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!

    

A Writer's Paris by Eric Maisel

By Kate Phillips

Eric Maisel has penned a fabulous love letter about Paris and all her charms to every writer in the world. After reading A Writer’s Paris: A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul, most of us will want to jump on a plane leaving for France immediately. Maisel makes us believe it’s not only possible, but essential for all writers to go there and write.

If you can plan, save, risk, and believe, Paris is yours….you can not only go to Paris—you can make your writing dreams come true. (page 96)

Who doesn’t dream of sitting at an outdoor café table writing for half the day then picking up your notebook and pen and heading for a bench in a tiny park square known only to locals or the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore for more inspiration? Generously, Maisel shares his favorite writing spots all around the city.

 Each time I arrive in Paris I head directly for the Place des Vosges, the most beautiful square in the world…Once discovered, it becomes a place to be remembered. A working artist can spend whole days there—writing, soaking up the ancient and the contemporary…it is lively, quiet, shady, safe, inviting and gorgeous. (page 5)

 …I like to write at the Gallieni bus station…Every few minutes a drama unfolds. (page 34)

 If you are serious about going to Paris, a Planning Checklist is thoughtfully provided on pages 195-200. Published in 2005, some of the information will be out of date, but it includes goals, costs, and housing tips to ensure a “perfect” visit. (See also pages 91-97.) Locations for bookstores, markets, cafés, day trips, museums, parks (see also pages 85-90), and fun places for children and families are listed on pages 201-210, (more family fun is discussed on pages175-178), followed by Resources for Planning Your Trip on pages 211-213. Researching Paris Online information is listed on pages 98-101.

 While partially a guidebook to amazing sites, A Writer’s Paris really guides you to go there to write.

…Paris is the place you go when you mean to put your creative life first…Paris feeds an artist, motivates her, galvanizes her…Paris is the place to write. Since it is the perfect place to write, it is the perfect place to commit to writing…make Paris one of the stopping points on your creative journey… (pages 1-4)

…Come to this perfect park [the Jardin Saint Gilles Grand Veneur]—not to have your heart broken, but to write poignantly and well. Perhaps, close to tears, you will conjure up something beautiful… (page 88)

I love A Writer’s Paris although readers may not agree with all the author’s opinions. However, his passion for writing in Paris shines through.

The black and white illustrations and photographs are eye-catching on the heavy-stock, glossy pages. When I read it, I’m transported to Paris ready to write. I only wish the cover and monochromatic splashes of color inside the book had been more tailored to the City of Lights. Instead of the dull mustard gold, why not a vibrant green representing springtime in Paris or an electric French blue? The beauty of Paris is one of the author’s themes. A lovelier color would have better complemented his vision in this otherwise gorgeous book many will reread any time they feel the need to get away and write—or use as a guidebook should they be lucky enough to find themselves writing in Paris.

 

Plan to Write!

By Kate Phillips 

Summer means more sunshine and, therefore, longer days. Does this equate to more writing time? Only if you plan for it.

          If you have children, maybe they’re going to day- or sleepaway camps. At the very least, hopefully, they will be playing outside more. There’s some good writing time during the day and some at night as the kids should be tired and go to bed earlier or maybe they will sleep in.

I read in a magazine about three couples who rented one cabin for six weeks. All of their kids stayed at the cabin for the entire six weeks. However, the couples stayed one at a time spending their two weeks’ vacation in fun chaos there, but the other payoff was a month at home childfree—plenty of time to rest, relax, and write!

Now plan a summer writing schedule taking into account your significant others and your responsibilities. Your writing schedule should be reasonable. You can always write more, but you don’t want to over plan and then feel like you failed.

Your writing time is your own. Write using a laptop or notebook on a deck or patio, or under trees, or on a beach, or poolside, or at cafés, or at your desk—whatever feels right for you. The important thing is to write.

I highly recommend having a copy of The War of Art: Breakthrough the Blocks and Win Your Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield nearby. Having trouble getting started? Randomly open and read this book until you are inspired. I have a copy in every place I write. (See posts on 8/30/12, 12/2/13, and 12/17/12.)

Plan to write!

 

A Cup of Comfort for Writers edited by Colleen Sell

By Kate Phillips 

 

          Even if writing is a better way to spend your day, it can be difficult and frustrating. Sometimes we just need a few words of encouragement, support, or inspiration to keep us motivated. Having A Cup of Comfort for Writers: Inspirational Stories that Celebrate the Literary Life edited by Colleen Sell on a shelf nearby can help.

          Writers write for a variety of reasons. Writers who continue to write in spite of obstacles, rejection, and loss are inspiring. These are their stories.

          This is a book of short essays you dip into. I like to open anthologies like these randomly and read until I’m ready to write if I can’t get started or if I’m questioning myself. Writing is solitary work, but support is essential. Take it where you can get it.

          If you believe in signs from the universe, read “Hummingbird’s Journey” by Cassie Premo Steele on page 1. If you want to believe in yourself, enjoy “The Day I Turned Scarlett” by Kathleen Gerard on page 49. If you live with other people who interrupt your writing time, learn from “A New Point of View” by Samantha Ducloux Waltz on page 76. And if you want to see family support for writers in action, “The Write Mother” by Judy L. Adourian on page 269 teaches many wonderful lessons.

          Every essay offers wisdom, views from other paths taken, and /or moments all writers can relate to—good and bad. Being a writer isn’t easy, but it’s the choice we’ve made. We are in this together. Sharing our experiences makes the choice clearer and our resolve stronger.

          I received this book as a gift from a writer friend. I will be giving copies as gifts to other writer friends. It’s that kind of a book.

Please note: If you read my post on The Tightrope Walker / graphology dated 4/6/15, I discussed the literary trait in handwriting—any e’s and cursive lowercase r’s that look similar to a reversed 3. On the cover of A Cup of Comfort for Writers, three of these r’s appear in “for Writers”.

 

Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit by Richard Bach

By Kate Phillips

 

          Richard Bach has written about two dozen books, most of which I’ve enjoyed, but my favorite is Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit.

From the back cover: If the child-we-were asked us today for the best we’ve learned from living, what would we tell, and what would we discover in return?

          How would you answer?

If you take this up as a writing prompt, it’s an enlightening experience. You might want to set aside an entire notebook or two to complete it.

In Running from Safety, Richard Bach has written a first-person mystical tale where the child he was is a 10-year-old character named Dickie. Together they reminisce, argue, discuss, agree and disagree about the past, present, and future. Richard is astonished to discover what he has forgotten or rewritten in his mind about his childhood.

As he considers Dickie’s observations and questions, both mundane and profound, he defends and explains himself. Even if the questions are painful, the child demands honesty. Bach's soul-searching answers contain mind-expanding wisdom.

The insights shared include:

“…Childhood was not something I was much trained to treasure. The point was to get through it. Learn as much as you can along the way, but hunch in, hold your breath, coast down that long powerless hill of dependence till you’re rolling fast enough to pop the clutch and start your engine on your own.” (page 49)

…Never had I understood that I command, with absolute authority, the ship of my life! I decide its mission and rules and discipline…I’m master of a team of passionate skills to sail me through hell’s own jaws the second I nod the direction to steer. (page 106)

“Like attracts like. It’ll surprise you as long as you live. Choose a love and work to make it true, and somehow something will happen, something you couldn’t plan, will come along to move like to like, to set you loose, to set you on the way…” (page 204)

          No! I thought. Don’t tell me that my security comes from somebody else! Tell me I’m responsible. Tell me security is a by-product of the gift I give of my skill and my learning and my love into the world. Tell me security comes from an idea given time and care. I claim this for my truth, no matter how many stable solid paychecks might come from the Accounting Department…Dear God, I thought, don’t give me a job, give me ideas, and let me take it from there! (page 214)

“…We build our personal world calm or wild according to what we want to live. We can weave utter peace in the midst of chaos. We can destroy in the midst of paradise. Depends on how we shape our spirit.” (page 222)

“Marriage is like nothing else you’ll ever live…brought together by miraculous magnetizing, found by incredible coincidence, soulmates discovered in the mystery of romance, you still have to work out problems together. Fascinating problems, it’s true, spicy tests lasting year after year, but lose romance and you lose the power to go on through hard times… (page 261)

 “Everything in the world of my consciousness, which is the only world that exists for me on earth, gets there through my consent…” (page 274)

          “…What matters, though, is how I use what I know every minute of every day; how I use it to remember… (Page 311-312)

          Running from Safety is one of the books I reread every few years because I get more out of it each time I consider Bach’s thoughts:

          How come we don’t know the answers until we find the question[s]… (page 140)

“…You don’t want a million answers as much you want a few forever questions. The questions are diamonds you hold in the light. Study a lifetime and you see different colors from the same jewel. The same questions, asked again, bring you just the answers you need just the minute you need them.” (page 141)

Who couldn’t use those questions?


 

Waiting for My Life by Linda Pastan

By Kate Phillips

          April is Poetry Month. While poetry in general may not be of interest when you are reading for fun, reading it is a wonderful way to improve your writing.

          Poets have unique ways with words. Reading their poems make me want to expand my writing vocabulary. I know many more words than I use. Writing poetry gives me a place to put them. No one has to know you write poems, long or short, in your notebooks. They are merely writing exercises. In fact, you can just write fragmented phrases as they come into your mind.

Poets convey thoughts and emotions in mind-bending ways. I always look at the world differently after reading poetry. I write differently, more deeply, too.

          I highly recommend writers read poetry by Billy Collins and Mary Oliver. (See posts dated 1/24/14 and 4/28/14 respectively.) And this year I recommend Waiting for My Life by Linda Pastan.

          Read "Secrets" on page 12. The first line: The secrets I keep from myself…tell me you couldn’t fill pages and pages with that writing prompt. It’s the core of a novel or play.

          Her poem, "Elegy", on page 24 shares where misplaced words never written down lurk and tarry.

          Trees are gnarled magicians in her poem, "November", on page 54.

          While words and images are the heart and soul of poetry, the presentation on the page adds to the impact. See the poem “blizzard” on page 59 where short lines pile up upon each other just like snow.

          Read poetry. Write poetically.

Writing poetically requires an open mind, observing eyes, and an expanded vocabulary. Deeper impressions appear on the page.

See what you can create using these tools.

 

 

The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman led to the study of graphology

By Kate Phillips 

           We all remember the stubby pencils we were given in school and the really wide-ruled paper with the extra dashed lines so we would learn where lowercase letters mostly started. Posted on the wall was the alphabet written A a B b C c D d…Z z so we had a model to follow as we copied the letters on our pages. Soon we could write our own words down. A few grades later, we learned cursive, switched to pens, and then the fun began.

          Printing is useful, but cursive is beautiful. I loved everything about writing in cursive. I loved pens more than pencils. I loved all the colors of ink though I mostly used blue and black. I loved the embellishments that made my handwriting unique. And I loved that I could write almost as fast as I thought.

          Everyone’s handwriting should be uniform. We all learned the same alphabet with the same standard letters. Yet once we graduated to cursive, we went our own ways: easy to read or difficult, large or small letters, slanted or straight up. We wrote in ways comfortable to ourselves.

I never thought any more about it than that until I learned about graphology, the analysis of handwriting.

          I was reading The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman—a murder mystery that starts with a written clue found hidden inside a hurdy-gurdy. Needing more information than just the words in the note, the lead character decides a graphologist’s opinion would be helpful.

          I had never heard of a graphologist, but I thought it was a fascinating profession. After I finished the book, I looked up graphologists to see if there were any nearby. There were five in the closest big city and one was a woman so I called her.

          I explained to her that I had just finished a book with a graphologist as a character and that I was interested in learning more about graphology. As most people do when they are passionate about a topic, she started to explain what she did. I asked her how she was trained, who hired her, and what she could tell about people she’d never met.

We talked for about twenty minutes. Then she said she would examine my handwriting if I filled out a form and mailed it back to her which I did. Her analysis was spot on and I was hooked. I signed up for a class on graphology immediately and bought books on the subject. I learned how to “read” handwriting. Graphology is an amazing, insightful field of study.

When I worked as an accountant, one of my bosses discovered an embezzler. I didn’t know about graphology then, but I remembered the person wrote with very unusual o’s. They were more like upside down u’s, open at the bottom. I had never seen this before. While I was studying graphology, I discovered this can be a handwriting trait of an embezzler.

The way you write your letters like m’s, k’s, capital I’s, etc. is revealing as is the overall look of your handwriting. Slant, size, and strength (how deep is the impression on the paper) can tell how empathetic, detail-oriented, and emphatic you are among other things. There is a literary trait in handwriting, too—any e’s and cursive lowercase r’s that look similar to a reversed 3.

Graphology is a great tool for learning about character traits in general as well as in people you need to deal with on a regular basis. This knowledge can help you get along better with them.

So dot your i’s and cross your t’s then study how others do the same. The similarities and differences are illuminating.