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The Writer Workshop Weekly News #21! View this email online
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| | February 24, 2020
Issue #22 |
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Hello Writers!
Several writers new to the workshop came in this week. It was interesting meeting you and welcome.
Writers spend so much time alone working that it's nice to come together for a few hours, share our work, and offer and receive feedback. It's nice to know that a scene is working (and important to know when it's not). I remain grateful getting to do the work I do helping writers.
Just a heads up that the schedule will be a bit different this week. Mon-Wed is the same with workshops and prompt writing. Thursday is our book club and we'll be discussing Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing (see below).
On Friday, I head to Vegas to take part in a panel discussion: Paving the Way: Conceiving & Crafting Diverse Characters for Inclusive Lit. This program is hosted by the Henderson Writers' Group and funded by Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. I'm honored to have been invited to participate in this event and I'm looking forward to a discussion on Diversity in Fiction. This is a hot topic right now for many reasons, including the controversy surrounding the novel, American Dirt. I'm also looking forward to bringing back the knowledge gleaned to share with all of you.
We'll be back to a regular schedule on March 3rd. Download the March Calendar, today!
Join us on Meetup for all the latest offerings and to RSVP for workshops and classes.
As always, please reply to this message and introduce yourself and let me know what I can help you with.
Enjoy the journey!
Gregory
Gregory A. Kompes (MFA, MS Ed.)
Founder of The Writer Workshop |
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Events: February 24-March 2, 2020
Monday, 2/24: 7 pm Writer Workshop ($5) Tuesday, 2/25: 7 pm Fiction through Prompts ($10) Wednesday, 2/26: 1 pm Writer Workshop ($5) Wednesday, 2/26: 7 pm LGBTQ+ Writer Workshop ($5) Thursday, 2/27: 7 pm Book Club (Free) Friday, 2/28: CLOSED Saturday, 2/29: 12 pm Paving the Way (Las Vegas, NV) Sunday, 3/1: CLOSED Monday, 3/2: CLOSED
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| | We are Cups...
by Gregory A. Kompes
"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."
~Ray Bradbury
Zen in the Art of Writing is filled with gems like the one above. I love this image, this metaphor, this idea that all of our life and experience, all the sounds and events and people and places and books and movies and music and weather and...and...and...that all of it goes in and that we tip ourselves over and don't spill it all, but only the beautiful. Only the work.
Bradbury is a master of creating worlds, of creating suspense, of creating terror. He's a tight writer who has a strong, solid, easily read voice on the page.
Just us on Thursday as we talk about his collection of essays on writing and life and experience. He's used memoir to teach. When done well, as he does, the work is not only useful ideas, but inspired construction, too.
The Writer Workshop Book Club for Writers, 7pm. |
| | | February Book Club Selection
Zen in the Art of Writing
by Ray Bradbury
"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!" Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities every writer must have, as well as a spirit of adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are practical tips on the art of writing from a master of the craft-everything from finding original ideas to developing your own voice and style-as well as the inside story of Bradbury's own remarkable career as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems, films, and plays. Zen In The Art Of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.
Get your copy today at The Writer Workshop or Amazon |
| | Fiction Through Prompts
Join us and improve your writing!
Each session includes writing to a “high end” prompt, reading our work, receiving a bit of feedback, and a short lecture on a literary device.
This weekly event allows you to step outside your box, to disrupt your usual thought process by writing to a prompt without advance thought. You hear the prompt, and then write for about 20 minutes. Participants then read their work and receive a bit of light feedback. It's an informative and sometimes transformation process.
Tuesday, February 25 at 7 pm ($10)
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