Thursday, March 17, 2011
All righty then: The Writing Workshop
Hi All!
The dear, I- miss-him-so-much-Todd P. wrote me to "Please blog!" ...and those two little words woke me up from this San Francisco dream I have been delighting in, where each day i spend hours at my writing table overlooking Lombard Street, then going to the gym, spending free hours with Peter going to all the artistically nourishing events we can squeeze into our schedules......and I again apologize! So let's see how I can catch you all up on what it's like here:
TO begin with, the 1st writing workshop I've been taking with the gifted and delightful Adair Lara is soon over - the 12 weeks have flown by - and I will take her Memoir Workshop next, which starts in mid-May.
Adair is a gifted, funny, wry, observant humorist, a popular SF literary figure, with a fan base devoted to her column in the Chronicle, which she no longer writes, but many of which are gathered in several published collections I highly recommend...she is a wonderful, entertaining and honest writer. .and a very very good teacher. Gentle, supportive, but specific in her critical observations, and very very helpful. I have learned so much from her , so far , and intend to learn more. Within this 12 -week period of time, I have written more than I have ever written in my life, on the widest possible variety of subjects, each one a learning tool for a new part of the technique I've wanted to learn for so long.
The month of April, many of us from this current workshop will continue to meet here at my place on Lombard until the Memoir Workshop starts, and continue we'll continue writing, giving each other critiques, encouragement, partnering, writing prompts (ideas to inspire more writing),etc...and we will meet weekly, consume a bottle of wine or two (there is not a bad wine in this city , and if there is I've yet to taste it)...and well...we'll keep on writing and begin to send our stuff out to various magazines and newspapers...that is the next step for the current workshop: getting the 1st person essays and articles in good enough shape to start sending them to publications that may want them.
Over these past weeks, I've written essays on these topics:
- moving to San Francisco (Reclaiming My Heart),
-getting the grand piano up the Stairs (My Bargain With Buddha),
-noticing young mothers using the city as a gym (The Women of Russian Hill),
-my experience of the World Trade Center 9/11 event (The Day Broadway Stopped Dancing),
-audition advice to young actors (Claim It and Re-Name It),
-a prologue and Chapter One to the book I want to write (title still undetermined),
-Martha Stewart (My Martha Thing or Making Water With an Ex-Con),
-the Star Spangled Banner (The National Anthem and Me),
-clutter (Mother Nature Abhors My Vacuum),
-my grand piano (Travels With a Diva),
and several more topics....
Enough of these are in a sort of shape that I am able to begin to send them out without wincing too much, though I am sure my collection of rejection slips will soon grow large, making me feel more like a true writer than anything else possibly can, I will complete this particular workshop mission and send as much out as I can !! I've become fond of this first-person essay form, and since it's sort of like a structured blogging, with more of a point and an epiphany in each one, I'll probably continue to write them...and continue to send them out as well, until someone wants one! Or maybe I'll print them here in this blog...we'll see.
I've also used this time to work on several short stories for a theatrical collection I want to put together called Ghost Light Stories - I've got about 4 of the stories in the works with titles like "Magic Time", "Lamp In The Window", "The Casting Call", "Oceans", "The Mystery Mime Troupe",etc...
I've written a character sketch or two for a San Francisco collection, or I may evolve one or two of them into an essay about street people I am becoming familiar with here....and on and on the possibilities grow, every day, which thrills me more than I can say! WHY? Because I realize that I've wanted the time and space to do this - to write - for as long as I can remember ! And now I am doing it.
I am writing! One day , I will call myself a writer.
By the end of the Memoir Workshop, I hope to have at least an arc and rough first draft of the book done....it will be much tougher than I ever thought it could be, as I begin to understand how difficult it is to craft an entire BOOK! Pages and pages of a story I feel passionate about sharing with others, but how to make it readable for all those others? Ah! There 's the rub, and therein lies the craft and technique I'm talking about!
But I am determined...and I will do it or die trying...so stay tuned for the struggle....it's worth every moment of it, at least for me, and I'll try to supply you with the agonies and the ecstasies of it all! I've begun to understand that writing is never easy for any writer, and that struggle, insecurity and outright dis-belief in one's own worth are a well-known pat of every process..oh goody! Thank God, I really want to do it. I truly do.
Now onto Peter: the best and dearest husband ever in the entire world! We luxuriated in the first three months being here by taking the time we wanted to get our home in order, sort things out to get our financial and business lives in shape here, scope out al the museums and theaters we wanted to further explore, go every day to run our pups on the beaches, drive over to the Marin Headlands, have picnics wherever the spirit moved us to sit and enjoy the stunning beauty of this coastline,etc...it was idyllic...and yes, we caught up on sleep too! Neither of us realized how thoroughly exhausted our years had been, and how the journey, the move, the packing,etc had worn us thin....we needed the time to recover, and we took it.
But when he decided he felt like getting to work, he went into an office a friend sent him to - an agency that places support people in all these different industries and companies,etc - aced every test they gave him, impressed them with the Yonka charm and abilities, and the next week he was placed in an office, earning well, and now they are making noises about hiring him permanently....the pay would be swell. And the job is okay. But he still believes in non-profit theater, so when a dear pal asked him to help out at The Magic Theatre with a few things (this is the 44 year old theater where Sam Shepherd's plays were first produced) - and since we are both thoroughly enrolled in Loretta Greco's vision for this marvelous theater - Peter said yes and he is now volunteering some time to assist them in various areas. I know this will be helpful for all concerned...but for now, it's a bit of a balancing act, as he feels his way through two entirely different worlds....i know where his heart is though.
Our home gets more and more comfortable by the week, as we hang a few more pictures, sort out a few more piles, and allow the gorgeous light that pours in through the many windows to heal us every day. The fog horns at night have the same effect, and we love this city more and more.
We've both joined the 24-Hour Fitness gyms and are on a regular schedule of workouts, with (yes, we are now pure Californian in this way) with our trainers, we work hard and feel so good!
My days start with good coffee (like the wine, there seems to be no bad coffee here), and I sit down and do not get up from the computer for three hours at least....this will continue for many days to come and that makes me so very happy.
Tomorrow night we meet a dear friend for dinner (we've chosen a few regulars places we love, including the best vegetarian Chinese place I've ever experienced called The Golden Era, down on O'Farrell, and Friday once more we attend the SF Symphony , this time to hear the Bach BMinor Mass....Saturday, we hear Amanda McBroom at the Razz Room....and Sunday we meditate with our friends at SF Insight Meditation ....we have such a good time here, such a fortunate life. Aside from missing you all, we are thoroughly content.
More soon...truly.
The dear, I- miss-him-so-much-Todd P. wrote me to "Please blog!" ...and those two little words woke me up from this San Francisco dream I have been delighting in, where each day i spend hours at my writing table overlooking Lombard Street, then going to the gym, spending free hours with Peter going to all the artistically nourishing events we can squeeze into our schedules......and I again apologize! So let's see how I can catch you all up on what it's like here:
TO begin with, the 1st writing workshop I've been taking with the gifted and delightful Adair Lara is soon over - the 12 weeks have flown by - and I will take her Memoir Workshop next, which starts in mid-May.
Adair is a gifted, funny, wry, observant humorist, a popular SF literary figure, with a fan base devoted to her column in the Chronicle, which she no longer writes, but many of which are gathered in several published collections I highly recommend...she is a wonderful, entertaining and honest writer. .and a very very good teacher. Gentle, supportive, but specific in her critical observations, and very very helpful. I have learned so much from her , so far , and intend to learn more. Within this 12 -week period of time, I have written more than I have ever written in my life, on the widest possible variety of subjects, each one a learning tool for a new part of the technique I've wanted to learn for so long.
The month of April, many of us from this current workshop will continue to meet here at my place on Lombard until the Memoir Workshop starts, and continue we'll continue writing, giving each other critiques, encouragement, partnering, writing prompts (ideas to inspire more writing),etc...and we will meet weekly, consume a bottle of wine or two (there is not a bad wine in this city , and if there is I've yet to taste it)...and well...we'll keep on writing and begin to send our stuff out to various magazines and newspapers...that is the next step for the current workshop: getting the 1st person essays and articles in good enough shape to start sending them to publications that may want them.
Over these past weeks, I've written essays on these topics:
- moving to San Francisco (Reclaiming My Heart),
-getting the grand piano up the Stairs (My Bargain With Buddha),
-noticing young mothers using the city as a gym (The Women of Russian Hill),
-my experience of the World Trade Center 9/11 event (The Day Broadway Stopped Dancing),
-audition advice to young actors (Claim It and Re-Name It),
-a prologue and Chapter One to the book I want to write (title still undetermined),
-Martha Stewart (My Martha Thing or Making Water With an Ex-Con),
-the Star Spangled Banner (The National Anthem and Me),
-clutter (Mother Nature Abhors My Vacuum),
-my grand piano (Travels With a Diva),
and several more topics....
Enough of these are in a sort of shape that I am able to begin to send them out without wincing too much, though I am sure my collection of rejection slips will soon grow large, making me feel more like a true writer than anything else possibly can, I will complete this particular workshop mission and send as much out as I can !! I've become fond of this first-person essay form, and since it's sort of like a structured blogging, with more of a point and an epiphany in each one, I'll probably continue to write them...and continue to send them out as well, until someone wants one! Or maybe I'll print them here in this blog...we'll see.
I've also used this time to work on several short stories for a theatrical collection I want to put together called Ghost Light Stories - I've got about 4 of the stories in the works with titles like "Magic Time", "Lamp In The Window", "The Casting Call", "Oceans", "The Mystery Mime Troupe",etc...
I've written a character sketch or two for a San Francisco collection, or I may evolve one or two of them into an essay about street people I am becoming familiar with here....and on and on the possibilities grow, every day, which thrills me more than I can say! WHY? Because I realize that I've wanted the time and space to do this - to write - for as long as I can remember ! And now I am doing it.
I am writing! One day , I will call myself a writer.
By the end of the Memoir Workshop, I hope to have at least an arc and rough first draft of the book done....it will be much tougher than I ever thought it could be, as I begin to understand how difficult it is to craft an entire BOOK! Pages and pages of a story I feel passionate about sharing with others, but how to make it readable for all those others? Ah! There 's the rub, and therein lies the craft and technique I'm talking about!
But I am determined...and I will do it or die trying...so stay tuned for the struggle....it's worth every moment of it, at least for me, and I'll try to supply you with the agonies and the ecstasies of it all! I've begun to understand that writing is never easy for any writer, and that struggle, insecurity and outright dis-belief in one's own worth are a well-known pat of every process..oh goody! Thank God, I really want to do it. I truly do.
Now onto Peter: the best and dearest husband ever in the entire world! We luxuriated in the first three months being here by taking the time we wanted to get our home in order, sort things out to get our financial and business lives in shape here, scope out al the museums and theaters we wanted to further explore, go every day to run our pups on the beaches, drive over to the Marin Headlands, have picnics wherever the spirit moved us to sit and enjoy the stunning beauty of this coastline,etc...it was idyllic...and yes, we caught up on sleep too! Neither of us realized how thoroughly exhausted our years had been, and how the journey, the move, the packing,etc had worn us thin....we needed the time to recover, and we took it.
But when he decided he felt like getting to work, he went into an office a friend sent him to - an agency that places support people in all these different industries and companies,etc - aced every test they gave him, impressed them with the Yonka charm and abilities, and the next week he was placed in an office, earning well, and now they are making noises about hiring him permanently....the pay would be swell. And the job is okay. But he still believes in non-profit theater, so when a dear pal asked him to help out at The Magic Theatre with a few things (this is the 44 year old theater where Sam Shepherd's plays were first produced) - and since we are both thoroughly enrolled in Loretta Greco's vision for this marvelous theater - Peter said yes and he is now volunteering some time to assist them in various areas. I know this will be helpful for all concerned...but for now, it's a bit of a balancing act, as he feels his way through two entirely different worlds....i know where his heart is though.
Our home gets more and more comfortable by the week, as we hang a few more pictures, sort out a few more piles, and allow the gorgeous light that pours in through the many windows to heal us every day. The fog horns at night have the same effect, and we love this city more and more.
We've both joined the 24-Hour Fitness gyms and are on a regular schedule of workouts, with (yes, we are now pure Californian in this way) with our trainers, we work hard and feel so good!
My days start with good coffee (like the wine, there seems to be no bad coffee here), and I sit down and do not get up from the computer for three hours at least....this will continue for many days to come and that makes me so very happy.
Tomorrow night we meet a dear friend for dinner (we've chosen a few regulars places we love, including the best vegetarian Chinese place I've ever experienced called The Golden Era, down on O'Farrell, and Friday once more we attend the SF Symphony , this time to hear the Bach BMinor Mass....Saturday, we hear Amanda McBroom at the Razz Room....and Sunday we meditate with our friends at SF Insight Meditation ....we have such a good time here, such a fortunate life. Aside from missing you all, we are thoroughly content.
More soon...truly.
Labels: SF 2011
Post a Comment