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THE
WRITERS' RETREAT NEWSLETTER
April 2008, Volume 8, No 2
http://www.writersretreat.com
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IN
THIS EDITION
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1. WALK IN BALANCE—A NEW RESIDENTIAL RETREAT IN GEORGIA
2. A POTATO, A SKATEBOARD, A RUBBER DUCK:
THE APPEAL OF
OBJECT POEMS
3. NEVER GIVE UP
4. UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
5. KUDOS
6. A RETREAT: A
WAY TO CONNECT WITH YOUR VISION!
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1.
WALK IN BALANCE—A NEW RESIDENTIAL RETREAT IN GEORGIA
By
Adilah Barnes
When
I first viewed the Web site of The Writer’s Retreat, I was most
struck by the breathtaking, yet diverse beauty of each location. I
remember thinking that I wanted to visit every one of them. That
thought will remain a goal for me.
I
am delighted to now join in the fold of our network with my new
retreat in Sharpsburg, Georgia.
I
gave thought to why one might want to also come to Sharpsburg. I was
led to the obvious. My location offers a woodsy and serene
environment where one can create, but less obvious is that the
environment feeds the soul. To that end, I have one room that is
reserved for those who wish to meditate, practice yoga, enjoy
spiritual music, and just allow silence. A vegan myself, a healthy
diet is also part of that spiritual feeding. The retreat is a
smoke-free environment and a shoeless space as well.
I
have found that in order to write, I have to be in a space that
allows me the freedom to express. For me, that includes quiet,
focus, and a meditative state that invites my inner voice a place to
be honored and to be heard. I try to allow at least part of one day
a week to experience a “talking fast” so that I may rest my mind
and settle inward.
What
I offer personally at our Sharpsburg location is my background as an
artist. Although I am also an actor, acting teacher, talk show host,
and producer, what I bring to the retreat most fittingly is my
background as a writing instructor. I primarily work with
actor/writers who are interested in getting down on paper personal
stories that have been dancing around in their heads. My writer’s
workshops at the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival have
facilitated writers in reaching down to the core of their being to
unveil memories that resonate in both personal and universal truth.
I have found sensory exercises that take the writer back to
childhood are a fertile source to unlock stories begging to be told.
In
Los Angeles, I have taught such workshops as “From Thought to
Pen,” “Connecting the Inner Dots.” and “From Page to
Stage.” In June of 2008, I will begin teaching solo writing
classes at the award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. I welcome
the opportunity to also serve my new bicoastal community as I begin
to build relationships within its artistic world.
The
progression of unleashing personal stories from the heart to the
page, and ultimately on stage, has been an extremely rewarding
journey for me. My own solo show, “I Am That I Am: Woman,
Black,” is a historical journey through time sharing the lives of
seven African American “sheroes” beginning from slavery with
Sojourner Truth to present times and concluding with Maya Angelou.
My one-woman show has zigzagged across close to forty U.S. states,
and has crossed the waters to the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa.
Though the stories in my one-woman show are not my own, they are
personal stories of women I admire and who inspire me.
My
first book, On My Own Terms:
One Actor’s Journey is slated for release this spring. A cross
between a memoir, an acting book, and an inspirational walk, I now
look forward to working with writers at our Sharpsburg retreat who
are also developing non-fiction narrative works.
I
welcome women of all genres of writing to The Writers’ Retreat in
Sharpsburg, Georgia. We will together give honor to the literary
word and celebrate the creative voice as we also learn from one
other.
You
may contact me directly at abarnes@writersretreat.com
or visit my Web site at www.writersretreat.com/georgia.htm.
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By
Julia Shipley
I
used to work at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. Every
month fifty artists would arrive by plane, train, and automobile
with a suitcase full of ideas, and moments after unpacking, they
would begin to paint, sculpt, and write. I envied the painters. On
my way to the office, I would see them assembling their easels by
the river, brandishing their slender brushes like magic wands. I, on
the other hand, went into an austere room with the shade pulled down
to write after work. One night, during one of the communal dinners,
an artist boasted that he had spent the day painting water lilies on
Lake Lamoille. “What did you do?” he queried me. My cheeks
flushed. I had revised poems in my dim room. After the meal, I
trudged home and flung myself on the couch with a book. I spent the
evening reading Robert Bly who wrote, “It’s helpful if you are
writing about the pine to go to the pine, or if writing about a
tunnel go into the tunnel.” Ever since, I have noticed how
difficult it is to write poems sitting at a desk.”
I
realized that night, that I could “paint” my poems from life. I
could create my own “plein air” poems. So I began writing by the
waterfall and at the basketball game. I held my black pilot pen like
a sable brush and swished poems into my notebook. When winter came,
I began setting up “still life’s” to examine things at hand: a
piece of horn, an umbrella, a head of garlic, my father’s necktie,
etc. After writing half a ream of poems about things, I realized I
was participating in a well-established genre called the object
poem. Rilke wrote some of his most memorable poems about a Greek
sculpture, a panther, a vase of roses. He called this type of poem
“diggendicht” or “thing poem.” Francis Ponge, a French poet,
wrote a book of prose poems called “The Voice of Things.” In
this volume, his attention roves from snails and slabs of meat to
oysters and doorknobs. Robert Bly defines the object poem as a poem
that “playfully describes or praises more or less ordinary
things.”
For
those new to poetry, or paralyzed by the need to say something new
and profound in a poem, the object poem is a potent cure. The only
requirement is that the writer observe, discuss, and address the
object she has chosen. What a fantastic solution to writer’s
block: to begin by describing something small and near, perhaps a
potato, a skateboard, or a rubber duck.
Bibliography
Ponge,
Francis. The Voice of Things.
McGraw Hill: New York, 1972.
Bly,
Robert. News of the Universe.
Sierra Club Books: San Francisco, 1974.
Bly,
Robert. What Have I Ever Lost
By Dying? HarperCollins: New York, 1992.
Julia
is a poet and writer. She teaches creative and critical writing at
Sterling College in Vermont. As a Juried Artist with the Vermont
Arts Council, she offers workshops in Vermont’s schools,
libraries, and elder-care facilities in Poetry and Creative
Nonfiction.
Winner
of the 2006 Ralph Nading Hill Award, her work has appeared in Vermont
Life, Vermont’s Local Banquet, Northern Woodlands,
Hunger Mountain Magazine, Rivendell Magazine, among
others. Julia is currently completing a manuscript of object poems
titled, The Family of Things.
She
will open her writers’ retreat in Craftsbury, Vermont starting June 1,
2008.
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3. NEVER GIVE UP
By Mike Hoover
Well,
here we are looking at another season at The Writers’ Retreat in Oliver,
British Columbia, and it looks like it is going to be a great
year. Today I am on my way to Penticton to place some more books at
Okanogan Books, the independent bookstore on Main Street. I found
since publishing my first novel that my life has taken on a bit of
magic. First, when I finally overcame the annoyances of writing,
editing, and publishing a book, I found myself in a huge ocean of
books and not a clue of what to do.
The
first bit of magic was an agent who somehow came across my book and
offered me a contract (my first miracle). She submitted my
manuscript to many publishers but no takers. “So what the hell,”
I thought. “I’ll self publish, at least I’ll have a book and
no one can take that away from me.”
Then
from way out of my past I get a call to speak at a hockey fundraiser
(I didn’t even know that I was a member of the first junior hockey
alumni in North America). The main speaker at this fundraiser
just happened to be the most famous sports personality in
Canada and has his own national television show. And guess what? I
will be a guest on his show in a month or so! (Magic or miracle,
take your pick.) It will be up to me at that point to sell myself,
but this is what I believe writers must do. It is just not enough to
sit in front of your computer and bang out a hundred thousand words.
With 80,000 rejection slips printed in New York every year, you must
give it all you have and NEVER GIVE UP.
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4.
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
MAKING
A GOOD SCRIPT GREAT
A three-day script clinic in Cascade, Colorado
“The
Writers’ Retreat in Cascade, Colorado, is a special experience.
You will have your treatment or script analyzed for half a day.
I spend about two hours on each project, and then we have
input from the other writers in the group who learn through analysis
of each other's work. Since we are a small group, we share lunches
and dinners together, and one of the dinners is at my home. Some of
you may choose to stay an extra day or two to write in the
mountains. This is one of the most beautiful places on earth,
and a high (in altitude and attitude) creative experience. I
look forward to working with you.” Linda Seger
Facilitator:
Linda Seger, author, and script consultant.
Date
to be confirmed: September or October 2008
Place:
Cascade, Colorado (Pikes Peak Region)
Description:
http://www.writersretreat.com/Makingagoodscriptgreat.htm
Online
registration: www.WritersRetreat.com/Workshopform.htm
Questions
and registration: E-mail
Linda Seger
WRITING
IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL
A three-day workshop in Folly Beach
Rarely
do writers have the opportunity to slow down and go within to reach
a wiser, deeper level. Spend three days on the beautiful Atlantic
Ocean and explore your connection to nature and creativity, and the
journey of your soul. Through guided imagery and spontaneous writing
exercises, you will be revived, renewed and ready to write
again.
Facilitator:
Mary Ann Henry, The Writers’ Retreat in Folly Beach, SC
Date:
October 17-19, 2008 – for beginning and seasoned writers
Place: Folly Beach, South Carolina
Description:
www.writersretreat.com/spiritualwriting.htm
Questions
and registration: E-mail Mary Ann Henry
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5.
KUDOS
Tricia
Callahan, a resident last summer at the Folly Beach retreat,
published her first piece in the March issue of Slice magazine. The
publication is available in several states (listing on Web site).
“Thank you for your retreat program,” says Tricia, “I’m not
sure I would have had the confidence to submit otherwise.”
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6.
A RETREAT: A WAY TO
CONNECT WITH YOUR VISION
We
now offer 10 open-all-year retreats in Canada, United States, Costa
Rica and Mexico.
Québec,
Canada (Headquarters)
Oliver,
British
Columbia, Canada
North
Lake Harbour, Prince Edward Island,
Canada
The
beautiful San Juan Mountains in Ouray, Colorado
Corralitos
near Santa Cruz, California
Folly
Beach,
South Carolina
Craftsbury,
Vermont opening June 1,
2008
Ojochal,
Costa Rica
Puerto
Vallarta on the Pacific Coast of México
Please
visit our Web site at www.WritersRetreat.com and click on one
of the locations for more details, or to reserve your private
studio.
If
you are contemplating a business opportunity in the literary world, contact
us today to learn more about starting and operating a
Writers’ Retreat in your area.
===================================================
Micheline Côté
The Writers’ Retreat
Telephone: (819)
876-2065
info@writersretreat.com
http://www.writersretreat.com
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THE
WRITERS' RETREAT NEWSLETTER
January, 2008, Volume 8, No 1
http://www.writersretreat.com
A
Happy New Year to All Our Readers!
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IN
THIS EDITION
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OUR WRITING LIFE
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OUR WRITING LIFE
Welcome
back! I trust that each of you had a pleasant time with family and friends
during the holidays. And, hopefully, you had a chance to escape for a few
days from your daily chores.
One
of the best New Year's resolutions we can make for ourselves (aside from
laying off the junk food and exercising more) is to set writing goals for
the new year. When we live the life of the anxious roadrunner, and always
planning for the future, we miss the present. We overload our schedule and
then complain there are not enough hours in the day to write.
Here
are some popular writer’s resolutions—pick one or two and plan to put
passion to your pen in 2008! The Writers’ Retreat is here to help you
shape your vision into reality, so why not start now.
Step One: DECIDE how important your writing is to you and visualize
where you’d like to take your writing. This first step helps create a
target and provides a guidepost.
Step Two: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF to be able to make your goals a
reality. If you tap into your power and capabilities, events and people
will support you.
Step Three: TAKE ACTION and get moving; this is the final step to
guarantee results.
Take
small steps and be realistic about what you can handle. Do not give up if
you do not move quickly enough, keep striving, and be sure to give
yourself credit for doing what you can accomplish.
LET’S
GET STARTED …
1.
Make time to write.
Finding
time to write is the hardest thing for many writers, but if you’re
committed to writing a certain amount of words each day or each week, or
writing at specific times, you’re much more likely to get work done.
(This is especially true if you tend to procrastinate. And who doesn’t,
at least sometimes?)
For
most of us, making time to write will always be something of a struggle.
With friends and family, financial obligations, emotional issues, etc., it
takes determination to make a writing schedule and stick to it. I’ve
concluded that there is no easy answer, but there are concrete things we
can do to make time to write.
Pinpoint
issues that keep you from making time to write.
If
you’ve always wanted to write and aren’t doing it, figure out the
source of your writer’s block. Is it a fear of failure, a longstanding
tendency to procrastinate, or something as simple as a lack of writing
space? If the “block” is not immediately obvious, spend some time in
the self-help aisle of a bookstore, or talk it over with a friend, a
therapist, or life coach. As you begin to understand the things that
prevent you from writing—whether internal or external—you can make a
plan to overcome them.
2.
Defy your writer’s block.
Renew
your commitment to finding a way to overcome your block. Find out what’s
causing your writing woes, and address it head on.
Most
writers will have trouble with writer’s block at some point in their
lives. The possible reasons for writer’s block are myriad: fear,
anxiety, a life change, the end of a project, the beginning of a project
… almost anything, it seems, can cause that particular feeling of fear
and frustration. Fortunately, there are as many ways to deal with
writer’s block as there are causes. The items below are only
suggestions, but trying something new is the first step toward writing
again.
Establish
a writing schedule and stick to it.
Ignore
the writer’s block and keep showing up to write, even if nothing comes
right away. When your physical body shows up to the page at the same time
and place every day, eventually your mind, and your muse, will do the
same. English novelist, Graham Greene, wrote 500 words, and only 500
words, every morning. Five hundred words are only about a page, but with
those mere 500 words per day, Greene wrote and published more than thirty
books.
3.
Complete an unfinished project.
Do
you have an unfinished story or novel that keeps you from going on to new,
more exciting projects? I can attest that unfinished projects are huge
energy drains. Make a plan to get through them this year. You might even
write your project goals on a calendar. You’ll find that you have a
renewed energy for your writing once these old projects are off your
plate.
4.
Read more.
Are
there classic novels you’ve always meant to read, but haven’t? Or some
genre you think might inform your work in interesting or productive ways?
Make a plan. It doesn’t have to be too ambitious, but set some modest
goals for your reading life this year.
5.
Keep a journal.
Though
journaling is an art in itself with its own disciplines and satisfactions,
many fiction writers rely on their journals for ideas and details. If
nothing else, keeping a journal is a good way to ensure that you’re
writing consistently.
6.
Find a place to write.
If
a lack of workspace is keeping you from writing, put this at the top of
your list to change. Your resolution might also be to make your writing
space more conducive to your work. Clean up the clutter; surround yourself
with things that inspire you. Have a writing workspace you look forward to
entering.
Strategies
for finding a writing space.
Ideally,
we’d all enjoy spending as much time as we want at a writers’ retreat
to ensure uninterrupted writing time. However, for many of us, this just
isn’t an option. But a lack of writing space should never keep you from
writing. With a little determination and some creativity, you’ll always
find some way to write.
If
you can’t have an office in your home, settle for a corner in a room.
Set
up a desk or table in a corner of the quietest communal space in your
home. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a place you can sit and write.
If you have roommates or family, find a time when everyone else is either
asleep or out. That way you can be sure no one will interrupt you, or
provide you with excuses to quit writing.
7.
Finish the first draft of a novel.
If
you've always wanted to write a novel, but have been afraid to attempt it,
make this the year you finally do it. Don't worry if it's good or not, or
if it's publishable or not. Just find a story you need to write, that only
you can write, and write it. There's something valuable about sticking to
something this big, about discovering that you can do it. If nothing else,
you'll finally be able to cross this off your list of things to do in
life.
8.
Submit your work.
Once
you know your work is fully polished and ready to submit, make a realistic
goal about the number of submissions you want to do this year and stick to
it. Stay focused on accomplishing your goal, though, and not on the
result. Whether you become published or not, you can take great
satisfaction in reaching your submission goal.
9.
Try a genre or an art form you’ve never tried before.
Screenwriters,
playwrights, and poets have a lot to teach fiction writers. You’ll find
that you take the lessons of that genre back to your fiction. The same
applies to other art forms. From photography, you’ll learn to pay
attention to the visual world, and from acting, to put yourself in the
mind of someone else.
10.
Be easy on yourself.
Focus
on what you accomplish this year, not on your failures. Writing is hard
and getting published even harder. Beating yourself up doesn’t help
anything. Reward yourself for having found something that you love this
much and for sticking to it.
G.
Wiehardt’s work has appeared in various literary journals, and her book
of poetry, Compulsion of the Unlocked Thing, was a finalist in the Ohio State
University/The Journal Book Award in Poetry. For the past four years she
has worked in publishing, and has taught writing to adults, children, and
high school students. Ginny Wiehardt is the fiction writing guide for
About.com
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So,
if you want to get away in a quiet environment where you can work on your
project with or without assistance, you’ve found the place!
The Writers’ Retreat offers nine
year-round retreat locations to choose from:
Québec, Canada (Headquarters);
Oliver, British
Columbia, Canada;
North Lake Harbour, Prince
Edward Island, Canada;
Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Coast of
México;
The beautiful San Juan Mountains in
Ouray, Colorado;
Corralitos near Santa Cruz, California;
Folly
Beach, South Carolina;
Ojochal, Costa
Rica.
Please visit our
Web site at www.WritersRetreat.com
and click on one of the locations for more details and to reserve your
private studio.
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Have
a very creative 2008!
Micheline Côté
The Writers’ Retreat
Telephone: (819)
876-2065
info@writersretreat.com
http://www.writersretreat.com
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