Friday, June 4, 2010

Write and Play Shop! Plus Limited time offer on editing fees!

Some of you may remember this series of workshops from last summer, and I know many of you were diligently writing and recapturing lost memories. Maybe you stopped after awhile. That's okay. Find those notebooks and read them over and pick up where you left off! I know you'll find some happy surprises in the pages you wrote and good material for books and stories. For many of you this workshop will be new. Welcome!

The Write and Play Shop will be a series of assignments to help you find your own personal stories and which of those stories are important for you to develop into a memoir, a short story, novel, or poetry. For some of you it may be enough just to do the writing assignments in a journal form. You'll have choices of how much or how little you want to write--I'll give you a long, short, and a very short option to follow. What we'll be doing is tapping into our emotional memories and I'll give you specific instructions about that first thing Wednesday morning.

But first, our very first assignment--and I'm going to be doing this along with you--will be to keep what Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way calls an Artist's Date, which for our purposes means to get happy and cozy with your writing space. For this writing journey, buy or make a journal (decorate it if you want) and choose your favorite writing instrument. I like a marbled black and white composition book and a mechanical pencil for my brainstorming and draft outlines. But if you're really wedded to your computer for everything, well, that's fine too.

Look around for some special things for your writing space--a favorite quote, a favorite "thinking" tool, photos. I have a flat black rock, a mini koosh ball, author/artist quotes... Here's one of the quotes and a good one for our creative adventure: "I have tried to write the best I can; sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can." ~Ernest Hemingway

If you don't have a copy of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, you'll want to purchase or borrow a copy. So along with jotting down memories, write morning pages as per Julia and find your own spiritual path to higher creativity. What we're doing is filling the well. Mine feels a little dry right now, so I'll be scribbling furiously in my notebook along with you. 

I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to ask questions, share experiences in a comment to the blog or in an e-mail: claragillowclark (@) gmail.com  My hope is that you will each find your own special and unique writing voice by plumbing the depths of your emotional experience!

For many of you who have been following me for awhile, you know that I teach writing and do freelance editing. For a limited time (June and July) I'm offering a Summer fee reduction of 30%. That means for a picture book ms up to 10 pages my flat fee of $50 is now $35.  For longer works--chapter books, middle grade and young adult only, please--my fee of $3 per page is now $2 per page. If you're interested, shoot me an e-mail. I'll send you my address and other particulars.

I'll be back on Wednesday when we'll set out on our journey. Have fun setting up a writing space of your own and be ready to write!

12 comments:

  1. Ooh, this sounds like such fun! Your rates are so reasonable. Aspiring writers, sign up now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can attest Clara is FABULOUS! A gentle yet honest line editor and so very wise when it comes to character development and overarching plot.

    This is a golden opportunity to make your manuscript sparkle with some professional input.

    Thanks, Clara!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, Claudia, you have such a sweet way with words!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the terrific endorsement, Kristin the gifted!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Clara, this sounds great! I'll try to jump in when I can. In fact I have a notebook just waiting. Thank you!

    Karen

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, Karen! I had this image of you jumping into a swimming pool of words! Summer fun, for sure. Now, off to make my alphabet soup!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds great- I know that I have some of Julia 's book- have to see if thats the one-When do we start? I am ready for it to be summer now.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The weather outside says it's summer, but I suppose your school calendar goes until after the official Solstice? Give me a holler when you're free!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I loved The Artist's Way ... and enjoyed reading your blog. Best wishes from Sunny Room Studio!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for stopping by, DazyDayWriter!

    ReplyDelete
  11. This sounds like fun! I get a lot of my facts and ideas for my stories from my family (Past and present). I hope some day to be half as talented and successful as you are.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Good luck with all that journaling, Clara. Wish I could jump on board, but I'll have to wait this one out. I've said yes to too many things with deadlines!

    ReplyDelete