I'm conducting a writing workshop at the Wellness Community in Redondo Beach, California this Saturday (2/21) from nine to noon. The workshop is for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer – your own or a loved one.  It's free and it's oddly a lot of fun. I've been conducting the workshop for eleven years. Come join us. (The next one will be March 21st)

 

One of the writing exercises we're going to do this Saturday was inspired by an essay in the New York Times by Dana Jennings entitled "Notes to Sooth the Savage Cells". (Jennings is a NYT editor and author of Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death and Country Music.) He has advanced prostate cancer and wrote about the playlist that complements his moods as he goes through treatement. (You can find this essay in the Well blog at NYT.)  Some of his picks: "Moanin' at Midnight" by Howlin' Wolf and "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley. 

 

Whatever you're going through now - illness, joy, boredom, funk, break- up blues, dark fury, bliss  -  what's the playlist? (And let us know.)

 

Advice From Other Writers: (via HARO)

 

 

Keep a journal– an organized place where you can store overheard conversations, seedling ideas, rough writing, raw emotion, inspired dreams, possible titles, random anecdotes and more. You'll be in the fine company of Virginia Woolf, Allan Ginsburg, Graham Greene, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
–Ruth Folit, author of LifeJournal software (www.lifejournal.com)

 

Read as much as you can. Write when you're inspired and when you're not inspired. Repeat.   –  Anita Higman  www.anitahigman.com

 

My advice to new writers is this:

Be willing to start out writing for a new publisher, and be willing to write for free. My first article was accepted by a young editor of a new magazine. He made a few brilliant moves and my work was made available on an international level.

–  Timothy Palla,  McDermott, Ohio

Network.  Network.  Network.  Let everyone you know that you are looking to get published, you never know who will be in a position to help.  Make sure you are on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have a website?  Is it updated?  Do you have a newsletter?  Attend events within your industry.  And, most importantly, share any knowledge/contacts you find along the way with others.  Karma is a very powerful force! Dayna Steele  www.daynasteele.com

I have, at times, plagued myself with what I "should" write, what might be marketable, what the publisher might want to see next. But writing is, at it's core, an indulgent experience. Allow yourself a little indulgence and write what you want to write, instead of trying to follow the current trend.- Alisa M. Libb  -  author, The King's Rose, Dutton Children's Books, March 2009