December 25, 2012

Dear friends and writers, for whom I am so thankful:

Merry Christmas! I hope you are decorating gingerbread houses or opening gifts or sleeping late instead of reading this newsletter first thing in the morning. (I’m not up writing it – I found an email program that I could set up to send it today…) Next Tuesday I’ll introduce the shared weekly writing project for the new year. A hint: it’s focused on the idea of inspiration.

Happy year to you and thanks for reading,

Elisabeth

PROCESS: THE RELUCTANT BODY

What if the reluctant body refuses to get into the chair, or if in the chair, refuses to write? This happens to everyone at some point. What I do first is read. Often I opt for books about the writing process, but most recently it has been an odd pair of books: one by Collette, the French writer whose sentences are as beautiful as anyone’s I’ve ever read (possibly excepting F. Scott Fitzgerald); and then a manual on how to organize a home. For some reason these two get me excited again. Maybe it’s because they touch the two parts of writing: the simple beauty and lushness of each word, and then the masterminding organization that is required to pull a work together into a coherent, internal order. But if the books don’t work, I step away and go do something else. The body who wants to write will always find its way back to the desk, when it feels ready.

Try this: Be kind to yourself if you don’t feel like writing. When you are ready, you will write.

FEATURED VENUE: SOMEBODY IN YOUR LIFE

One of the primary reasons we write is to connect with others. It is not accidental that most books are dedicated to a “you” (the May 22 Tuesday Writer spoke to this). Using print-on-demand technology, or a pen on a piece of origami paper, put something you have written into tangible form and give it to somebody else. 

Print-on-demand websites: lulu.com OR a thousand other ones.

PROMPT: CREATE YOUR OWN

This idea was a gift to me from Kelly Lynae Robinson, Boise songwriter, who in turn learned it from Michael J. Bugeja’s book, The Art and Craft of Poetry: make a three-columned list of the highlights, lowlights, and turning points in your life. Each one is a prompt, tailored to you and you alone. Give yourself one of these prompts every Tuesday, or any time you have a spare 8 minutes and feel like writing.