With workshops on a break for spring vacation week, you may not find yourself somewhat less motivated to write something new without the deadline of a workshop meeting. (Watch for my article in the Spring 2011 issue of Connecticut Muse: "What Every Writer Needs Most: A Deadline.") 

But there are other ways to keep growing as writers. Such as, 

• Read a book outside of your genre.
• Replenish your creative well by visiting an art museum, a botanical garden, or attending a concert. 
• Take a long quiet walk at the beach or a nature preserve with no headphones, just your own thoughts.
• Visit the poetry section of the library, and pick something out at random.

Whatever you do, just remember to keep a small notebook and close by for when stray thoughts or inspiration come.  Or like Anne Lamott, a 3x5 card in your back pocket "to signal to the Universe that I'm always open for business."

There's lots coming in in the weeks and months ahead.  Here's a preview:

NEW THIS SUMMER!  

Workshops for Young Writers

Summer is the perfect time for young writers to unleash their creativity or get a head start on that all-important college essay. This summer we are offering  creative writing workshops for younger writers. Scheduled for one-week-long sessions from July 5 through August 12, these will include:

Grades 4-6 

• Creative Writing: Unleash Your Imagination 

Grades 7-11  

• Creative Writing: Fiction and Fantasy
• Journalism: Reporting and Column Writing
• Be a Blogger 
• The World According To Me

Entering Grade 12  

• Write Your College Essay

 Call (203) 227-3250 for more information.

Wouldn't you like four days of quiet days of peace and quite to write in a private room in this oceanside estate, with evening workshops, gourmet meals, and the supportive company of other writers?

Then join us in Watch Hill, Rhode Island on May 13-17, 2011 where only two spots remain for our Writers' Retreat.

Coming Next to Greenwich 

How To Find a Literary Agent for Your Novel
and 

Write a Captivating Query Letter

 

with Literary Agent Denise Marcil   

Are you writing a novel, detective story, romance, or mystery that you would like to have published.   Now here comes the all-important question.  How do you go about finding that key professional in an author's life, the literary agent?  

In this workshop New York literary agent Denise Marcil, president of Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc., who has launched the writing careers of hundreds of authors, will attempt to answer that question.  First she will explain the role of literary agents:  what they do, how they develop and guide the careers of writers, and how they advocate for their writers in negotiations with their publishers.  She will then describe what steps writers need to take in order to secure an agent, such as: identifying which agents to pitch, how to find and contact them, and how to manage the submission process.

Ms. Marcil will give special focus to the art of  the agent query letter, which is the critical first step in attracting an agent.  She will give examples of some winning query letters, describing how they are constructed, what works, and what does not.  Workshop participants will have an opportunity to receive feedback on a sample agent query letter that they may bring to the workshop to shared with the group (time permitting).  There will also be ample time for Q&A in which participants may discuss his or her own publishing goals.

As president of Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc. which she founded at age 24, Denise Marcil represents a wide variety of commercial fiction and non-fiction, from thrillers to management books.  She has been an active board member of ILAA, the Independent Literary Agents Association and the AAR, the Association of Author's Representatives. She has been featured in many publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, Business Week, More and Working Woman. 

SPACE IS LIMITED,  REGISTER NOW 

News of Our Writers

Winners all ...

Congratulations to the winners of the Fairfield Library's inaugural One Book One Town Writing Contest:

Noradeen Farlekas, Adult Essay (Unpublished)

Deanna Foster, Adult Poem (Unpublished)

Christine Shaffer, Adult Essay (Published)

 Appearances ...

•  Westport Writers' Workshop instructor Marcelle Soviero, who caught the attention of American Public Media with her Salon.com essay Making Peace at My Ex-husband's Seder, was interviewed on America Public Media's The Story, which aired on April 18. Listen to her interview here. 

Just  published ...     

• Marcelle Soviero's essays, Making Empanadas from Scratch and Memory  and My Broken Marriage in a Shoebox, which she worked on in the WWW Examined Life workshop, were published on Salon.com. Her essay Rock Bottom, which she wrote while at the WWW Cape Cod Writer's Retreat was a winning essay in the Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative competition and will be published this summer.

Summer Workshops

Registration for Summer 2011 Writing Workshops

Good news if you want to keep that writing muscle limber: Yes,we will be offering summer sessions of many of our workshops. There will also be half-day workshops and events throughout June and July, along with new workshop offerings. Once again, participants currently enrolled in a workshop have priority to re-register for their spots for the next session.   Let your workshop leader know if you would like to re-register. 

Enter a Contest 

Participants in Marcelle Soviero's Get Published workshop learned that a great way for new writers launch their careers - and sometimes even win a nice cash prize -  is by entering contests. Here's one to try this month:

$1000 each and publication in New Millennium Writings and at  www.newmillenniumwritings.com for Best Poem, Nonfiction, Fiction or Short-Short Fiction in the New Millennium Writings competition.  Deadline is June 17.  Twenty Poetry Honorable Mentions published along with winners and selected prose finalists.   

You can't win unless you enter! 

Your Memoir: Is it Fiction or Nonfiction??  

Our April 7 full-house panel presentation "Writing Your Memoir for Publication: Yes You Can!"once again demonstratedthat memoir writing remains an inspiring genre for many writers.  Many who attended reported that they left motivated to keep writing their memoirs with the intention of having it published by a mainstream publisher.  They also left equipped with some useful new information about what it takes to have a memoir published.  

Our special thanks to author Randye Kaye, who began writing her soon-to-published memoir Ben Behind His Voices:One Family's Journey from the Chaos of Schizophrenia to Hope (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011) with the Westport Writers' Workhop.  And we are of course grateful to literary agent Rita Rosenkranz, who traveled from Manhattan to meet with us and hear brief synopses what our writers are working on.

Thanks especially to Joan Glennon who so generously and unexpectedly offered to chauffer Ritahome to Manhattan! 

Speaking of memoir, here is a question about memoir we are asked repeatedly:  If I'm writing "thinly disguised memoir," or a "memoir" based on my mother's life, or my grandfather's diaries, is it fiction or nonfiction?  If it really happened, can I call it a memoir?  

This issue was addressed in an interesting newsletter article published by Writer's Relief, an author's submission service. While we don't recommend using a fee-based submission service such as this one, we wanted to pass the article along. 

The bottom line? If it didn't actually happen to you, no, you can't call it memoir.  But there are other ways to tell the story, such as calling your project "a story inspired by real-life events," "a true-life novel" (like Jeannette Walls' Half Broke Horses) or "a work loosely based on my life."

Thursday, May 12, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.,HOW TO FIND A LITERARY AGENT FOR YOUR NOVEL AND WRITE A CAPTIVATING QUERY LETTER with Denise Marcil, president of Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc., who has launched the writing careers of hundreds of authors at the Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich, $125 or $115 for GAC or WWW members.  

Thursday, June 9, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., ESSENTIALS FOR THE FICTION WRITER: POINT OF VIEW  with Suzanne Hoover, Ph.D., at the Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich, $65 or $55 for GAC or WWW members.    

Saturday, June 4, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., WRITING ABOUT INTIMACY with author Sandra Rodriguez Barron, 3 Sylvan Road South, Westport, $65 or $55 for WWW members.  

Lots more coming ... make sure you are on our email list for announcements of all events and openings. 

Spring vacation schedule:  

No workshops the week of April 18-23. 

Author Barbara Kingsolver On Revision

"I adore revision.  Whether it's a two-page article or a 500-page book, I rewrite endlessly.  I may rewrite the first paragraph of a novel fifty times before I'm satisfied.  I comb through a manuscript again and again, altering every sentence a little or a lot ...   

"It's thrilling to take an ending and pull it backward like a shiny thread through the whole fabric of a manuscript, letting little glints shine through here and there.  To plant resolution, like a seed, into chapter one.  To create new scenes, investing a character with the necessary damage, the right kind of longing.  To pitch out boldly and try again.  To work every metaphor across the whole, back and forth, like weaving.  I love that word "fabrication," because making an elaborate fiction feels so much like making cloth. 

"Perfectionism is my disease.  Revision is my milk and honey."

~ Barbara Kingsolver 

For More Information