Rogers/Bentonville TUESDAY, September 15 6:30 p.m. Panera Bread
1320 SE Walton Blvd, Bentonville
Alison will discuss the topic of resistance as presented by Steven Pressfield (author of The Legend of Bagger Vance) in his book The War of Art.
Don't miss this interesting exploration of why you do what you do.
Eureka Springs
Thursday, September 17 5:00 p.m. Village Writing School (177 Huntsville Road)
Jean Emerson, publisher of Jacaranda Press and an experienced memoir instructor will be our guest speaker.
Jean is from San Jose, CA, where she teaches memoir writing classes and poetry in the schools.
Her poetry and award-winning short stories are widely published, and she has five published books including a guide for small writing groups.
From the Director . . .
Finding a Pattern for your writing life
"I'm trying to find my rhythm for this semester," he said, referring to his struggle to find time to write. He's a university professor and department head with two teenage sons.
Writing time is not easy to carve out.
The definition of "rhythm" is a strong, regular, repeated pattern. We don't want some when-I-get-around-to-it attitude. We must write regularly to finish anything.
As my friend wisely knew, you have to find what works for you.
Here are three things that work for me every week:
Cram the other stuff together. Maybe you've tried to set a writing time each day, but the other things you need to do scream at you until you can't focus. Try my trick. Think of your life as two categories: writing and everything else. Now try to group your other tasks together and stuff them into the shortest time possible. Maybe you won't write everyday. Maybe it'll take several days of dealing with other duties before you carve out a whole afternoon. But look at your week and group that other stuff together, then get it done so you can write for an afternoon. There's a principle: work expands to fit the time available. Don't give yourself unlimited time to clean, shop, or grade papers. Force those things into a time pen and slam the gate.
Go to bed. If you are really writing at night, ignore this.But most evening activities are mindless time-wasters like T.V. or Facebook. Whereas, morning time is supposedly our most creative because it is closest to the subconscious realm of sleep. I know there are morning people and night people, but try going to bed fifteen minutes earlier every few nights. See if you don't have more energy. Maybe you'll reach a place where you write early, but even if not, you'll get an earlier start on all that other stuff.
Think scenes. Some writers (Stephen King) set daily word count goals. I've stopped doing that. I think only of the next scene. My goal is to finish another scene this week and possibly start the next one. This scene is my only writing thought. I think of it all the time, even when I'm cooking for the dog. And then, I can't wait to put it on paper.
We're all different and each of us, like my friend, must find our writing rhythm. The important thing is to seek it until you find it.
Have some tips to share on living the writing life?
Email them to me.
(Reply directly to this newsletter.)
Village Writers ~~ Stronger & Better Together
Gail Pierce Larimer
Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad!
There are three ways to indent the
first line of a paragraph.
All work equally well when you are submitting your manuscript on paper but NOT when submitting electronically.
You can indent by
using your tab key to indent
selecting the indentation set-up in your Microsoft Word for an automatic first-line indention
using the space bar.
DO NOT USE THE SPACE BAR!! The paper manuscript is becoming a thing of the past. Today’s publishers focus on online submissions or attached Word documents.
If your piece is selected for publication, the publisher will reformat it. Only tab and software-formatted indentions will hold true in most conversions.
But, hey! Two out of three ain’t bad. The Chicago Manual of Style, in its comments on “cleaning up electronic files,” gives you a choice: “Multiple spaces used to create first-line paragraph and other indents should be replaced either with tabs or with software-defined indents (be consistent).”
There’s no ironclad guide to the number of spaces needed for indention of a paragraph’s first line but a half inch is accepted. Some editors do prefer that the first-line indent always be set by formatting the software (usually MS Word) to provide a half-inch (0.5 inches) indention from the left margin.
Here's how to do that:
Select Format at the top of the screen
Select Paragraph
Under Special, select First Line
Under By, type .5
Click OK at the bottom
You must do this before you begin to writeoryou must select all the text (Control A) before making the change, so that the entire document is formatted.
Practical advice and encouragement for everyone--but aimed at the fledgling writer. Covers everything from choosing what to write to self-promotion. A good reference.
-- Nancy Harris, VWS Librarian
W e bOn Writing
If you missed these last year, they're still great.
It took me fifteen years to discover
that I had no talent for writing,
but I couldn’t give it up because
by that time I was too famous.
—Robert Benchley
Meet a Village Writer - Candy Prudhomme
Candy is a quilter, needleworker, golfer, pianist, mixed media artist, and sometime poet whose muse finds her on occasion.
Candy is often found in the company of daughter and fellow writer, Alexx Hart, at Crystal Bridges or scrabbling up rocks. Her poetry has been published in multiple venues.
We first met Candy at our Crystal Bridges workshop, and she has since taken several workshops in Rogers. She has a great blog about her art in progress.
Eureka Springs
Maumelle/Little Rock
Rogers/Bentonville
Fayetteville
WNO in Eureka rocked
last Thursday . . .
when each member of our first memoir group shared something of their stories and their calls to write them.
Then Eureka writer Helga Dietzel read the opening scene from her memoir, a terrifying journey as an eight-year-old to escape Germany after the war.
Helga's reading prompted Little Rock writer Aurora Huston, whose
own memoir begins with her journey as a child from the Philippines in the aftermath of WW2, to comment on the role of memoir in forgiveness.
If you don't come to WNO, you're missing some great discussions.
We were delighted to present San Francisco Sufi poet and author Tamam Kahn at Caribe Cantina in Eureka Springs Sunday night.
Tamam discusses the research necessary to write her poetry about Fatima, daughter of Mohammed.
Beautiful
writer's desk
FOR SALE.
Top quality. Excellent condition. 72" x 36"
File drawers on each side. Includes glass top.
$250 or best offer.
(Reply directly to this newsletter.)
Here's an Idea!
Pick up a poster at one of our workshops and put it up on the fridge or by your desk so you can easily keep up with the dates.
The MISSION of the Village Writing School is to foster a vibrant literary community in Arkansas and
to provide resources for ALL writers who seek to improve their craft.
Become a FRIEND of the Village Writing School
Donate as Little as $10 per Month
WE GROW THROUGH YOUR SUPPORT
THANK YOU TO OUR 2015 FRIENDS: David Auernheimer, Tandy Belt, Wendy and David Carlisle, Jean Elderwind,Crow Evans, Alice French, Valerie Fondetti, Linda Harrison-Gracia, John & Nancy Grosella, Gary Guinn,Nancy Harris, Kate Lacy, Shirley Lamberson, Gail Pierce Larimer, Judith McCartan, Richard Schoe, Shiva Shanti, Greg Sherar, Cris Senseman, Ken and Debbie Smith,
Maryanne Humm Van Dyke, Judith Ulch, Brent Wendling
The Village Writing School is a 501c3 organization.
You are receiving this email because you asked to be kept informed about writing workshops and coming events.
Publisher: Alison Taylor-Brown
Editors: Alice French & Jessie Rex
Finding a Pattern
