it's something you remember or something you have been told about over the years. It might even be something you glimpsed in a photograph or home video. As you write about this memory, think about why it matters to you. Don't worry about how much of it actually happened and how much of it you have created to fill in the blanks. You aren't looking to capture an accurate report of events. Instead, you will be trying to capture an emotional truth, a glimpse at something very far back and very deep within your life memories. If you need to fabricate details, let yourself do this. Was the carpet green or blue? You decide. Was it pouring rain or only slightly misting? You create the setting, the mood, and anything else you need to make this memory come to life on the page.

Have fun, and please feel free to let me know how it goes. Happy writing and happy weekend!

Freewrite Friday: Out of Control

2011-06-03T11:05:00.000-04:00

Hello, my friends. This week's exercise is very straightforward, but I think you may find it useful.

Begin by brainstorming for a few minutes about moments in your life when you have felt completely out of control. The moments might be positive or negative--or a mixture of both. I've included two photos that I took at a carnival a couple of years ago, because when I was a kid I loved that out-of-control feeling of carnival rides. Now I get nauseous on them--I mean, really sick--but I still like remembering a particular Fourth of July when I was twelve, and my friend and I rode the Zipper over and over again, spending all our allowance money just for that thrill of being flung head over heels, the ground rushing up to meet us; and then one more flip and we were racing towards the sky. That edgy blend of joy and terror is rich territory for writing, especially because when I think of that Fourth of July, I also think of being in love with a boy who was a little dangerous, a little wrong for me. Yes, the memory of one moment of being out of control leads to memories of other moments, and then before you know it, you've got one dangerous piece of writing.

So, after you've brainstormed and found an out-of-control moment that resonates especially well for you, freewrite about it for at least a half hour, but longer, if you can. The best possible thing would be if you let your writing itself get a little (or a lot) out of control as you go!

Let me know what happens. As always, if you post your freewrite on your blog, please feel free to share the link in the comments here.

Happy writing, and happy weekend!

Anything, Anything (Plus a Freewrite)

2011-05-29T00:21:00.000-04:00

Looking back, I imagine I was always writing.

Twaddle it was too.

But better write twaddle or anything, anything,

than nothing at all.

~Katherine Mansfield

My friends, for the first time since I started the series, I missed Freewrite Friday this week! Life caught me off guard and carried me off to other tasks. I apologize.

I have many writing deadlines to meet, so I can't be as regular with posts as I'd like to be at present,

but I will keep offering exercises and tips as much as I can this summer.

I'm also thinking of offering an online writing course at the end of summer. Is this something you would be interested in? If so, send me an email or leave a comment here. Let me know, too, what kind of work you are focusing on (or would like to focus on) right now: poetry, fiction, memoir, etc.

In the meantime, I hope you are writing--anything, anything. I hope you are feeling inspired, but that even when you're not, you are writing still . . . and all the more.

And, since I offered no freewrite on Friday, I will give you now a quick exercise I've used when I am feeling stuck. Copy out a favorite recipe in your writing notebook. It should be one you have made countless times or one someone you love has often made for you. As soon as you finish writing down the recipe, don't pause. Keep writing. Write about making it or eating it or a memory you associate with it or the person whom you watched making it. Engage all your senses in the process of writing this exercise. It's a magical one. I hope you'll give it a try.

Freewrite Friday: Lost and Found

2011-05-20T00:21:00.001-04:00

Hello, my friends! I've been missing you. I am currently working on a huge writing project that is taking up most of my time, thus I'm not blogging as much as usual, but trust that I am always dreaming up new writing exercises for our Friday Freewrites. Whether you write for fun or as a serious vocation, the most important aspect of the writing life is to keep the pen moving, no matter what. I've been thinking about this often lately because I write for so many hours most days, and it can be hard to make myself sit down in that chair and push through with an idea, especially because, as we all know, self-doubt is always standing by, waiting to take a sledgehammer to one's creative process.

How do I deal with self-doubt and worry? I write more. I revise often. I also find an audience through publishing. If there's an audience waiting, there is no time or room for doubt. If you feel like sharing your freewrites, you can always send me links and I will share them here on the blog. I love helping others find an audience for their work.

And speaking of work, I have an interesting freewrite for you this week. As always, I recommend writing it by hand in your writing notebook, and I suggest that you give yourself at least a half an hour of uninterrupted time to work on it--no phone, no internet, no distractions. Ideally, you might even steal a whole hour for your writing. I find that my thoughts don't really begin to cook and bubble until 30-40 minutes into a writing session. Those first 20-30 minutes are just the preheating period.

So, for today's freewrite: write about something you have lost or something you have found . . . or both. That's it. That's all of my instructions this week. A simple task on the surface, but one that can lead to fruitful writing territory.

Happy writing to you and happy weekend!

P.S. If you need a little inspiration to get started, here's one of my all-time favorite Elizabeth Bishop poems (which happens to be a villanelle):

One Art

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant 
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

~Elizabeth Bishop

Freewrite Friday: The Song

2011-05-14T14:37:00.000-04:00

Welcome, friends! Please forgive the delay with this week's exercise. Blogger was down for all of Friday morning, so I couldn't post yesterday and I haven't had a moment since until now. I hope it was worth the wait; this is a fun one.

For today's exercise, grab your writing notebook and jot down a list of ten or more all-time favorite songs. They should be songs that 1) have strong lyrics and 2) remind you of a moment or event that is emotionally meaningful to you. It doesn't have to be a major event like your prom or your wedding, but it could be. On the other hand, it could be the memory of the night you went skinny dipping with your college boyfriend or the day you broke your leg skiing or the week you spent in Italy when you were 14. Or you might think of a song or two that you associate with a particular person. They could even be songs that remind you of a certain period of your life. For example, I can't hear any Smiths songs without thinking of my early twenties--all the good and the bad and everything in between.

Once you've got some songs listed, start jotting down lyrics from a few of them. Choose lines or phrases that you especially love. They may be painful or funny or intense or thought-provoking. Don't worry about the reason; if you love them, scribble them into your book. As you do this, a line or two will likely rise to the surface as particularly compelling. I usually find that a line that evokes a very particular and powerful moment for me is one that will work well for this exercise. If it's one in a language other than your native language, this can be pretty wonderful, too.

Once you've discovered a compelling line or two. Jot the words at the top of a fresh page in your notebook and use them as a trigger for a freewrite session. As usual, give yourself 30 minutes to write, at the very least. Take longer, if you need it. Think about what senses are triggered by the lyrics in this song. What smells and tastes and colors do you associate with it? Did you listen to it in the heat of summer as you baked on a blanket at the beach? Is it one that makes you think of autumn family trips to your grandmother's house? What emotions does the song evoke for you? Let yourself move far beyond the lyrics themselves and into whatever emotional territory you discover. That said, if the lyrics want to work their way into the writing, let them.

Have fun with this one, and please do share with us, if you'd like. Here's a link to Kamana's wonderful exercise based on last week's prompt.

Thanks to new readers and subscribers. Happy weekend and happy writing!

Freewrite Friday: The First Time

2011-05-05T23:25:00.000-04:00

Hello, friends. I've been thinking about this exercise for a few weeks. It was inspired by a visit from my youngest niece a few weeks ago. Her goal while she stayed with us for the weekend was to stay up all the way until midnight--something she'd never done before. She managed to do it, and we had one whale of a time. It also reminded me that I have written about my first memories of staying up until midnight, and it makes for powerful stuff. In fact, many firsts provide us with rich territory to explore. There's the first kiss, of course, but there's so much more, maybe even some less expected firsts, like the first time you ate an oyster or the first time you wore high heels or waking up on the first morning in your very first apartment.

So, for this freewrite, try writing about a first. If you're not sure what first to tackle, make a list of firsts in your writing notebook, and then choose one. Or, if you have a writing partner/group, swap lists and choose one your partner has suggested. Freewrite for at least 30 minutes. You may find that you want to write more . . . and that you want to revise it and turn it into something more polished. You may even discover how much fun it could be to write a series of short essays on "firsts." And if you're a photographer, you may want to try photographing some firsts. The possibilities are endless. Happy writing, and happy weekend!

Freewrite Friday: The Meal

2011-04-28T23:04:00.000-04:00

There is almost nothing in life more essential and evocative than food. Every holiday and nearly every important event involves the breaking and sharing of bread. In fact, eating, and everything associated with it--hunting and gathering, shopping, cooking, serving--offers the writer rich material, because it is essential to who we are.

At the opening of The Gastronomical Me, MFK Fisher writes,

"People ask me: Why do you write about food, and eating and drinking? Why don't you write about the struggle for power and security, about love, the way others do?

They ask it accusingly, as if I were somehow gross, unfaithful to the honor of my craft.

The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one."

With Fisher's passage in mind, this week's Freewrite Friday is a simple but important one: write about the memory of a significant meal in your life. It might be a major holiday meal, but it could just as easily be a supper shared on an ordinary Wednesday night or beans from a can or anything you wish. Only you know why this meal matters to you, so let yourself play and write to your heart's content. Use all of your senses, include dialogue, if it was a meal shared with someone else. Try to explore what makes this meal so important to you. Give yourself at least 30 minutes. I bet you'll need more! (I keep thinking of Julia Child's wonderful description of her very first meal in France. You can find it in My Life in France.)

I'm guessing that all of us will be craving a snack--or maybe a feast--by the time we're through with this exercise! I'd love to hear how it goes if you try this one.

Happy writing and happy weekend!

2011-04-27T09:04:00.000-04:00

I'm engaging in a little Wishful Thinking at Reverie-Daydream today. Please come visit me there!

Also, if you haven't registered for my giveaway at The Magpie's Fancy, you can do it here.

The prize is a $75 gift certificate to Novica--

a truly beautiful online catalog full of handmade beauty from all over the world.

Deadline for registering is this coming Friday at noon EST.

I hope you're having a beautiful and productive week.

I'll be back on Friday with a freewrite and more.

Sorry I've been missing Tuesday's Tips;

my Tuesdays are a little Trying right now! :)

I will return with more Tips soon,

as well as a few other tricks I have up my ink-stained sleeve.

Welcome to new friends, followers, and subscribers!

Freewrite Friday: The Definition

2011-04-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

Hello, everyone! It's good to be back. Sorry I wasn't here to offer a Tuesday Tip, but I was without internet for a few days and life was just plain hectic with a writing deadline and several other projects in the works. I think the one tip to take away from that is when you've got some writing that needs to be done, let other things slide; put the writing first. And that is just what I've been doing. :)

I am excited to share this week's exercise with you as it is one I've used with some measure of success myself, and I've had many students try this one over the last few years as well. I love the writing that it generates, and I hope you will, too. As with many of my exercises, this one begins with a little warm-up in the form of making a list of wonderful words. What could be more fun?

The Definition

Make a list of words you love. You might like them for their denotations, their connotations, their sounds, the way they feel in your mouth, the way they look when you write them, or any combination of these qualities.
Choose three words from the list to which you are especially partial.
Look these words up in a good dictionary. The most thorough is the Oxford English Dictionary, but even an online dictionary will do. Look at the definitions of the words--even if you already know what they mean. Sometimes a word has surprising meanings that we don't know about. Also look up the etymology of the words. Find out what you can about their origins, past uses, and history. Whenever I do this exercise, I get caught up in this step for quite a while because it can be so interesting.
Once you've finished your investigating, select the word whose definitions and history intrigue you most.
Now begins the fascinating part. Freewrite about your chosen word. You should try to set out to define the word in your own way. Imagine you are teaching this word to someone who has never heard or seen it before. What do you want them to take away from your writing? It may begin as a faithful definition, even quoting parts of the dictionary passage, but you should get as wild as you want with this. It might—and probably should—end up veering quite far from where you began or what we would expect. It may turn into a story about the word or a poem or something else entirely.

A few possibilities to try:
Think about diction, play with sound and image, let the writing surprise you.
If it helps, imagine a specific person you are talking to as you write. What would interest him/her most about your word?
You may want to think about how the word sounds and imagine what it should mean just based on this.
Try an oppositional approach: “Some say “defenestration” means ____________, but I say . . . ”
Feel free to make the word mean whatever you want it to mean!

Below is a poem I wrote a few years ago when I first dreamed up this exercise. The poem was published in a literary journal as well as my chapbook, Learning to Tell Time, and it was also part of an exhibition by artist Karen Rohr. Karen makes miniature books, and for this poem, "Portmanteau," she created a very tiny book--maybe a three inches-- in the shape of portmanteau that actually opened, and the poem unfolded from inside. It was marvelous!

I should explain that I came up with this exercise for a poetry class I was teaching at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. I never give exercises that I don't try myself first, so I tried this one out--and loved it! The word I decided to use was "portmanteau." Here's a little bit of my definition research, followed by some examples of portmanteau words, and then the poem itself. You'll notice that my research on "portmanteau" then led me to look up "mantle" as well to learn a little bit more about its history, too. As soon as I realized that "mantle" had such a rich variety of meanings, I knew I had a fantastic word to use. Since this was for a poetry class, it's a poem, but this works beautifully as a prose exercise as well. In fact, the first draft of this poem was in prose. This final version came a few drafts later. You'll notice that the poem itself uses many "portmanteau words."

Chosen word: portmanteau

Definitions and etymology:

Dictionary.com
port·man·teau pɔrtˈmæntoʊ, poʊrt-; ˌpɔrtmænˈtoʊ, ˌpoʊrt- [pawrt-man-toh, pohrt-; pawrt-man-toh, pohrt-]–noun, plural -teaus, -teaux -toʊz, -toʊ, -ˈtoʊz, -ˈtoʊ - [-tohz, -toh, -tohz, -toh]

Chiefly British. A case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, esp. a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves. [Origin: 1575–85; < F portemanteau lit., (it) carries (the) cloak; see port5,
mantle]

American Heritage Dictionary
A large leather suitcase that opens into two hinged compartments.
[French portemanteau : porte-, from porter, to carry (from Old French; see port5) + manteau, cloak (from Old French mantel, from Latin mantellum).]

Online Etymology Dictionary
1584, "traveling case or bag for clothes and other necessaries," from M.Fr. portemanteau "traveling bag," originally "court official who carried a prince's mantle" (1547), from porte, imperative of porter "to carry" (see porter (1)) + manteau "cloak" (see mantle). Portmanteau word "word blending the sound of two different words," is 1882, coined by Lewis Carroll for the sort of words he invented for "Jabberwocky," on notion of "two meanings packed up into one word."

WordNet
portmanteau
noun
1 a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings; "'smog' is a blend of 'smoke' and 'fog'"; "'motel' is a portmanteau word made by combining 'motor' and 'hotel'"; "'brunch' is a well-known portmanteau" [syn: blend]
2 a large travelling bag made of stiff leather

man·tle ˈmæntl - [man-tl] noun, verb, -tled, -tling. –noun
1 a loose, sleeveless cloak or cape.

2 something that covers, envelops, or conceals: the mantle of darkness.

3 Geology. the portion of the earth, about 1800 mi. (2900 km) thick, between the crust and the core. Compare core1 (def. 10), crust (def. 6).

4 Zoology. a single or paired outgrowth of the body wall that lines the inner surface of the valves of the shell in mollusks and brachiopods.

5 a chemically prepared, incombustible network hood for a gas jet, kerosene wick, etc., that, when the jet or wick is lighted, becomes incandescent and gives off a brilliant light.

6 Ornithology. the back, scapular, and inner wing plumage, esp. when of the same color and distinct from other plumage.

7 mantel.

8 Metallurgy. a continuous beam set on a ring of columns and supporting the upper brickwork of a blast furnace in such a way that the brickwork of the hearth and bosh may be readily replaced.
–verb (used with object)
9 to cover with or as if with a mantle; envelop; conceal.
–verb (used without object)
10 to spread or cover a surface, as a blush over the face.

11 to flush; blush.

12 (of a hawk) to spread out one wing and then the other over the corresponding outstretched leg.

13 to be or become covered with a coating, as a liquid; foam: The champagne mantled in the glass.
[Origin: bef. 900; ME mantel, OE mæntel < L mantellum] —Synonyms 2. veil, cover, blanket, screen, cloak.

Examples of Portmanteau words
spork, animatronics, brunch, motel, smog, fantabulous, blaxploitation, guesstimate, smush, wussy, cyborg, slithy (lithe, slimy—Humpty Dumpty), statusphere (Jim Carrey), workaholic, swipe, muppet, hassle, fortnight, electrocute, flare, dumfound, humungous, ginormous, skyjack, slang (slovenly, language), prissy, chortle, brash, emoticon, galumph, skuzzy, goon (gorilla, baboon), splurge (splash, urge)

Portmanteau

It will clasp
itself shut
around the dark
compartment
we have stuffed
with our splurges—
I mean the shimmer,
the silver, the slivers
and trinkets.
I mean,
it will mantle
the hollow
core, cradle the cloaks
and cyborg novels,
the trash and slang
and Sunday brunches
over silent toast
we’ve smushed
inside and, I mean,
all we’ll have to do
is lock it.
All we’ll
have to do is lift it,
chuck it, really,
into the attic.
You’ll love it—
it’s humungous,
ginormous,
fantabulous—
I’d guesstimate there’s space
for the unfinished bookcase,
the sorry motel with its sign
on the fritz,
the unloved afghan,
the unspoken insult,
your dumfounded mother,
my collection of twizzle sticks,
the hamster
that died when
we left for a fortnight,
geometry, hassles, casseroles,
and under the false
bottom, a hidden
slot for all of 1986.
I mean, you’ll barely
know it’s there—
maybe at night a faint
clang or chortle
upstairs.
But that’s the past,
hinged shut,
clamped tight
beneath the attic eaves
like wings
spread above
our necessary
dreams.

Copyright Gigi Thibodeau 2008

I hope you'll have fun with this exercise. Please let me know how it goes, if you try it. Happy weekend, and happy writing!

Freewrite Friday: The Object

2011-04-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

William Carlos Williams once said, "no ideas but in things." This is one of the most useful statements I know. Beginning writers often get caught up in writing in abstractions, and these abstractions leave their writing vague and bland. The more grounded in sensory images our writing is, the more vividly it will come to life for the reader. It's like what your sixth grade teacher wrote in the margins of your writing: "Show, don't tell." One of my favorite writing exercises is based on this idea; it's one that I nearly always do as the first exercise in a writing workshop. It works really well with a writing partner or group, but you can do it alone, too.

If you're working with a partner or in a group, grab a bag or a bowl and place 3 or 4 everyday objects in it. For example, I might toss in a lipstick tube, a wooden spoon, and a tape measure. They don't have to be special items, just ordinary household objects.
Have your writing partner(s) select an item from the bag/bowl. They can choose whichever one strikes them most.
If you're working alone, select an object in your house or from your purse or even your desk at work.
Take a few minutes to study the object closely. Use as many of your five senses as possible.
Open your writing notebook and begin freewriting about the object. At first, try simply to describe the object. If associations or memories come to mind as you describe, let them enter into your writing as well. Freewrite for 20 minutes.
If you're working with a partner or group, take turns reading your freewrite aloud. If you're working alone, read your freewrite aloud to yourself.
Talk or think a little bit about how the object led you to other associations and memories. You can even write about this process, if you wish.
Leave the freewrite alone for a day or two, then go back and see if there are any lines that you particularly like. If so, copy them out on a fresh page in your notebook and begin a new freewrite that incorporates those lines or that uses them as inspiration. See where these lines take you.

I have used this exercise in poetry workshops and prose workshops, and it's useful for either. If you try this one, please let me know how it goes. Happy weekend and happy writing!

Tuesday's Tip: Find an Audience

2011-04-12T01:32:00.000-04:00

First, let me say welcome and thanks to new readers, subscribers, and followers of The Magpie's Pen. When I asked last week about writing challenges that people face, many of the responses I received were about finding time, finding confidence, or finding the belief in oneself to write and stick to it. I have faced all of these challenges myself at one time or another, and I've helped many students who wrestled with these same demons. Fortunately, there is one solution to help deal with all three: find an audience for your drafts.

I do not mean just any audience, but readers who are also writers--and not just writers, but well-read writers. How do you go about doing this? Join a writing group or take a class. Many groups advertise for members at local libraries, bookstores, and cafes. They are usually easy to find. Most are completely free as well. If you can't find one, another option is to start one up with a few fellow writers. I've belonged to large, well-established groups and small, short-term groups over the years, and both have been enormously helpful to me for several reasons. One is that it's good to just hang out with fellow writers, talking about writerly stuff. The more it's a part of your everyday life the more likely you are to carve out serious chunks of time to write. Also, a writing group expects certain things from you; they expect you to show up at meetings and to have read and prepared for the meeting's critique. They also expect you to write and share your own work. You'll have deadlines to commit to and people who are counting on you. There's nothing like a little outside pressure to get that pen moving! Also, you'll get feedback on your work, which is a priceless gift for a writer. In turn, you will become an audience for others as well. I always learn as much from reading and critiquing others' work as I do from having my own work critiqued.

If you've never been critiqued in a group or workshop before, know that it can be a daunting experience. However, if it's a good group with smart readers and clearly established guidelines and rules for the critiques, it can be a wonderful experience as well. The same goes for more formal workshop classes. I've been a student in workshops at the undergraduate level and the graduate level, and I've led dozens of workshops with students in community arts programs as well as at the college level, and I know how much more people write when they've got a community of writers waiting to read their work. Has every single workshop or writing group been a smashing success for me? No. Some groups mesh better than others. If one doesn't work out, try another one. Also, if you receive a particularly harsh critique one week, try not to take it too hard. Writing groups and workshops help writers develop thicker skins, and thicker skins help us become better revisers.

My one warning is this: avoid groups that offer nothing but praise or nothing but criticism. All of one or the other is never helpful. A healthy balance of criticism and praise gives you the kick in the pants and the encouragement you need to keep writing. Find a smart, committed audience, and you will write more, revise more, and see improvements in your process. We writers spend a great deal of time alone with our thoughts. Finding a like-minded community of fellow writers to share these thoughts with also encourages us to develop our passion into a serious pursuit and to commit more fully to the writing life.

Freewrite Friday: The Favorite Page

2011-04-08T00:21:00.000-04:00

I love this exercise. Plain and simple. It's fun and productive--what could be better?

Choose a favorite book, an all-time top-10 favorite. Poetry, novel, whatever.

In that book, choose a favorite passage or page.

If you can't decide on a favorite, choose a particularly wonderful passage.

Read through it aloud and select between 8-10 especially wonderful words.

Don't think too much about it; let your gut, your ears, and your eyes decide.

Just make sure that some of them are verbs and nouns.

Now, open your writing notebook and write those words you selected at the top of a clean page.

Freewrite for at least half an hour, using as many of those words as possible in your writing.

Your passage need not have anything to do with the book you chose--

other than that it shares those same 8-10 words.

See where the freewrite takes you. If you begin something you like, keep going with it!

I have done many variations on this exercise, and it is one that has helped me enormously over the years. It can even work with a recipe in a cookbook or a passage from a book on gardening.

Let your imagination be your guide!

I'd love to hear from you, if you try this one out. Happy weekend, and happy writing!

P.S. Thanks to everyone who answered questions on my last post.

They have me thinking about some interesting exercises to share.

More on this soon.

The Good , the Bad , and the Beautiful--A Few Questions for You

2011-04-06T14:22:00.003-04:00

All this talk I've been doing about revision has me thinking about my own process, especially in terms of the problems I tend to face when tackling revisions. I have certain skills and strengths as a writer--a decent vocabulary, a good ear for rhythm, and an eye for detail--as well as a whole host of weaknesses, including, but not limited to, a tendency to care much more about character and setting than I do about plot, a tendency to stop just short of accessing the emotional depth a piece needs, and a habit of getting so caught up in describing an image that I lose sight of everything else. As I write this, I realize that many of my writing challenges are habits, which means that I can train myself to develop better habits. In fact, I think most writing problems and weaknesses can be eliminated or transformed into strengths, if one is willing to work.

I would love to hear from you about this. What are your biggest challenges and problems as a writer? What do you want to improve? Also, what do you like or even love most about your writing? Have you ever written a piece that you feel fantastic about? What is it, and why do you love it?

Can't wait to hear from you. I also can't wait to share this week's Friday Freewrite. It's a fun one! Oh, and I've got a tiny piece of writing over at The Magpie's Fancy today. Stop by if you need a lift.

Tuesday's Tip: Read It Aloud

2011-04-05T00:00:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned in last week's tip, I'm going to focus on revision quite a bit in the tips for a while, because it is arguably the most important part of writing. It is also the part that many writers want to avoid--or take a shortcut through, at the very least. There's no avoiding it, so the key is learning to love it and find as much pleasure in it as in those first golden flashes of inspiration. I do mean learning to love it. I think the more you do it, and the more it becomes part of your daily writing practice, the more you will find it exciting simply because you will watch as your writing improves; you'll begin to write things that surprise you. Revision takes the writer deeper than she ever dreamed she could go.

One of the first things I do when I'm revising a piece is read through the whole thing aloud. And then I do it again. And then, usually, several more times throughout the revision process. I do this for a few reasons:

The rhythms and patterns of the written word need to sound good to the ear. The better it sounds to the ear, the better it will flow for a reader. This has to do, in part, with the fact that when we read aloud, we are using our whole body. We're using the air that we breathe to help our bodies create a wide array of sounds, some that well up from deep within, like the "o" in "cold"; some that we form at the back of our mouths, like the "uh" sound in "hut"; and some that are just a soft, unvoiced (no vocal cord vibration) breath through closed teeth, like the "s" in "hiss." All those sounds matter. How we put them together matters. We'll talk about this much more down the line, but for now, be listening to those sounds, and be noticing from where in your body different sounds come. Vowels that come from deep within make a reader--even one who is reading silently--feel very differently from vowels that are formed in the throat, and those feel different from ones formed at the front of the mouth (like the "ee" sound in "wheee!").
When it comes to rereading our own work, our eyes are lazy. They often miss awkward phrasing, problems with organization, or places where a better word would make the sentence sing. Our ears are great tools for catching those problems.
Our lazy eyes also miss mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Working in partnership with the ears, they pick up many more of those little mistakes.
It's fun.

This tip helps to bring the revision process to life. To vary it, stand up while you read your work or read it aloud outside or in the kitchen--anyplace other than where you wrote it.

Another variation that I love is to have someone else read it aloud to me. So much will be revealed to you if you listen carefully that it can sometimes feel overwhelming. You'll hear beauty in your words where you didn't know there was any. You'll also hear the hiccups and roadblocks that you didn't know existed. The reader's voice and breath and pacing will help to guide you as you continue on with your revision process.

If you try this tip, please let me know how it goes!

Happy Poetry Month!

2011-04-03T00:00:00.001-04:00

April is National Poetry Month here in the United States, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite poems today to celebrate. I'll share a few more before the month is over. The photo above is one I took on Portobello Road in London. Sometimes laundry hanging on the line can be an inspiring thing, indeed, as you'll read in Richard Wilbur's poem.

Love Calls Us to the Things of This World

The eyes open to a cry of pulleys,
And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul
Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple
As false dawn.
Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.

Some are in bed-sheets, some are in blouses,
Some are in smocks: but truly there they are.
Now they are rising together in calm swells
Of halcyon feeling, filling whatever they wear
With the deep joy of their impersonal breathing;

Now they are flying in place, conveying
The terrible speed of their omnipresence, moving
And staying like white water; and now of a sudden
They swoon down into so rapt a quiet
That nobody seems to be there.
The soul shrinks

From all that is about to remember,
From the punctual rape of every blessed day,
And cries,
``Oh, let there be nothing on earth but laundry,
Nothing but rosy hands in the rising steam
And clear dances done in the sight of heaven.''

Yet, as the sun acknowledges
With a warm look the world's hunks and colors,
The soul descends once more in bitter love
To accept the waking body, saying now
In a changed voice as the man yawns and rises,

``Bring them down from their ruddy gallows;
Let there be clean linen for the backs of thieves;
Let lovers go fresh and sweet to be undone,
And the heaviest nuns walk in a pure floating
Of dark habits,
keeping their difficult balance.''

Richard Wilbur

Freewrite Friday: Can't Get You Off of My Mind

2011-04-01T00:00:00.001-04:00

One of the best ways I know to get the pen moving is to write about an obsession, a passion, a fascination, or, at the very least, a keen interest. Today's freewrite exercise capitalizes on this notion. The steps are simple, but the outcome can be quite fruitful. This one involves a warm-up before the actual writing begins.

Think of someone who fascinates you. It may be someone you know pretty well, someone you've only just met, someone you know in passing, or it may be someone you have seen but never met.
In your writing notebook, make a list of some of the tangible details about this person that fascinate you. They should be details that you can experience with one or more of your five senses.
Make a second list of some of the intangible things you either know or can guess at based on some of their tangible qualities. Don't worry whether these intangibles details are 100% accurate or not; feel free to embellish or fill in any blanks using your imagination. If you think of other tangible details as you're working on this list, feel free to go back and add them. Keep in mind as you work on both lists that not all of the details have to positive attributes. They can be negative as well--or even details about which you feel ambivalent.
Finally, on a fresh page in your notebook, write a scenario in which this person has to deal with some kind of problem. The scene you write may be based on an actual situation you witnessed/experienced, or it may be one that you invent. Either way, let some of the attributes from your two lists help you develop the character. Write for at least 30 minutes, but give yourself longer if you need it.

You may find that the more you write, the more this person on the page takes on a life of his/her own. In fact, by the time you are through, they may bear little resemblance to the person you were thinking of at the beginning of the exercise. In other words, you may have invented a fictional character. Most fiction has some foundation in the real people and events of our everyday lives. On the other hand, you may instead have created a very accurate portrait of the person who fascinates you. Either outcome can be useful, especially if it sparks a story idea!

A second version of this exercise is to follow steps 1, 2, and 3, but do them twice, once about a person you admire and once about a person you have more mixed feelings about--or even a person you dislike. Then, for step 4, try inventing a character who has some traits of each of those people.

As always, let me know how it goes, and feel free to share links to your exercise if you post it. I've been hearing wonderful stuff about last week's animal exercise. One writer, Anyes, shared her link, so you can find her exercise here. I especially love that Anyes is putting herself and her work out there, seeking feedback, and keeping her pen moving! A few others have promised to share links, too, so I will happily post them when they do.

Wishing you a happy weekend and happy writing!

Tuesday's Tip: Revise

2011-03-29T00:00:00.003-04:00

"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

~Elmore Leonard, Newsweek, April 22, 1985

"I have rewritten--often several times--every word I have ever written. My pencils outlast their erasers."

~Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory, Random House, 1966

"To be a writer is to sit down at one's desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone--just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again and once more, and over and over. It is to ring changes, not repeat, not fall onto a dead center."

~John Hersey, quoted in The Craft of Revision, by Donald Murray, Harcourt Brace, 1991

All of the quotes above come down to what Joyce Carol Oates says about revision: "The pleasure is the rewriting." Perhaps the biggest mistake beginning writers make is to think that after they've sat down and scrawled or typed some words onto a page, they have written a finished piece. Writing is nearly always a long process. Why is this so? It is so, in part, because two goals of good writing are clarity and beauty, and it is difficult to be both clear and beautiful on the first go-round. There may be moments of both, but there's usually quite a bit of excess to muddy the waters; or places where there's just not enough information for the reader; or places where everything is there, but it's all out of order; or places where the idea is there, but the writer hasn't found the best words to express it yet; or places where the writer hasn't dived down deep enough into the subject matter. Think of it this way: how often have you had a conversation--or an argument--and then after it's over you have wished you'd added something or omitted something or said something differently. L'esprit d'escalier, staircase wit, is something we've all experienced, but with writing we have the wonderful opportunity to go back in and say it better, be more brilliant, be more beautiful and clear.

Most revision works on several levels at once and requires several different kinds of actions from the writer. I'll be talking about elements of revision quite a lot in the coming days and weeks on The Magpie's Pen, because for me, writing comes down to two things:

Sitting down every day to write--no matter what--and producing new material as often as I can.
Re-seeing what I've written with fresh eyes. Re-vision is all about coming to the work new and making it as clear and beautiful as I can in terms of structure, word choice, concision, grammar and syntax, and depth of thought.

Of the two, I spend more time on revision. Like James Michener once said, "I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."

So, my tip today is this: be open to critique from good writers and good readers (including yourself), and be open to revising. If you're not sure about how to begin revising, keep checking back here. I'll be offering some practical advice on revising in the coming days and weeks.

P.S. I revised before I published this hub, and I've already come back and revised this once more since I published it. I'll probably revise it a few more times before I'm through!

Freewrite Friday: The Call of the Wild

2011-03-25T00:10:00.000-04:00

Today's Freewrite Friday prompt is simple:

Write for half an hour in your writing notebook about an animal.

The one rule is that the animal should not be a pet.

It should be an animal you have observed in the wild, on a farm, or even in a zoo.

Writing about animals is a great exercise for several reasons.

One, it gets us away from the habit of writing about ourselves;

two, it helps us stretch our imaginations and make leaps in empathy;

three, it challenges us to consider the existence of another being,

one who doesn't communicate with words.

It can be difficult to write about an animal without projecting ourselves and our own world views

onto the animal. Give it a try. Freewrite for at least a half an hour, but give yourself longer,

if the spirit moves you.

Also, if you need a warmup before you begin,

go for a walk and observe some animals,

maybe even take photographs.

Give yourself time to simply watch and listen quietly.

You may want to bring your writing notebook with you and write while you're there.

As always, let me know how it goes.

If you need a little inspiration,

you may want to read the poem I posted yesterday by Mary Oliver.

To new readers and followers of The Magpie's Pen, welcome,

and thank you for visiting. Happy weekend and happy writing!

Oh, and yes, that muskrat in the second photograph is sitting on a turtle.

The turtle didn't seem to mind. They stayed that way a long, long time,

and only moved when I made too much noise with my big human feet! :)

"Spring," By Mary Oliver

2011-03-24T02:35:00.000-04:00

Somewhere
    a black bear
      has just risen from sleep
         and is staring

down the mountain.
    All night
      in the brisk and shallow restlessness
         of early spring

I think of her,
     her four black fists
      flicking the gravel,
         her tongue

like a red fire
     touching the grass,
      the cold water.
         There is only one question:

how to love this world.
    I think of her
      rising
         like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against
    the silence
       of the trees.
         Whatever else

my life is
    with its poems
       and its music
         and its glass cities,

it is also this dazzling darkness
    coming
       down the mountain,
         breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her--
    her white teeth,
       her wordlessness,
         her perfect love.

Mary Oliver's "Spring" is from New and Selected Poems, Volume II, Beacon Press

Tuesday's Tip: Patience

2011-03-22T11:42:00.001-04:00

Image found here.

"Talent is long patience."

~Gustav Flaubert

I can't add much to Flaubert's words except to nod vigorously in agreement. Brilliant writers make it look easy, but it isn't. Just like brilliant basketball players or brilliant dancers, great writers practice every day. They suffer many setbacks and disappointments; they fail; they write cruddy, terrible drafts that no one ever reads (until after they are dead and some library or museum puts all their papers on display). Are some people born with more writing gifts than others? Yes, of course, but many of these gifts also can be acquired through practice and discipline: a good ear for dialogue, an eye for revealing detail, the memory of an elephant, a knack for grammar and syntax, and a capacity for boredom, which some might call patience. For, yes, much of writing is sitting in a quiet room for hours on end with no distractions and nothing for company except the drip, drip, drip of snow melting off the roof next door and the sigh of a lazy cat as he stretches in his sleep on the cushion beside your computer.

Not a born genius? Do not despair! Listen carefully to people when they talk, watch their gestures. Carry a writing notebook everywhere you go and jot down interesting details that you see or smell or hear or taste. Train yourself to dream up metaphors. Write them down. If a piece of fabric looks like it has an interesting texture, touch it, note how it feels between your thumb and forefinger. Schedule time nearly every day to write. If something isn't perfect on the first try--which it almost never is--revise. Then revise again--and again. If it takes months, so be it. If it takes years, so be it. Keep at it. Know that there are others of us out here who were not born geniuses. We may not be in the same boat, but we're all fishing on the same lake in the rain, casting our lines, practicing patience.

Freewrite Friday: Context (aka The Forest AND The Trees)

2011-03-18T11:29:00.000-04:00

The other day I was looking at this series of photos I took last year in London of a block of buildings near Spitalfields Market. As I sorted through the photos, I thought about the choices I'd made when I took them, and I realized that I often take photographs in much the same way as I write.

What I mean is that I am always thinking of context. If you glance at this series, you'll notice that I include a shot of the street and a couple of buildings; I also include a tighter shot of the crumbling, red and pink building because that's the one that really interests me. There are also some shots of its rather wonderful, decrepit door. I even included close-ups of parts of the door, its letter slot and knocker, as well as a photo of just a patch of the wall with its gorgeous peeling paint.

I've placed them in a descending order from big picture to close-ups here on the blog just for a sense of visual order, but when I took the photographs, I actually began by shooting the door, then the details, and finally the wider street view. That is generally how I experience things. I'll notice something, then I'll examine small details of the thing, then, finally, I'll examine the larger context in which it exists. (It might have something to do with being extremely nearsighted!) For me, the big picture nearly always comes last. I know people who take in the whole first and then begin to focus on smaller things, and some who do it more or less than others. Regardless of the order or the extent to which we create context, the fact that we do it is part of how we make sense of things in our everyday lives.

What does all of this have to do with writing? A great deal. When we write, we need to create context for the reader. I often think of my writing as a camera for the reader, zooming in for a close shot, a key detail, or back out for a much wider view to help them understand why that little detail matters so much. If we think photographically, or even cinematographically, when we write, we can always give the reader a world in which to exist, a setting, a sense of place. And when we do this, we are also creating tone and mood, and providing a backdrop against which to weave the essentials of character. If the writer knows and has internalized the context in which smaller details fit, the reader will know them, too, and whatever we are writing will come to life.

What I am describing works in fiction, creative non-fiction, and also poetry. So, with that said, here's a little freewriting exercise. Be sure to handwrite it in your writing notebook. If you like what you end up with, feel free to type it up and share it with me. I'll be happy to post it on the blog. Or, if you post it on your own blog, send me the link.

The Context Prompt

This exercise asks you to describe something in as much detail as you can; it asks you to begin with the broad picture and move gradually down to a very particular detail, or to begin with something very particular and move gradually to the broader picture.

Picture a place. It may be one that you imagine or one that you remember--or a combination of both. Keep it a manageable size: a room, a block on a city street, a back yard, a garden, etc. In your mental image of the place, try to experience as much as possible, using sight, touch, smell, hearing, and even taste.
In your writing notebook, you may want to even jot down a few notes about the place. In fact, if you are so inclined, you could sketch a picture of the place in your notebook.
When you are ready, open your notebook to a fresh page, and begin describing the place. The only rule is that you must describe it in a particular order. For example, if I were describing a certain living room, I could begin by giving an overall sense of the room, then move to slightly more particular details, like the color of the walls and the curtains. I'd gradually zoom in closer, describing the furniture, the smells and sounds, and then let my camera eventually zoom in all the way to a small, chipped figurine on the left side of the fireplace mantel. I would end by describing that figurine in detail. Or, I could begin with the figurine, and then gradually telescope out to the broader picture. One final option, which might be the most challenging, is to begin in the middle and move out in first one direction, then the other.
Whichever option you choose, you will likely discover that a mood will emerge as you write. You'll also find in many cases that one description will lead to the other without a lot of effort. The process of creating context helps us see how certain details matter, how they fit in relation to other details--and in relation to the whole.
Give yourself at least thirty minutes. If you can, give yourself longer. Please let me know how it goes!

Finally, a special thank you to everyone who offered comments on the last post. Anyone who reads those comments now has a new and incredibly intriguing reading list. Thanks, too, to everyone who has offered words of encouragement or has become a follower of The Magpie's Pen. Your enthusiasm is contagious.

Tuesday's Tip: The Foundation

2011-03-15T01:00:00.006-04:00

On Tuesdays I will be offering writing tips here at The Magpie's Pen, Some will focus on elements of craft and technique; others will be about inspiration and ways to make writing part of your everyday life.

"Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window." ~William Faulkner

This is the best writing tip I know. Some of you already read loads and loads of books a year. However, I know many people who want to be writers, but they rarely read books. Whenever a student has asked me for advice about becoming a writer, I've told him or her, "Write every day, and read more than you write." We cannot learn our craft without studying it. If you don't already, start carrying an interesting book with you every day in your purse, tote, or briefcase. If your life is hectic, schedule at least fifteen minutes a day for reading. Schedule it right into your day planner. Do the same for writing. Make reading and writing a ritual to look forward to each day.

What book(s) are you reading right now? Are there any current favorites you'd recommend? If so, why? It doesn't matter what they are--novels, poetry, self-help, biography, etc. I'd love to hear about them in the comments.

Beginning . . . and an Exercise

2011-03-10T14:34:00.013-05:00

Welcome to The Magpie's Pen! I am so glad that you've found me, and I'm excited to tell you about this new blog. If you read my bio, you will see that I'm a writer, an editor, and a teacher of writing. In addition to writing for print for two decades (mostly poetry, but also fiction and essays), I've been writing and taking photographs for my lifestyle blog, The Magpie's Fancy, for two years. The Magpie's Fancy grew out of my love of collecting vintage treasures, taking photographs, and obsessing about ideas, images, places, and people that possess a certain magic, a certain glow. While, like any magpie, I love a bit of flash and sparkle in my life, I believe that truly beautiful things shine from within, and those are the things that inspire me.

A couple of months ago, I began a series on the blog called Freewrite Fridays to offer inspiration to anyone who wants to start writing more regularly. As it turns out, lots of folks started trying the writing exercises I offered, and I began to feel the need to create a space just for the exercises, along with writing tips, inspiration, and other resources for writers. Thus, The Magpie's Pen was hatched.

I hope you'll come back to visit whenever you need a little writing pick-me-up. Every week I'll offer ways to keep your pen moving and your fingers typing, including:

how to get inspired and--the harder part--stay inspired
writing exercises and prompts (especially Freewrite Fridays!)
examples of great writing, and discussions about what makes them great
musings on the writing life
how to end writer's block once and for all (I never have it anymore, and you don't have to either)
ways to see the revision process as an adventure rather than a chore
how to seek guidance from other writers--and to give guidance in return
tips for submitting your work to editors . . . and pitfalls to avoid
guest posts from seasoned writers and editors
books about writing . . . and just good books in general (most good writers read even more than they write)
resources and links to journals, writing conferences, practical guides, grants, and writers' colonies
. . . whatever else strikes my fancy!

If there's anything else about writing that you would like to see on this blog, please drop me a line or leave a comment on one of the posts. I want to make this page as useful as possible.

Also, if you like the exercises and other resources you find here at The Magpie's Pen, and would like to find out about working with me one-on-one, visit my Tutoring page. You can also read testimonials from people who have worked with me to learn about my teaching style and my approach to the writing process.

And finally, here is this week's Freewrite Friday exercise. If you are new to Freewrite Fridays, click here for the complete list of all the previous exercises. It's good to begin with the Notebook exercise. After that, pick and choose the exercises that work for you!

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not

This week's prompt is very simple, but I think for some folks it will be quite fruitful.

Write about something you used to hate that you now love, or something you used to love that you now hate. It may be an actual object, a food, a place, an action or activity, a concept, a memory, or even a person. The possibilities are endless.
Be as specific as you can. Try to use as many of your five senses as possible as you write. Think about what changed for you and why. If you find yourself digressing, go with it and see where it takes you. You may find that you stay on topic or that the prompt is just a springboard to something else. Trust your gut and discover what you want to say as it happens.
Be sure to handwrite it in your writing notebook first, and then, if you end up with something you'd like to explore more, type it into your computer and continue from there.
Give yourself at least half an hour of uninterrupted time.
As always, if you write something you'd like to share, you can post it on your own blog and give us the link in the comments, or you can send me the piece you wrote, and I'll post it here next Friday. Speaking of which, click here to read a poem Shaista wrote on her blog. It was inspired by last week's exercise, Five Easy Pieces.

Last, but not least, I'll end with a quote that every writer should take to heart:

"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures.

Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it."

~ Will Durant