The Girls in the Basement

Circles of Quiet, a workshop for working writers

Circles of Quiet

An anonymous workshop for published writers—for nourishment, recommitment, reinvention and support.

 

Start date:  June 16, 2008*

Length: 8 weeks

Price: $200

 

To reserve your place, email me.

 

(As always, I am happy to make arrangements for payment, and there will be two scholarships awarded. If you would like to be considered for a scholarship, simply email me .)

BACKGROUND

Over and over, I have heard tales of frustration from writers who have been in the game a long time, sometimes a very long time, who wanted to have the freedom to talk about their problems and concerns in a safe environment.

This will be as anonymous as it is possible for any gathering to be. I can't make any guarantee that no one will ever guess your identity, but as a teacher, I will protect your privacy as carefully as a priest(ess). Only I will know who you are. You will join the class through me, but then you will take a new email address under whatever name you like, and join the group email list in that name. In this way, writers can feel free to talk about the challenges of life as a working writer without fear of repercussions.

Each week, I’ll post topics for discussion, and perhaps exercises, and then help facilitate discussion. It’s is meant to be a give and take—your experiences and ideas are important to the process. The goal is to help each writer renew and recommit to writing.

Some of the subjects for discussion are:

 

Self-esteem: how do you keep your sanity in a business like this? Burn-out, exhaustion, and disaster—tricks to manage the pitfalls.

Clearing the decks: remembering the original lure into the writing business. What to keep? What to cast to the seas?

Particulars: individual challenges.

Celebration:  really, it’s a great life in a lot of ways (as I'm sure everyone tells you as much as they tell me). Developing a habit of gratitude and awareness.

Pressure: business pressure, family issues, juggling outside influences.

Staying in the game: Flexibility, reinvention, and disaster.

Manifesto and connection: honoring yourself and your passions while also honoring the need to make money.

*I’ve settled on these dates in particular so that those writers attending the RWA conference in July will have a bridge, before and after, to help navigate what can be both exhilarating and crushing, depending on what happens.

 

Questions? Concerns? Email me.

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Angela7Dreams

Expanding your dream of travel

Last night, I happened to read an exercise in The Way of the Traveler, by Joseph Dispenza.  In it, he writes about an exercise for potential travelers dreaming of a new destination.   He asks you to imagine you have been handed an envelope stuffed with tickets and money. Where will you go?  Where is your soul drawn?

Take the time to write down some of your dream destinations--and how being in those place would deepen your experience of living.

And this is from me:  if you don't have a passport, you owe it to yourself to get one.  Make it a priority. 

Money affirmation

I remember early in my career waiting for some check or another that was not arriving in a timely manner, or maybe it was a possible royalty check and I didn't know how much it would be, and I was trying to affirm it arriving before some need became too intense.  My sister, who was at the time a mortgage banker, said, "I just don't know how you live like that."

Often, a writer's life is financially...mmmm....unpredictable. Learning to live with that is part of the challenge of choosing this path.   Affirmations make a difference.  Don't ask me why.  I have no idea.  But they help.  They work. At the very worst, they make us feel better.

Affirmation of the day, this one from Carolyn See's Making a Literary Life:

Money comes to me now in expected and unexpected ways.  Write it ten times, five days in a row. 

Go outside and play

It is a vividly bright day this morning, sun shining on freshly fallen snow, the Peak crisply cocked against a balloon sky.  The house is quiet.  The tree has been dismantled, the beds stripped, the fridge and cupboards cleared of all dangerous treats (well, except that one bottle of rum.  Oh, and the verpoorten advocaate which my friend Renate brought for a little New Year's Day party we had here.  And three candy canes.) 

Yesterday, I finally trundled my way back to the gym, with a new goal to learn how to swim more efficiently.  It's good for the shoulders and neck, which get so tight during all those hours at the computer.  I'll get back to yoga classes tomorrow, too.  I've been hiking and walking the dogs, but that's a challenge with the icy paths and streets (especially since Jack is still in recovery from knee surgery), and it's not been enough.  I like to be active.  Not for health benefits, though that's a nice side effect.  Not for weight loss, though it does mean I can eat more.  Not for any reason except that it feels good. I was never an athletic child--I was particularly horrible at team sports involving balls--but I loved walking forever with my grandmother.  I loved riding my bike all over the neighborhood and climbing ropes and spending as much of the day as possible at the local swimming pool and skating at Roller Rena with my dad, who as a beautiful skater and swimmer.  It felt good, especially as the rest of the time, I was curled up in a chair, utterly still, reading.  And reading. And reading. 

The statistics are out again, about modest exercise and what it can do for you.  Simple things. Walk a half hour.  Swim a little while.  A woman I know is losing weight like crazy by rollerblading, and I seriously want to get some outdoor skates (not rollerblades for me, thanks, but check these out) for spring.  I've been swimming again because I did love it so much as a child. 

And for the record, I am not particularly good at any of these things (well, skating. I am good at that.)  I splash around the swimming pool like five little kids.  I jog so slowly that turtles zip right by me. My hiking buddy, who is a decade older than I, routinely has to slow down while we are hiking.   

But writers have a very, very, very sedentary job and we have to consciously add movement.  It makes the work better.  It keeps repetitive motion injuries to a minimum, and it allows time for ideas to percolate. 

Everything out there is telling you to lose weight for the new year.  I don't care how much you weigh.   I do care about how healthy you are. If you are not moving, what is stopping you?  Do you feel embarrassed to do something badly?   Take a lesson or two.  Is it too cold/hot where you are? Find something you can do indoors.  What kind of exercise feels like play to you? Did you, like me, swim and roller skate?  Did you love to play softball at the corner lot?  Did you ride your bike forever and ever and ever?

What are some ideas for exercise that is PLAY?  What do you love to do? (And if you like something hard, that's great.  I want to test myself hiking some more 14ers this summer.)

Tuesday Affirmation

Here is an easy, cheerful affirmation for a Tuesday morning:

I believe in brilliant surprises.

2008 classes set to begin

Welcome.   The pages here are still under construction, but I am working to get the class schedule for 2008 posted.   Email me with any questions or concerns.