Join us in welcoming Jyl Lynn Felman, writer, performer and creative writing teacher, to The Writer’s Life. Jyl’s plan: “to create an intimate portrait of the writer, her life and her imagination. Sometimes I’ll give a writing exercise. Most of the time I’ll discuss what it means to be a writer from the inside out and back inside.”
Lauren Nicole Nixon discusses opening up to new books and all that can be gained from sharing new voices: “Writing is a catalyst for sharing and communicating and exploring openings into new channels of thought. Sharing cannot happen when we refuse to allow new voices (and books) into our lives.”
Traci discusses why and what to read to bolster the writing life and the impact of those words on the work: “Recently someone told me that a poet’s reading life was like the dark side of the moon. What we read is often hugely influential to what we write, whether we are reading fiction, non-fiction, poetry, textbooks, newspapers, the dead, the living, translated authors, recipes, gossip columns, medical documents, and yes, even Tweets.”
Welcome to this week’s featured writing prompt. For the New Year, take some time to explore. Leave your car behind, and take a walk. Add warm layers with a coat, hat, and boots. Follow a path to search for new details. Find small details around the corner. How will this year be different from the [...]
With the new year in sight, Traci shares her surprising (and refreshing) resolutions for 2012: “I could resolve to spend more time at my desk this year. I could resolve to submit more. I could create writing challenges or participate in NaNoWriMo. And because I love a good, long ‘To-Do’ list, I’m sure I’ll get many of those things done. However, my resolution is this: play more.”
Welcome to this week’s featured writing prompt. Write about a character’s efforts to prepare for a season, an event, or a goal. Enjoy, and please share your writing with us in the comments section.
This week’s writing prompt is about getting to know your characters.
Lauren experiences The Vegetable Orchestra, a Vienna-based orchestra which plays instruments that are created entirely from vegetables. At first she finds the cadence unpalatable, but then opens up to the unlikely music and realizes that “the sounds of these artists are constantly challenging me to unlearn, re-evaluate and reorganize my own notions of what art can be.”
Traci gives a little peek at her bookshelf—some of her favorite reads from 2011 and a glimpse at what to look forward to in 2012.
Traci relates the complicated feelings that can emerge even in the most joyful of events for the writer: publication. “After I got the call that it had been accepted, I pulled over so I could celebrate at a safe distance from six lanes of traffic. But that night I felt a small hollowness, like I’d been through surgery and someone removed an organ I didn’t know I had. All that was left was a pocket of space. Something was gone from me. Something I’d given before I knew I would miss it.”
Join Traci each week as she blogs about poetry and her daily writing life in the run up to her next title release, Our Lady of the Ruins. Listen to Traci's One World Café podcast here.
Lauren writes about her experience as a poet, performer and the creative life in the city. Listen to her One World Café Virtual Reading here.
With over fifty years of writing experience, Jyl posts about the writing process with occasional writing prompts to encourage your practice. Find out more about Jyl at jyllynnfelman.com.
Traci reveals the impetus to her life journey of writing: “I needed to love something badly enough to change my life, and that thing was poetry.”
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