Class begins

Goals, ,

Thursday was the first class of the Wild Angels Poets and Writers group. True to tradition there was a major storm that day. Despite the cold, the wind and massive amounts of rain nine people showed up to recommit to their writing.

There are folks who do well all by themselves. They are excellent self-motivators who can work hours alone and not give in to depression, sadness or defeat. I know a few people like that and I do admire them tremendously. I can spend hours alone. But I do need to come out of the cave and interact with people and get some feedback.

Where do you stand? Can you go it totally alone, or, do you need some interaction like a shot of B12 to get you energized?

I have been running the writers group for nine years. This fall begins our tenth and final year for this particular workshop. Many talented writers have come and gone over the course of the group. We have lost over five people to illnesses. The group mourns these losses. We mourn the loss of a particular poetic voice that we will never hear from again.  We have had really new writers, experienced writers, crazy writers, sweet & kind writers. We have had writers who hated everything we offered them. We have had writers who wanted us to pick them out of the crowd and make them more special then anyone else. Those writers leave in a huff, writing group emails to complain about us.

Then we have the writers who are so happy to be there. They are so happy to have a place to share their work. These are the writers who have something so profound to say it has taken them a lifetime to feel safe enough to share their work publicly.

At some point one or two of our favorite writers become the kind of writes who can work totally on their own.  The experience has given them the confidence to go off and write.

This past Thursday, while the wind and rain raged, we gathered to share work and discuss goals. Since this is our last year we are asking them to go big. Choose a huge goal and use the group as a support to achieve their dream.

No matter what kind of writer you are must develop a thick skin and keep an open heart. Choose a big goal and go for it. Take a risk today and see what happens tomorrow.

An Anti-Grammarian

Writing, ,

Right off I am going to let you know if you love grammar you are going to hate me. I am a anti-grammarian.

After 10 years of facilitating a writing program I’ve come to develop a deep dislike for grammar. I want to love grammar and what it can do to enhance writing. I want to love it as a technique that moves writing from boring to scintillating. I want to love grammar and the way it can frame a piece of writing and hold it all together. I want to love grammar the same way I love the technique an artist uses to create a great work of art. Grammar, right now, I am mad at you. Here’s why.

Ten years ago I co-created a writing group so that a bunch of us could share our work and get some feedback. The group evolved into a workshop format with an instructor, homework, and a reading at the end of the season. The group attracts new writers and writers who are shy about their work. A writer, nervous about their work, comes in and reads a heartfelt story. The emotion in the room is palpable. The feedback is, “in the second paragraph, it should be semi-colon not a colon”. What? The person just gave us an incredible piece about their life as an adoptee and what you noticed is the semi-colon?

I edit an anthology each year with two friends who have told me the grammar of a piece is more important then the content. That is what frustrates me about people and grammar. Grammar becomes a cultish devotion that seems to forget the craft it serves. I read a lovely piece about how Shakespeare used the language to add the pauses and inflection needed.  English grammar did not yet exist for him.

I want to love grammar, but I want to love the content of writing more. I want to love grammar as a tool that helps to clarify and move a piece along.

I will pick up my grammar books again. One day I will love the semi-colon and eradicate a dangling particple. In the meantime, I keep reading and loving the words.

Grammar, we will be friends.