A Writer's Summer Plans: Personal Writing Classes

By Kate Phillips 

         If simply planning time to write isn’t enough motivation, if you are not going to Paris to write, or if you need some structured writing time, look into writing groups or classes.

If you cannot find any that work with your writing schedule, set up a class for yourself. Simply pick a genre. Find two or three helpful writing books in that genre that speak to you. Choosing the writing books will take some time and effort as there is no one perfect writing book for everyone so start looking now. Then decide on either one notebook for all your work or one notebook for each book.

         You can work with one book at a time or alternate after each chapter. I recommend at least two books to get different perspectives on the genre.

Here are some books I recommended. If I’ve written a review on The Writer's Crate blog (not this blog as many posts have the same published dates) the date appears after the author’s/editor’s name.

  

For overview:

The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction edited by Stephen Koch (8/5/13);

The Writer’s Home Companion: An Anthology of the World’s Best Writing Advice, from Keats to Kunitz edited by Joan Bolker, Ed.D., (12/3/12);

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg (6/2/14; 3/3/14; 9/17/12);

Lots of writing exercises:

The 90-Day Novel: Unlock the Story Within by Alan Watt (12/31/12; 1/7/13; 2/4/13; 3/4/13; 4/1/13);

The 90-Day Screenplay: A day-by-day guide through the process of getting your screenplay onto the page by Alan Watt;

The Writer’s Home Companion: An Anthology of the World’s Best Writing Advice, from Keats to Kunitz edited by Joan Bolker, Ed.D., 222 exercises on pp. 56-66, (12/3/12);

The five book series Now Write! with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers includes these topics:

Fiction edited by Sherry Ellis;

Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction edited by Sherry Ellis;

Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror edited by Laurie Lamson;

Mysteries: Suspense, Crime, Thriller, and Other Mystery Fiction Exercises edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

and Screenwriting edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

The Weekend Novelist: A dynamic 52-week program to help you produce a finished novel…one weekend at a time by Robert J. Ray (11/5/12);

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery: From empty page to finished mystery in just 52weekends—A dynamic step-by-step program by Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick (11/5/12);

 

Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse by Mary Oliver;

 

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron (Cheryl recommended it on 2/28/13);

Six-Word Memoirs edited by Larry Smith (9/10/12).

          Useful tools:

                   The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale (6/9/14);

                   The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus (6/9/14).

For novels:

The 90-Day Novel by Alan Watt (12/31/12; 1/7/13; 2/4/13; 3/4/13; 4/1/13);

Now Write! Fiction with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis;

You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts;

You Can Write a Romance by Rita Clay Estrada & Rita Gallagher;

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Laurie Lamson.

For poetry:

Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge (4/7/14);

 

Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse by Mary Oliver;

Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry by Sandford Lyne (9/23/13).

          For memoirs:

Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart—who recommends many other books, (8/26/13);

Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and Creative Nonfiction with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis.

          For screenwriting:

Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee (12/17/12);

The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby;

Now Write! Screenwriting with Exercises from Today’s Best Writers and Teachers edited by Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson;

90-Day Screenplay: A day-by-day guide through the process of getting your screenplay onto the page by Alan Watt;

Writing the Romantic Comedy: From “Cute Meet” to “Joyous Defeat”: How to Write Screenplays That Sell by Billy Mernit.
 

For songwriting:

Songwriting without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises for Finding Your Voice by Pat Pattison;

Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting Second Edition by Pat Pattison.

 

I’m setting up two classes for myself. I’ll be writing a screenplay and several songs this summer. You can read all about my preparation as well as how my two classes are going and some recommended screenplays in my next four posts.

Pick your genre. Choose your books. Set a schedule. Time to write!

    

Gifts for Writers

By Kate Phillips

 

        If you're looking for some gift suggestions for writers you know or for yourself, here are some of my favorites:

 

        Writers need time to write so ask family members for 30- or 60-minute Time-to-Write coupons. Redeem the coupons by posting them where you write and listing a start time.

 

        A timer to get yourself writing quickly. Works great with the Time-to-Write coupons!

 

Mascots to keep you company in your Writers' Crates. A gift of a stuffed dragon became my first mascot. I also have two small plastic dragons on my computer tower that make me laugh. They have such disapproving faces and body language that I feel compelled to keep writing whenever I stop and they catch my eye. I also have a deep blue solid glass turtle with a smooth shell that I hold sometimes when I am considering what to write next.

 

Quote posters and large quote transfer stickers to decorate the walls of your Writers' Crates. I love the "You're A Writer" mantra available at www.kmweiland.com. (Cheryl discovered this gem.)

 

Cheap notebooks so you feel free to write anything in them. Filling one a month, as recommended by Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones, is a great way to keep you writing on a regular basis.

 

        InkJoy pens come in bright, assorted colors. The ink does glob a bit, but they're cheerful, fun, and especially helpful when you don't feel like writing. Pilot V-Ball fine point pens are excellent everyday pens. (Not paid endorsements.)

 

Blank journals to use as common books where you copy down inspiring quotes and passages written by other writers or to record your Six-Word Memoirs—they're great warm-up writing exercises. Search Six-Word Memoirs online for details or buy the Six-Word Memoirs books.

 

        For book suggestions, I recommend all the books I wrote about in the Masterclasses and Reads for Writers categories on this blog as well as the 16 I listed in my post on 12/17/12. However, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott, and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield are hard to top. If I'd discovered/been given just those three books when I first decided to become a writer, I'd have felt invincible. In her first book, Goldberg reveals how to start living a writer's life with practical ideas and prompts. Lamott shows you the good, the bad, the funny, and the tough aspects of living a successful as well as a published writer's life. Pressfield keeps you writing with his advice and experiences on fighting through Resistance. There are no excuses not to finish your projects. It's a book I refer to whenever I feel myself faltering.

 

        As I think every writer should blog, I recommend Are You There Blog? It's Me, Writer by Kristen Lamb and Publishing a Blog with Blogger, second edition, by Elizabeth Castro (reviewed on 9/2/13).

 

        I'd specifically recommend Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (and her best seller Wild) by Cheryl Strayed (reviewed on 1/28/13) and Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart (reviewed on 8/26/13) as each author has a strong, unique voice that resonates with readers. I aspire to reach as deeply within myself and write from that place.

       

        Happy Holidays!

Beth Kephart Provides a Masterclass

By Kate Phillips

 

As a reader, I always love finding books that appeal to me. As a writer, I am twice as pleased when the authors also provide masterclasses within their books.

 

Masterclasses take place when performance artists and musicians work one-on-one with students. Writers don't generally have this option, but I have found some books to be masterclasses for characters, backstories, plots, settings, voice, and/or creativity.

 

 

        Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart is both a memoir of becoming a writer as well as an instructional book encouraging other writers to write memoirs. This is not a tell-all book, but a beautifully written show-all book.

 

        Kephart reveals how she became a National Book Award Finalist author. "A closet writer from early on with boxes filled with poems and submissions of short stories returned unpublished," she reads a memoir that changes her life in 1990, Road Song by Natalie Kusz.

 

        Enraptured with this book, she writes Kusz a letter through her publisher. In the reply… "I hadn't read memoir, hadn't written it, and then there was Kusz unveiling its mystery for me, explaining, by way of a thank-you, what a book like hers was designed to do. Writers are in the business of attempting to expose the human condition in such a way that our description resonates in the souls of other humans…Yes, I thought. I want to be in that business."

 

To get in that business, Kephart attends her first writing workshop while in Italy for a family vacation. "What I learned in Spoleto, what I chose to value or come to believe about myself, would shape the way I thought about stories made and lived every thereafter day of my life. It would make me want to find a way to pass the knowing down."

 

Kephart found her voice and a way to pass the knowing down. Author of eighteen other books, she illustrates this memoir with excerpts from memoirs she loves, views of other authors, and assignments from the writing students she now teaches. She sets the bar high for writers who want to get into this business, but also provides support, a few prompts, and numerous inspiring examples to help you along the way.

 

Her most important advice: read memoirs if you want to write memoirs. Kephart includes a 52-page in-depth appendix listing memoirs of note.

 

Handling the Truth is my favorite type of read. It stands on its own as a well-written book; it tells the story of a writer believing in herself; it includes insights, suggestions, and goals for other writers; and it recommends many other well-written books—a gift that keeps on giving!

 

 

Please recommend your favorite reads.