Round Robin Blog Fest Jan 21 2023

 

Round Robin Blog Fest Jan 21 2023 

Yeah! We’re back! I hope you and all of my Round Robin friends had a great holiday season and are ready for this great new year. Thank you to Skye for taking charge to keep all these birdies in line and to Marci for the great new logo!!

What is the topic for January 21^st?

New Beginnings - how do you motivate yourself to get back to writing when life has interrupted your flow and/or, how do you begin a new writing challenge?

Interesting enough,  I have always found writing has helped me through a lot of interruption in my life. If circumstances block my creativity, I continue to write by journalling. Emptying my mind as Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way likes to call it by using Morning Pages. Having been through some major life changes in the past 7 or 8 years, writing is what has helped me keep my sanity. Kept me moving forward even on days I wanted to quit.

As for beginning a new writing challenge, I find for me the beginnings are always easy. Words and ideas tend to flow and not always when I consciously feel inspired. Sometimes, they seem to come out of nowhere.

·      A lyric from a song

·      A line in a movie or book

·      Something overheard in a conversation

·      A news story

·      A situation or interaction between people on the street

Any of these might set my writer’s brain into a tizzy of words and suddenly a first chapter is born. Then a second. Then a third.

Next thing I know, it’s a novel—or well on its way to being one.

If you've ever read Natalie Goldberg's book, Writing Down the Bones, you'll know how she espouses the joys of writing about anything and everything. "Write what's in front of your nose." I've recently started taking a virtual workshop with her and the very first thing we wrote about was mashed potatoes. For 10 minutes. Imagine what you could do with 15! 

It sounds simple enough but sometimes that novel is born 15 minutes at a time rather than in 2-3 hour blocks. Some days, 15 minutes may be all the clarity or time you have.

Use it.

Give yourself a few moments to escape whatever is going on in your life and take a mini break.

Those 15 minute increments will add up over a few weeks, months, and years.

Suddenly, you’ve written a book.

Just don’t give up!

Shut up. Sit down. And write!

Let's see how the other authors in the blog fest motivate themselves and what advice they have. Feel free to hop from one fantastic author to the next!

Marci Baun                https://www.marcibaun.com/blog

Dr. Bob Rich             https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2OQ

Anne Graham           https://goo.gl/h4DtKv

Connie Vines            http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator              https://dbator.blogspot.com/

A.J.  Maguire            http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/

Victoria Chatham     http://www.victoriachatham.com

Fiona McGuire         http://www.fionamcgier.com/

Skye Taylor              http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

 

 

Who Would You Love to Work With as a Mentor? (Part 2)

 

Happy Friday the 13th!!

While I'm sure no one has lost sleep over whether or not I signed up to take Natalie Goldberg's virtual Writing Down the Bones course, I wanted to follow up! 

I DID IT!

This is my early, early, early birthday present to myself since the odds of me taking a trip anywhere this year is slim. Why not feed my brain and soul?

The fun part is I've already been meeting other classmates and we have options to form our own group to share work and encourage each other. Should be fun! I'll start to dig into the videos soon!

Hopefully, you have also discovered a mentor. Someone who can encouage you along your path no matter what that may be.

Have a wonderful weekend and feel free to comment and join me on my facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/dianebatorauthor/

Diane

Who Would You Love to Work With as a Mentor?

And now for something completely different!

We all have idols and people we look up to, but who would you choose as a mentor?

I know who I would choose!

The very first writing book I ever owned was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law and his wife way back in 1993. It was a copy of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. Dog-eared now and covered in notes and highlights, it is still one of my favorite books and I’d always dreamed of joining one of her workshops even though going to Santa Fe wasn’t something I could afford. The dream lingered.

Fast forward to 2007. Since receiving that book, I have moved across Canada from Alberta to Ontario and, in order to meet some like-minded people, joined a writing group that uses Ms. Goldberg’s teachings as a template to run their meetings. It’s the closest opportunity I have to actually attending one of her workshops, so it’ll do.

Then along came Covid and things changed. Some of them for the better!

Just the other day I found a link from Prajna Studios, a division of Shambhala Publications, about a virtual Writing Down the Bones webinar featuring my dream mentor—you guessed it!--Natalie Goldberg.

“Yeah. Right. It’s going to cost a fortune,” I told the link, but clicked on it anyway.

Up came a video with Natalie sharing three key points that came to guide and anchor her writing life over the past decades. The video was a little hard to hear but in a nutshell, they are:

1.        Continue under all circumstances.
2.          Don’t be tossed away.
3.          Make positive effort for the good.

Trust me, everyone who clicks on the link gets to hear them. I’m not giving away deep dark secrets!

The deeper into the rabbit hole I dug, the more I realized I could actually learn from the woman who was a huge inspiration to me so many years ago without having to pay a small fortune!

Do I suck it up and pay the money? It is half price!

Do I pretend I never saw the link? Never went down that rabbit hole as inviting as it is?

Writing for me is like breathing. Ink runs in my blood. If I didn’t dive in and do this, would I regret it later?

Drop by Friday to find out what I decide!!

Want to go down the rabbit hole yourself and find out more? Join Writing Down the Bones with Natalie Goldberg Now! (shambhala.com)

Writer or not, is there anyone you would love to learn from, past or present?

Round Robin Blog Fest October 2020

 

Welcome back to another fun installment of the Round Robin Blog Fest!

While I'm writing this, there is a strong breeze blowing all the colorful maple leaves off the trees and my cat who is part Siamese is howling to get out there to chase them.

Today's question is:  "What is/are your favorite book(s) of all time in your favorite genre(s)? (You can include children's books or non-fiction or even magazines.)

When an extended family member learned that I loved to write, they gave me a lovely, encouraging book for Christmas 1993. "Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within" by Natalie Goldberg quickly became one of my favorite, most dog-earred books of all time. In fact, my copy is adorned with post-it notes, hi-lighter and pen marks and scrap paper notebooks.

Years later, and a move across Canada to Ontario, I discovered a little writing group whose whole framework was based on Natalie Goldberg's concepts. It seems a couple of the founding members had been part of a different group with a man who had studied in Taos, New Mexico with Natalie. They based their group on the principles of reading your work aloud and doing free-writing to prompts to get their creative juices going. Many of my novels were added to or started using the free-writing prompts.

Each meeting, we practiced doing these timed exercises. We set ten to fifteen minutes aside, as time allowed, chose a prompt from the list provided by the leader that day, then wrote using the following rules:

1. Keep your hand moving (don't pause to reread.)
2. Don't cross out (this is editing as you right.)
3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar (or lines or margins...)
4. Lose control (write what comes up.)
5. Don't think. Don't get logical.
6. Go for the jugular. (even if something comes up that is scary or naked, dive right in.)

Our first thoughts have tremendous power. They are the reason Julia Cameron suggests in her book "The Artist's Way" (another favorite!) writing Morning Pages to "prime the pump" and get writing. To get into the flow and get the debris out of your head before you get down to serious creating.

The chapter in "Writing Down the Bones" that I love the most is called, "Living Twice."

Yes. I am one of those writers who will walk in the rain. Over the years, my mind has become trained to "record" feelings, sensations, and experiences so I can relive them on paper. Because of the free-writing exercises and trying to write with three kids underfoot, I have learned to write in short bursts. My short bursts, however, usually generate more pages in novels or whole new short stories.

While I don't read "Writing Down the Bones" as often as I used to, I still drag it off the shelf from time to time when I need a little inspiration.

Let's see what books our other writers treasure, shall we?

Anne Stenhouse  
Skye Taylor 
Connie Vines 
Dr. Bob Rich 
Fiona McGier 
Victoria Chatham 
Helena Fairfax 
Beverley Bateman 
Rhobin L Courtright