pat jobe, visitors' contributions

would you write even if it were illegal? enjoy pat jobe’s guest blog

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by: Pat Jobe

The critical blessing to my writing life came at 10 years old. In fourth grade we had a special teacher for writing. Her name was Mrs. Burwell. She stood in front of the whole class and pointed a bony finger and said, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but Pat Jobe’s gonna be a writer.” My parents got me a typewriter for Christmas that year and I started my first novel in the sixth grade.

Thomas Merton once admitted being afraid of writing, that sometimes he would force himself to work in the garden or go for walks, anything, to keep himself from writing. He considered it an addiction.

John Gardner once quoted Wilt Chamberlain as saying he would play basketball even if it were illegal. Gardner added, “Novelists are worse than that.”

Alistair Cooke died the week his last newspaper column ran.

Kurt Vonnegut said he wrote because, “I can do nothing about the chaos in the world around me, but I can reduce to perfect order this eight and a half by eleven sheet of paper.”

By the next click on the calendar, I will have been writing for 50 years. I published my own newspaper in high school, wrote for the local paper, and continued the trek in college. I’ve written two published novels, although I had to publish the second myself and it still needs typos corrected at the cost of another 200 bucks. I’m writing at this moment in the middle of the afternoon after eating ice cream and fighting the opportunity to take a nap. Any 60-year-old man who would rather write than take a nap is addicted to writing.

Books, one or two unperformed plays, hundreds of newspaper columns and sermons, and this morning I put a letter to a dear auntie in the mail with a stamp on it. Yes! People still do that.

I write primarily on a keyboard looking at a computer screen. God bless spell-check. My used iMac even knew when I spelled Alistair Cooke’s name wrong. But I also keep a minimum of two pens in one pocket and now have two notebooks, small of course, in the other. I scratch haikus on napkins and paper place mats. I copy down quotes obsessively. I love a good quote.

Emerson said, “I hate quotes. Tell me what you know.” I even love that one. I have a love-hate relationship with other writers. Some are so cussed good that I could just kill them. Tom Robbins is an obvious example. Here’s a taste of his chops, “The unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwelling on himself and start paying attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence. When you’re unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. You get to take yourself oh so very seriously.”

Shirley Rawley taught writing at High Point College. I adored every step she placed upon the earth. She encouraged me with raw, melted love poured over like a chocolate sundae. But Elizabeth Harris was also a charm. My junior year in high school she stopped by my desk and groused, “You’re probably gonna make some money off your writing. You might wanna learn to spell.”

I nevah did.

 

 

nan lundeen, staff's contributions

hello, groundhog

For my health and for my writing practice, I walk a mile at an outdoor track five days a week. I greet a triangular-shaped pecan tree at one end of the track. “Good morning, tree.” Pink and blue morning glories peek through the fence. They wend their way into a haiku. One day this week, I am startled to see brown fur on short legs scampering through the grass. The fellow ducked under a storm drain cover and peered at me. It seems he wanted to be in a poem, too. Click here to read “Groundhog Day in August.” Please register at the top, right-hand side of this page if you haven’t already. We promise not to share your email address. Happy writing!
nan lundeen, staff's contributions

poetry in the park

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Middle Tyger Library, Lyman, SC, by Ron DeKett
Middle Tyger Library, Lyman, SC, by Ron DeKett
Here are the promised poems created by extraordinary ordinary people during the Poetry in the Park class I led in July at the Middle Tyger Library in Lyman, SC. Participant Marjorie Garrett wrote after the class, “I was quite impressed with what each person managed to write in such a short time.” I agree, Marjorie! After I told my husband, Ron DeKett, about the poems, he photographed some scenes in the park, which I’ve included with the poems. Click on the link after each poet’s name to read wonderful, spur-of-the-moment creations. Marjorie Garrett, “Whitewater by the Mill,” M.M. Griffin, “River Watching,” Mary Ellen Lives, “The Sign Says,” K.G. McAbee, “Dam,” and Chris Thackston, “Odd Number.” Please register with MooingAround.com at the top of the home page and comment, if you like. We promise not to share your email addresses. Thank you to all who already have registered. You are helping us build a creative community.
nan lundeen, staff's contributions

a conversation in a bar

standing cowIt’s a joy to bring you a second short story by the talented Mary Ellen Lives. She turns her gaze on a lifetime relationship squirming under the microscope of the Vietnam War. Come sit on a bar stool at the local VFW and listen in on a revealing conversation between Bulldog, Johnnie, and a stranger. Please register on our site so that you can comment. We’d love to hear your feedback, and we promise not to share your email address with anyone. Click here: “The Day He Lied.”
nan lundeen

extraordinary ordinary people

grazing laying down cowExtraordinary ordinary people let their talent shine this morning during the Poetry in the Park class I led at the Middle Tyger Library in Lyman, SC. We spent the first hour of the class talking about poetry and the second half, writing poetry. Participants walked outside to mosey about in the wooded park on a busy, rumbling river—the library’s setting. There they observed and mused and “found” poems they came back to class and shared. They blew me away! Every one of the six participants wrote a meaningful poem very much worth sharing. I’ve invited them to submit their Poetry in the Park poems to mooingaround.com. I hope we’ll be able to share them here soon.
nan lundeen, staff's contributions

a magical tree

Sit with me on a rock beside the Pacolet, a sparkling North Carolina mountain stream rippling along under a summer solstice sun. We wait for my husband, Ron DeKett, who has set up his tripod and applies his artistic eye to photograph a moment of beauty. Sit still and look. Do you see it? Across the stream, a single tiny tree rises from a mossy block. Click to see Ron’s photo and read my poem, “Summer Solstice Tree.”

nan lundeen

the weight of mercy crackles with honesty

If you want a captivating read, settle in with Deb Richardson-Moore’s book, The Weight of Mercy: A Novice Pastor on the City Streets. This book and Deb’s work deserve many accolades, but as a writer, I want to praise the quality of her writing. It’s honest, thought-provoking, and mesmerizing. Who would have thought a memoir about a pastor’s first three years working with the homeless, the addicted, the disadvantaged—about a pastor who tramps under bridges and climbs through holes in walls to reach our neighbors where they subsist—would be a page-turner. Well, it is! You can buy it in the Greenville, SC, area at Fiction Addiction, Triune Mercy Center, 10,000 Villages, Gage’s, The Cafe at Williams Hardware, Mr. K’s and other local outlets. Or you can order it on Amazon.

Click here to read the prologue and an excerpt from the first chapter of the weight of mercy.

 

 

nan lundeen

taking my own advice

grazing laying down cowI blog and write columns about writing and facilitate writing workshops. I’ve been polishing my handbook, Moo of Writing: How to Milk Your Potential, for months. The whole schmear sort of takes on a life of its own. It’s as if advice about the craft becomes what I do rather than actually writing. I’m in two critique groups, but they’ve already critiqued my handbook chapter by chapter; I haven’t brought them anything new. An agent query letter and a book proposal squirm around in my brain trying to materialize, irritating me.

So, it is with delight when I rediscover that Moo of Writing actually works.

The back of my mind carries a goal to write more poems for a collection, “Black Dirt Days,” about life on an Iowa farm where I grew up. But I was just moodling on a warm, sunny morning this week, when I hit the track for my walk. A man on a big riding mower was cutting the old football field in the center. First, I noticed the roar of the machine. It reminded me of noisy machines on the farm. Almost simultaneously, the smell of grass tickled my nose. It’s quite similar to the smell of alfalfa, which carried me on its wings straight back to hay-making time when I was a kid. As I walked, I heard a new poem in my head, line by line. I kept walking, and when I was finished, drove home, not listening to the radio, not listening to a phone message, not pouring cereal into a bowl. Instead, heading for my laptop and getting it down.

Wow! Moo of Writing really works, I thought.

Important to moodle, to get some fresh air and exercise, to let the mind lie fallow and not “try” to write. The words are there. They will come.

Have you moodled creatively? Would you like to? Please register on our site and comment. We’d love to hear from you, and we promise not to share your email address.

 

 

nan lundeen

the moo of boo hoo

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Dawn by Nan Lundeen
Dawn by Nan Lundeen

Silly title of this entry aside, I want to blog today about writing when you feel blue, when you’re down. It’s “when I’m weary of considerations;” it’s when “one eye is weeping/From a twig’s having lashed across it open,” as Robert Frost so brilliantly writes in his poem, “Birches.”

Last week, I wrote that when you free your creative process you will delight in the debut of stories you’ll find hidden inside.

Your stories will delight, but they may not all be happy. At times, pain or grief will surface. When that happens, should you cast those stories out because they risk bringing somebody down with you? I think not. I can’t tell you how many times Frost’s poem has brought me comfort. Frost balances the poem with the fun and risk of swinging on birches and with his choice to live. But it’s his five lines expressing the down-and-out feelings we’ve all had that I remember the best.

Consider the tenderness in Theodore Roethke’s “Elegy for Jane,” a student of his who was killed by a fall from her horse. He speaks of her: “the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils;/ and her quick look, the sidelong pickerel smile.”

Contemporary poet J. Stephen Rhodes shares inspired work in his book of poems, The Time I Didn’t Know What To Do Next. Some of his poems address his daughter’s suicide. I was honored to share a podium with him at a reading in Greenville, South Carolina. His work expressed the hard edge of grief tempered by grace.

I grappled for words when we laid to rest a grandbaby who never had a chance at life. It was a bitter winter’s day, and our hearts felt as cold as the sleet stinging the open grave. Some time later words came to me in the form of a poem I wrote, “Digging for Mercy,” published by The Petigru Review. I share the last stanza of that poem with you here:

 

Grace, grant us wisdom

to wrench open our hearts

lest mercy meet a closed door.

 

Brenda Ueland, a 20th-century writing guru, said, “Writing is not a performance but a generosity.”

I agree. When you include grief or pain in what you share with others, you may be giving expression to something that another person cannot. You may be giving voice to pain. And that can be healing.

What are your thoughts? We welcome your comments. Please register and share your ideas. We promise we won’t share your email address.

 

nan lundeen, staff's contributions

the mu of moo

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grazing laying down cowThe creative process has long bragged of a tint of magic, and indeed, it sometimes does feel that way. A eureka sentence or two appears on the page or a new character shimmies into your writing space and voila! Magic, right?

Maybe, sort of. And if you want to believe that, go for it! But although wise folk have suspected as much for a long time, neuroscientists are reaffirming one of the paths to creativity—relaxation. When brain waves slow to an alpha state as opposed to a busy, busy, busy, firing-away beta state, wonderful associations emerge from our subconscious.

Like the cow, the writer ruminates. The writer takes in the fodder of life and digests it in the subconscious. There it lies waiting for release. When the writer relaxes, words flow.

Here’s something I was delighted to discover: Cows are Zen masters. They’ve been known to utter the sound that is spelled mu rather than moo.

Mu is a Zen koan. A koan is a paradox that Buddhist monks meditate on. They hope the process will lead to intuitive enlightenment. When writing, you can choose to relax and produce. Mu (or Moo) is about stepping aside so that your creative spark has a free connection to the page. It’s about staying out of your way and finding your way. Free your creativity, and you will delight in the debut of stories you’ll discover hidden inside.

Happy writing!

Nan

www.nanlundeen.com

from a column first published at femalefirst.co.uk.

 

 

non-fiction, sheila good, visitors' contributions

six sure-fire ways to get the creative words flowing

by: Sheila M. Good

We’ve all had days when our minds seem devoid of creative ideas. On many occasions, I’ve accused my muse of abandoning me, going on vacation, or seeking out another more fertile, imaginative mind. The problem wasn’t my muse. The truth was I suffering from writing fatigue and boredom. I needed inspiration to get the creative words flowing again. I couldn’t escape to the cow pasture, like I used to do as a young girl; I had to come up with more appropriate avenues. I came up with six sure-fire ways to get the creative words flowing again and the funny thing about it, everyone of them were right there all along.

1. People Watching : This is my personal favorite and with 313.9 million people (2012 Census) in the United States of all nationalities, imaginations can soar. Any crowded venue will suffice. With a notebook in hand, you can be a mindful observer of human interaction and body language. Let your senses engage, note the setting, atmosphere, and listen to the many conversations, thanks to technology, people share with the world in public places. An astute observer, grab a snippet of conversation; it’s great fodder for a story.

2. Prompts: Write something every day even if it’s rubbish. By doing so you’re developing a habit, honing your craft. An excellent exercise in free writing, oneword.com gives you 60 seconds to write about the daily word prompt. Figment.com focuses on character, setting, dialogue, essays, and other prompts from acclaimed authors with the aim to help writers improve. If you need a reminder and accountability, 750 Words.com is a wonderful site.

3. Critique: Utilize a critique checklist or outline to break down the first chapter of a favorite author’s novel. Did the opening line and paragraph hook you? What was the inciting event? How did the author portray the setting? How was the main character introduced? Was there depth? Can you picture the main character? And so on. Taking a critical eye to a successful, accomplished author’s work will spark creative thoughts when you turn back to your own.

4. Brainstorm with a writing friend or mentor. Do word associations or bounce ideas off each other. Those of you who are familiar with Scrivener may enjoy the new mind mapping software, Scapple, now available (MACS) Mind mapping is a wonderful tool to help start the flow of creative ideas and once on paper can be used to form a quick outline.

5. READ: A hallmark must-do for every writer. You don’t need to stick to your favorite genre; in fact, I recommend you branch out. You might discover you’re a better writer in another genre. Magazines and newspapers can provide innumerable sparks of inspiration. Sometimes a news story will prompt an emotion or memory and an idea for a story is born.

6. Quiet time and reflection: Whether it’s work, family, or other things demanding our attention, time is, perhaps, our most scarce commodity. Yet, having downtime for our minds to wander playfully through fields of imagination is, for the writer, essential. My friend and writing mentor, Nan Lundeen, author of Moo of Writing: How to Milk Your Potential, writes often of relaxation, meditation, and fresh air facilitating our creative expressions from our mind to the pages, we just have to get out of the way. So take a walk around the block, park, library, sit quietly in a corner café, or find you a cow pasture. According to Nan, they’re Zen masters. Fifteen to thirty minutes a day for creative renewal is a good start. We waste that much time surfing the net.

We all have beautiful, moving, harrowing, breathtaking stories within us if we take time to listen, believe, and give ourselves permission to let our mind and imagination run free. Happy writing.

visit Sheila M. Good at  http://www.cowpasturechronicles.com