Comments on: Write stuff

By: starrlife

starrlife — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:44:46 +0000

I’d love to do a writer’s workshop, another phase of life to come! Glad that you are getting so much, well deserved support for your wonderful book! I have a bit of that brain but it is so cluttered with so many things. I’ve often considered getting one of those dictaphone thingies to talk into since so may ideas go by the wayside.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:33:24 +0000

Eerie! I woke up this morning toying with the idea of going on my own private writer’s retreat and giving myself the gift of focused time and attention. Perhaps your post is one of those “Just Do It” signs. The summer workshops you’re offering sound great! Good luck!

By: Joanna Jenkins

Joanna Jenkins — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:41:33 +0000

PS I’m REALLY enjoying your book!!!!!!

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:09:47 +0000

Thanks for stopping by my site. I will be thinking of you and your FIL.

I would love to sit in on your writer’s retreat class. Wish I lived closer. I’ll see if I can work it out.

Blessings

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:49:29 +0000

I have decided that women who write are brave souls. That lens of a writer can be daunting when it comes in mid-life. I am at the beginning edge and have learned things about myself that I didn’t know. Instead of writing less, I think I need to write more to learn more.

By: cindy harrison

cindy harrison — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:38:28 +0000

Sometimes I try to imagine how life would be without that particular lens of a writer, but the color quickly drains out of the picture. Good luck with your class!

By: Joanne

Joanne — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:14:35 +0000

Cindy, I can relate to your comment to JenJen about looking at everything through the lens of a columnist, and how it allowed you to look for the poetry and lessons of everyday. I feel that way too, when I go out with my camera ready to shoot photos for my blog relating to embracing lives of our choosing, and keeping our passions and art central. With that camera, I see evidence of this just about everywhere I look.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:07:19 +0000

JenJen, you mention your child asking if you’re going to blog about a particular experience…
That reminds me of the introduction to Anna Quindlen’s column collection, Living Outloud. In it, Anna wrote that her husband once asked her if she could go and get him a beer without her writing about it in one of her columns. I had to laugh. When I was writing weekly family columns for our local paper, I looked at EVERYTHING through the lens of a columnist. While that does seem a little strange or intense, in retrospect, that column job really did inspire me to look for the poetry or lessons in everyday living, instead of blindly moving through my daily routine at the grocery or the school carpool …
– Cindy La Ferle

By: Jenjen @GottaLoveMom

Jenjen @GottaLoveMom — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:58:06 +0000

Hi Cindy,

Your quote just caught my eye because it’s so true.

I’m not a professional writer, but as a kid, I usually keep a journal (maybe that’s why my kids do keep a journal, too).

And with raising four kids, I really didn’t get back to leisure reading until last December. And a few months after that, it seems like I’ve awaken a sleeping dragon! I started venting-in-ink, or more like an input-output keystroke combinations.

My mind has not stopped sending these picture messages that I have to put to words.
Whether I’m walking into the woods with my husband, or driving, or filling out some paperwork, or even while typing this comment, I must have an overload of picture messages. It feels like someone’s downloading their entire digi-cam memory card into my brain!

One time, my 8yo and I were playing and talking and he stopped and looked at me and said, “Hhhmm…mom, you’re going to blog about that one, too, huh?”

I guess no experience or conversation left unexploited, right?

My main challenge is to concentrate on the book I really wanted to finish. I outlined it a few years back. It’s an emotional one, maybe that’s why it’s taking me a while to write it. If I can just have one day to focus on that one, it’ll really be a good thing.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:29:37 +0000

Jan,
You make me smile — about the writers “losing our minds.” Along these lines, I just ran across a very interesting post and comments on The Happiness Project, regarding artists and creatives in general. The author asks: Are artists LESS happy than other people? Here’s the link, and you have to read the comments after the essay — really fascinating:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2009/05/are-artists-unhappier-than-regular-people.html