As you move into 2014–rushing toward it, tip-toeing, slipping into it–which is it for you?–it’s a great time to re-focus on priorities for your writing life, to reflect on what you’ve done and visualize where you are going.
On my list: I’m gathering ideas for new articles, freewriting new titles, and outlining–again–a new memoir. At NAMW, I’m planning programs for the new year, and researching new ways to reach writers. Among other things. I keep in the forefront of my mind how important it is to draw upon juicy creativity in all these endeavors, a quality that can get drained away under stress, under the pressures of our everyday tasks.
With so many pathways to getting your memoir done–from freewriting to outlining, choosing to write on your own or join a group, taking classes or to reading books on writing–it’s helpful to deepen your intentions, visualize your goals, and take time to create forward motion that will help you write your memoir without creating extra stress in your life.
I’m so pleased to share with all of you my colleague Kay Adams again! We have been writing friends and actual friends for years, and shared many programs together through her Center for Journal Therapy and the Therapeutic Writing Institute. Kay is one of the most creative people I know, always finding new methods to help people use writing to heal, helping them learn to draw upon the wise writer within to transform their lives. Event: Roundtable Discussion with Kay Adams
Date: January 9, 2014
Time: 4 PM PST 5 PM MST 6 PM CST 7 PM EST
Sign up here for call info and your free audio.
We begin each year filled with hope and possibilities for delicious outcomes, manifested visions, actualized goals. This will be the year our books will complete, we will build websites, we will master social media! Then, usually before the calendar page turns to February, “real life” descends and we’ve lost that oomph.
I’m so pleased to have as our guest my friend and veteran journaler, visionary, and presenter, Kathleen (Kay) Adams! She is a master of creating new methods to help writing emerge and become real on the page, to invite healing through writing personal stories. Read more…
Bird by Bird & Beyond
Bird by Bird & Beyond will be a day focused on building storytelling skills and work strategies for writers and others interested in personal narrative. This event is open to everyone. No previous writing experience required.
In the morning Theo Pauline Nestor, Candace Walsh, and Tanya Taylor Rubinstein will teach a series of classes in the three most popular genres of personal narrative: Memoir, Essay, and Solo Performance. The classes’ primary focus will be on concrete techniques that build a story up and hold it together; the secondary focus will be on understanding and developing our own individual styles of work and developing strategies that get us to the work and keep us there.
After lunch and an on-stage interview with Nestor, Anne Lamott will give her talk “Almost Every Single Thing I Know About Writing,” during which she’ll share with us not only how she does what she does so well but also “why writing might be a matter of life and death” and the beloved topics of “messes,” “hysteria,” and “despair.” The talk will be followed by a Q &A session and a book signing.
Special Price for NAMW
When NAMW readers enter this promo code upon payment, they will receive 50 dollars off the price: writenamw
Sign up here.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.
