2012 Events Now Posted 

Early Registration Advised

Spaces Are Limited

 

May 3 - Jun 7
Fearless Writing Classes
East Asheville, NC
 

April 12-15, 2012 

The 8th Annual

Fearless Writing on the Beach Retreat 

Seabrook Island, SC 

 

  

May 5-6, 2012
Follow the Pen: A Two-Day Journey to Fearless Writing
Montreat, North Carolina

 

 Sept 30 - Oct 7, 2012  

The 10th Annual
Fearless Writing on the Blue Ridge Retreat
Canton, NC (Lake Logan)
Sep 30 - Oct 7, 2012 
 
Visit the website
for more details and
all things ClarityWorks

Practice Makes Possible

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Process before product.

Writing requires silence, solitude, space, and the courage and awareness to search our shadow side.

Write from the belly, not the brain; write from the heart, not the head.

The body with its intuition and our willingness to listen to what the body says are our greatest assets as writers.

Writing and publishing are not the same thing. If we write, we are writers. If we publish what we write, we are published writers. A published writer is not a better writer. A published writer is simply a writer who is published.


-Peggy Tabor Millin
excerpts from

Women, Writing, and Soul-Making

Wordly Wise from Peggy Tabor Millin

Lessons for a First Novel

In September 2005, a character showed up in response to a prompt and told me his story in twenty-five pages.

One of the first things he said, in dialogue with another character, was along the lines of "I never let the truth stand in the way of a good story." I didn't think much about this comment until recently as I attempted to organize all the writing I have done on his behalf.

Almost all of the vignettes I have of this character have come in response to prompts I've given in class. Using Centered Writing Practice, I write with my students and sometimes this character will show up and add a bit to his story. Now I'm looking at many pages of tidbits to discover the story line.This is one of those cases in which I can teach from my experience of what didn't work.

Lesson 1: Transcribe your handwritten work as you go. Things would be going more smoothly if all my writes were typed. To correct this oversight, I bought a Nuance product called Dragon (both PC and Mac versions available) that allows the computer to type as I read. When I transcribe my writing myself I begin to edit and revise. At this point, I only want the raw content, I don't want to creating scenes that may not fit into the story.

Lesson 2: Do as much research as you can as early as you can. Keep lists of questions as they arise and also lists of sources (people, books, and websites) for the answers. 

Long ago I sketched a timeline of the character and significant events in his life and how they related to the socio-political events of the time. I identified people willing to be informants for my research. Still, there were many questions that didn't arise until I begin piecing the story together.

Lesson 3: Don't give up. Trust that somewhere in what may seem like total chaos, order will appear.

As you sift through the writes you've done in the past, new ones will appear. Even though you may have the character's story, as my character indicated, you may need to change details to create a good story.

What I find is that I have to stay true to the voice. My body senses when my mind and my author's voice attempt to take control. I experience this feeling as my energy escaping like the psssst of air from a balloon.

This brings me back to an underlying principle: you have to care enough about your characters and their story to stay motivated through the tough spots.

The big lesson: Create space around your work and in your life and allow your own process to emerge then ride the tiger of your creativity. Seeing lessons instead of obstacles is a big help.

Keep Writing!

If you could just stand still and

Let me get a good look at you

I will remember all that you are and

 Fasten a picture of you

On the ceiling of my mind

To remain secured when

 Life spins far too fast

Hurtling past your childhood

Why can't we play counting or tickling games

Or trace  ABC's on your back?

Life won't stand still

For me to get a good look at you.

Wide eyes buttoned on your angel face,

Heart lips puckered like sprouting pink posies,

Love notes tucked in your lunch box

Flew over a mobile sky and morphed into text jots with

Invented smiles of colons and parenthesis.

You're moving way too fast,

Further away from here, and more than ever

I just want to brush your hair-

Girl, won't you just stand still?

The shrillness in my voice I recognize

As the same my mother used to house

Way back when

I was scurrying away from there.

Swift to stall our time now,

I stand dearly still...

To get a good look at you, and

Behold the beauty you've become,

Changeless is the blush upon your lip,

Eyes as blue as your widening skies,

Hair drawn back in a timeless ponytail

Bobbing to young life's beat.

I see you can't stand still, girl

Nor should I make that request

But every so often a Mother must beg and

Plead for her daughter to do the impossible-

Stand still like I told you, and

Let me get a good look at you.