Check out the interview in The Big Thrill with our retreat instructor, Steven James. http://www.thebigthrill.org/2018/09/up-close-steven-james/
Archive | Uncategorized
Do you REALLY want to be a writer? Take a closer look at the job description.
UncategorizedCalling All Applicants So, here’s the job I’m offering you. There are no benefits. No dental, medical, or retirement. You get no days off. No sick leave. No personal leave. No vacation time. There’s no job security. You get to pay your own taxes. Seniority means nothing. You’ll be on the hook for any college […]
Why should you take a retreat?
UncategorizedToday’s tarot reading told me I’m a workaholic, said I needed to slow down, to take time to step back and look at life instead of zooming through it, phone in hand. It’s good advice. As a writer, deadlines and the arrival of the muse don’t always coincide, but what I’ve found is that you have to […]
The Spring 2017 Retreat Wrap-up.
Events Uncategorized Writing retreatsAs many times as Write by the Water hosts a retreat, they are never the same. See, that’s magic. The people who attend are the people who form the retreat. Sometimes, the retreat becomes more formal, with classes and editing advice and Skype talks. Sometimes, it’s just a bunch of established writers hunkering down to finish the […]
Monkey See Does NOT Mean Monkey Do
UncategorizedRecently, I attended the annual cotillion dinner for eighth graders. Every year I have a standing gig teaching a three-hour tutorial dinner on how not to eat like a monkey. Here in southern USA, cotillion in a social rite of passage. It’s an opportunity for young ladies and gentlemen in middle school to learn […]
Magical Words to Make Your Writing Better
Uncategorized“… that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.” Samuel Coleridge. Everyone has their strengths. For my kid #4 it’s her ability to remember obscure details. I pay her five dollars an hour to listen to me read my stories. She somehow lays her six-foot body on the floor of my […]
What’s your priority?
Creativity Inspiration Uncategorized Writing Writing retreats Writing tipsYou’re here because you’re thinking about your book, or your song, or your poem, or your half-finished canvas. You’re here because you want someone to tell you it’s okay. You aren’t being selfish, You aren’t being silly. This is real and you deserve it. You are here, on this page, because a part of you […]
Day 3. When the writing gets serious. Also called committing to complete that… thing.
UncategorizedIf you are a human being, you will have struggled at least once in your life to complete … something. Be it a kindergarten drawing, a fat reducing exercise regime, your math homework or a scientific experiment designed to disprove the Quantum Zeno Effect. For writers, it’s not only the struggle to complete the poem, […]
March retreat, Day 2
UncategorizedYou know that thing where writers are in sync? Where women are in sync- and I am not talking about “that time of the month”, kind of syncing- just the place where you can find a common pace and go with it- no judgments, no qualifiers, no pretensions. I love that. A friend asked me […]
The March Retreat, Blue Mountain Beach, Day 1
UncategorizedDay One. We are here. The sun is shining and it is warm at the beach… if you are from Canada. Good thing one of us is. I have had 2 coffees and one beer. That is very good for me. It is early. Give a writer time. There will be many more beers. I […]
