Tag Archives: Write-By-The-Lake

Join The Noise

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There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street, and being the noise. –Rumi, A Community of The Spirit Each year at Write-By-The-Lake I work with 15 other writers to help them bring their world into word. I understand my main role is to help them translate their meaningful experiences into captivating stories that become meaningful to their readers. Fortunately, there are many points of success for us writers (or we would give up too soon). Success comes in getting our ideas and stories down in our journals. Success comes … Continue reading →

Meeting Up With The Villain

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One of my favorite writing coaches is Steven Pressfield, author of War of Art. His Wednesday blog: Writing Wednesday is consistently worth my time. Today he writes about Elements of a Great Villain, both the external ones and the internal ones in great stories. “What qualities do these Hall of Fame antagonists have in common? They cannot be reasoned with (Okay, the Furies did have a bit of a soft spot). They cannot be appealed to on the basis of justice, fair play, or the idea of right and wrong. They are internally, relentlessly driven to achieve their ends. Nothing can stop them except … Continue reading →

For A Beautiful Life: Take Two & Go To Bed

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I write this to you from the 2nd day into my weeklong (city) writing retreat. On my first night (Saturday), I planned on going to the comedy club on State Street. A woman comedian seemed like a perfect fit for what I needed. Going solo meant I would be placed with a table of strangers. An opportunity to meet up with either a good social experience or material to write about. Likely both. As I unpacked and then went to the co-op to get food for the week, I felt I was having an allergic reaction to my space at the airbnb. I … Continue reading →

Give Your Words a Place To Go

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On my morning walks I commit to a certain destination out to a broken tree, which is about 2 miles from my home. This way, since I hold my destination at 2 miles out, I am sure to have a 4 mile walk. In some ways I trick myself into commiting to walking 4 miles, having to walk the two miles back. In my upcoming Write-By-The-Lake retreat and workshop through the UW, Madison, we focus on giving our words a place to go on the page, and then, our pages a place to go once written. Through developing a Rainbow Theme Arc with our chosen … Continue reading →

Getting Into It

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I was a cat person, until I married Bill, who came with two dogs. Now I am a dog person. Soon after Lydia was born, and both Bill’s dogs had died (and my cat companion, Targhee), we decided to get another dog. (What child doesn’t want a dog?) Still not a full blown dog person, I had several rules: Dogs stay in the kennel or outside.  (I soon relinquished that rule and our dog Zafu lived in the house.) Dogs stay off the furniture.  (Well, our now blind dog Cookie has a favorite chair.) Dogs never, ever, ever sleep on the … Continue reading →

The Writer Friendly Life

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At last weeks Writers’ Institute I gave a short talk on how to be disciplined and inspired as a writer. I began my talk on how to make our life “writer friendly.” Really the entire thirty-minute talk got down to how we do this, –– how we can actually fulfill our writing dreams and intentions. Making our life writer friendly is the simplest part of the writer’s life. I said simple, not easy. So whose life is writer friendly? Yours. Mine. Every writers. The simplest way to have your life be one where you write is to write within the context … Continue reading →

Be The Cause of Your Life

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“It’s your life – but only if you make it so. The standards by which you live must be your own standards, your own values, your own convictions in regard to what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is important and what is trivial. When you adopt the standards and the values of someone else . . . you surrender your own integrity. You become, to the extent of your surrender, less of a human being.” – Eleanor Roosevelt I work with a lot of writers, mostly creative nonfiction writers who want to share personal experiences … Continue reading →

Writer as Rebel

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Writers are Wizards of our own destiny. Writers are explorers of new frontiers. Writers are magicians and healers. Writers are poets and teachers. But mostly, we are Rebels. “Whether he is wealthy or poor, the Rebel is really an emperor because he has broken the chains of society’s repressive conditioning and opinions.” (OSHO Zen Tarot, The Rebel). We are rebels in our willingness to discover and explore the vast inner and outer landscapes of our lives. We are rebels in that we have dared to write our stories down. We are rebels because of our courage to take responsibility with our … Continue reading →

The Writer’s Tree of Life

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A central meaning associated with the Tree of Life is how life itself began. It further symbolizes the origins of all creation and origination and how everything is interconnected and dependent. The Tree of Life shows us how life is created, becomes manifest and then nourishes other forms of life. So then, how does a writer come to manifest him or herself as a writer? Where is your Tree of Life? How do we create our writing and then bring it to life, nourishing ourselves and other living beings? We design our own Tree of Life as a way to … Continue reading →

Wake Up And Smell The Coffee

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Dear Writer, That’s you. Me. So yes, I am writing this to myself too. I am at the 2014 Write-By-The-Lake retreat teaching a class on writing a captivating book from personal experience. This is my first year at WBTL. The invitation to teach here is a wish-fulfilled. This morning my class will explore clichés. Dead metaphors. Where once a cliché may have served a purpose they lose meaning with overuse. When we use them in writing we are being lazy. When clichés remain unchallenged in our “off the page” life we are giving up originality for convention. Last night I took … Continue reading →