Happy Writing Faces

Do you see how happy we are in this photo?!
This is early June 2016, in the big room at Thinkers Lodge overlooking the Pugwash harbour. It was a raw day - windy and damp - but we were cozy in our writing world and the weather didn't bother us one bit.
I wasn't quite a published author when this photo was taken; Field Notes didn't come out until October of that year. I was there as a writer who needed a boost for a project I'd been working on for six years at that point. I've always been grateful I signed up for Marjorie's one-day workshop because 1) I gained her as a good friend, 2) I had two epiphanies during that workshop, one of which I'm sharing during our writing workshop together this May, and 3) her suggestions helped me rethink the flow of my memoir and opened me up for a complete rewrite the following June.

There are two truths about writing: 1) if you want to write, you need to read as much as you can, in a variety of genres, and 2) if you want to write, you need to do some level of studying.


There are books about writing, there are workshops like the one Marjorie and I are co-presenting at the end of May, and there are university degrees -- so lots of options.
I've always been a book and workshop girl myself. I like the intimacy of a workshop, and it's also affordable. I remember taking the GO Train into Toronto, to Ryerson University, for a two-day writing workshop in the mid-1990s. I can't tell you the instructor's name but what I remember most is writing for two days. I didn't meet anyone else, I didn't talk to the other writers, but it was just part of my education as a writer.
The not connecting with other writers wasn't necessarily a good thing (more my introverted thing), and connection is what makes OUR workshop so valuable. You aren't on your own; you will write a lot on Saturday, May 26, and you will scribble notes and ideas down, but you will also engage in conversation, and contribute to discussions. You will come away feeling like a writer with a do-able project you'll want to keep working on, and you'll feel like part of a community.

Hope you will join us. For details, check out the poster in my March 29th post. Contact me for more information.