Invest in Yourself

Alice Osborn sends out a newsletter chock full of good advice for writers. This is a little snippet from one of them.

6. Invest in yourself with a good computer, and with go to conferences, classes/workshops to keep developing professionally as a writer. Read "how to write" books and books within your genre. Hire a writing coach and do your homework. You need to put some skin in the game and when you spend money on yourself, you’ll know you’re a “real” writer.

I believe that we must invest in ourselves as writers and in our writing. 
If I want to be a doctor, I will study medicine. If I want to be a painter, and I did at one time, I will study painting with the best teacher I can find.

When writers tell me they can't afford to go to workshops or study with writing teachers, my reply is we spend money where we want to spend money. We set our priorities. We pay dues to organizations for writers because the organization can benefit us and other writers. How do they do that? Sometimes it is simply by connecting us to those who can help us. It is by bringing together the best authors for us to hear and learn from their experience. 

I am pleased to look back on the past year of classes at Writers Circle. We hosted excellent instructors, some who teach at colleges in North Carolina and Georgia: Scott Owens, William Wright, Robert S. King, Carol Crawford, Karen Holmes, Robert Lee Brewer, Michael Diebert and Dr. Gene Hirsch. That is an outstanding line up of talented writers and poets. Thanks to Karen Holmes who introduced several of the poetry teachers to Writers Circle. She is already on the schedule to teach next year.

Beginning in March, 2014, we will start a new series of workshops and we are in process of lining up more excellent teachers for the writers in our area. I hope everyone will take advantage of the opportunity to study with them.

I am blessed to have had classes with outstanding writers over the past seventeen years including Kathryn Stripling Byer, Nancy Simpson, Steve Harvey, Maureen Ryan Griffin, Fred Chappell, R.T. Smith and so many other writers at conferences and through the John Campbell Folk School writing program. Conferences and week-long writing retreats are well worth the investment if you want to be a writer. But those who can't afford to spend a few hundred dollars in one lump sum, can certainly set aside $35 - $40 dollars a month for a three hour writing class. Meantime, they can attend critique groups and get feedback on their work. That is always helpful if you join a group with writers who are experienced and who have had their work published in reputable publications. 

Check our Schedule page on this site often to see who will be teaching at Writers Circle around the Table in 2014.

Blue Ridge Writers Conference Reception Friday Night

Tonight I met some new authors in our area. I was in Blue Ridge Georgia for the 16th annual Blue Ridge Writers Conference directed by my dear friend, Carol Crawford. 

The reception at the Arts Center on Friday evening was fun and filled with good food, good wine and artists of all kinds. I could spend hours just looking at the visual arts on the walls, on the tables and everywhere.

But this weekend is about literary art. Vicki Lane, popular fiction writer, is the Keynote speaker. C. Hope Clark, author of Lowcountry Bribe, is back to speak on writing mystery novels. My friend, Scott Owens, highly popular poet, editor and teacher, is back also to speak at two sessions on Saturday. 

This conference draws people from Atlanta and the surrounding area as well as local writers from north Georgia and Western NC.

I met a delightful author who began as a freelancer and wrote articles for magazines for years before she wrote her novel she is promoting at this time. I hope she will teach a class at Writers Circle one day. We've never had anyone teach a class on freelance writing. I'd love to take the class myself.

SEE WHAT SUNNY LEARNED THIS WEEK

Sunny at the dog park

The pup is Sunny who has developed into a very bad barker. She also lunges at other dogs and people as they pass her on the trail at the park. But, just this week, Sunny went to school with a good teacher and now, I hear, she is being such a good girl. She has learned a command that stops her barking and her household is much quieter and calmer. Sunny is a rescue from Logan's Run Rescue in Murphy, NC. They do great work for our furry friends at Logan's Run. So, if you have some extra funds to donate to help find homes for good dogs like Sunny, please visit the website of Logan's Run. 

Keep Dreaming - Reach for your goal - No matter your age.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
                                           - C.S. Lewis

This week I received a call from a local radio station. A nice woman asked if I could help her get local writers to appear on her morning talk show. I told her I thought I could.

I received a call today asking if writers might be interested in an event with other artists on the square in Hayesville to promote their work. I know I would be interested in promoting my work, my writing studio and my published writing. Perhaps we will have the opportunity.

A writer and dear friend asked me to accompany her to an event in Hendersonville, NC in February where we will both speak to a large group. I look forward to that, and hopefully to seeing some of my friends in Netwest while I am there.

What makes us go on each day, even when life has punched us in the solar-plexus? What makes us continue to dream about what tomorrow holds and what we can accomplish?

Some days I awake with pain in every muscle and tendon in my body. Other days I awake and want to pull the covers over my head and hope I don't have to see anyone all day. But those things have nothing to do with age. I had those same symptoms when I was much younger. Back then I often gave in to those painful days. Now, I know that time is precious. Today is gone quickly and will never be here again. So I force myself to think about the list I have made of things I want to get done today.

Some things on my list are not part of my dreams. I might have to see a doctor, keep an appointment with an accountant, make a call that I've already postponed, take my car in for repairs, but I remind myself that sometime during this day I will have the opportunity to brighten someone's day, with a smile or a word of appreciation. I might receive good news, get invited to read, to teach, to speak on writing. And before I go to sleep, I will take the time to write. Writing always brightens my day.

Dear Readers, I appreciate each one of you who stops in and visits here, and I really appreciate your comments. 

 

Write these dates on your calendar

It is not too soon. Write these dates on your calendar - March 5 - April 9.

Glenda Beall teaches at Tri-County Community College between Hayesville and  Murphy, NC. Call and register now.

Call Lisa at (828) 835-4313

http://www.tricountycc.edu/uploads/Schedule/Spring%202013%20Schedule.pd

Write Your Life Stories for Your Children and 

Grandchildren: 

Maybe your grandchildren live miles
away and you see them once or twice a year. Maybe
your children or grandchildren are just too busy to
listen to stories about your childhood, growing up
in the last half of the twentieth century. Have you
always planned to write about your life for your
children and grandchildren? In this class you will learn
how to write your stories so they will be interesting,
enlightening and entertaining. That will be the most
valuable and long-lasting possession you can give to
them.
Instructor: Glenda Beall                    Minimum students: 6
Tuesday afternoons - March 5 - April 9       for 6 wks
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Book Party for Nadine Justice at Writers Circle

Writers Circle studio was filled with joy, encouragement and congratulations for Nadine Justice, author of I'm a Coal Miner's Daughter, But I Cain't Sang, her memoir on the theme of perseverance and belief in one's self. 

Nadine read a couple of excerpts from the book, answered questions, and talked about how she came to write the book. Friends from her writing group in Georgia as well as friends from her first class with me, at Tri-County Community College, were on hand to honor Nadine on her published book. Several Netwest members came and met the new author.  

Nadine Justice stands beside the cake with the photo cover of her book. It was too pretty to cut, but we finally made the first slice.

Linda Smith, Vicki Dumsford, Ash Rothlein, Liz Rothlein, Maren Mitchell

On left Ash Rothlein and on right, Idell Shook

Cake 

Glenda, Ash and Liz Rothlein, Ginny W

from left, Staci Bell, Linda Smith, Joan Howard and Ginny  Walsh

A very big thank you to Staci and Ginny for all there help, and to Joan Howard.

My Thoughts on JCCFS

Although I am not teaching at John C. Campbell Folk School this year, I encourage my readers to take one of the writing classes offered this summer or fall. JCCFS has influenced my growth as a writer and poet and as a teacher. Click on the link below and read my thoughts on this wonderful little place in Brasstown, NC.

http://blog.folkschool.org/2010/03/08/instructor-glenda-beall-and-the-folk-school-writing-program/

Scott Owens, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing and More

Scott Owens, Saturday, May 12, 10 AM - 1:00 PM

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Writing and More

Poet, editor, critic, and teacher, Scott Owens, will lead students through an exploration of a variety of topics and issues regarding the writing process including strategies for invention, revision, and publication. Participants are asked to submit a poem to asowens1@yahoo.com by May 4 for possible use in the revision workshop.

Recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, Scott Owens is the author of 10 collections of poetry, including his latest For One Who Knows How to Own Land from FutureCycle Press and over 1000 published poems in journals including Georgia Review, North American Review, Chattahoochee Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Poetry East among others. He is the founder of Poetry Hickory, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and 234, and vice president of the Poetry Council of NC. Born and raised in Greenwood, SC, he teaches at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC.

Registrations are already coming in for this class. Fees: $30

Send Check to Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, NC 28904

Include contact info: name, email address, telephone number and Mailing address.

Learn to Listen. You will become a good conversationalist.

After reading a blog by an author who admitted he did not get much from critique groups or workshops when he was a student because he talked too much, I began thinking of the importance of listening.


When I was a youngster, I was shy, self-conscious and quiet in class, but my ears were always open. At an early age, I learned to listen to those who did talk.

What Lies Below the Surface
Like the saying “still waters run deep,” I was like the place where we kids swam, Blue Springs, a hole, some said bottomless, with smooth surface water. It was difficult to know that down deep the spring water boiled up from underground to feed the lake. That was my mind boiling away while on the surface I was quiet and serene.
As a kid I was curious about everything. I devoured books. I had immense wonder about life beyond my isolated little world. I craved adventure. I read books about catching and taming wild stallions. I read about people who lived far away from where I grew up in my large family. I wanted to know how they lived and what they did in their homes.

I wanted to meet the girls in Little Women. I loved Jo and Beth, and cried my eyes out when Beth died. Perhaps my lasting empathy for others developed through reading.

Many, many years later I came to realize that I gave myself permission to feel deeply. I did not hide from my feelings. When I hurt I cried, much to my embarrassment many times. When I was happy I laughed with abandon. Sentimental movies brought out my tissues and my sobs. I was accused of wearing my feelings on my sleeve. I bruised easily. Harsh words cut through me like a knife blade. I took rejection of any kind personally and beat myself up for being stupid, ignorant or lazy. As a teen or a college age student, a broken romance buried me for months. Whether I broke up with him or he with me, I hurt.

I belive my empathy for others came from being still and listening. I listened to my own feelings. I saw and felt the fear and the emotional ache of others when larger kids bullied them, humiliated them. At times I felt the whole world was made up of pain, and I bore it for everyone.

At one point in my adult life I decided to take the Dale Carnegie Course on public speaking. I hoped it would help me get over my shyness, give me self-confidence and help me meet the public in my work. I read the books required for the course and was amazed at the insight I found there. I found out there were others just like me. People who had such a fear of public speaking that they passed out. I was sure that would happen to me if I were ever called on to stand before a group and talk.

After a few meetings, it was not long before I lost most of my fear. Perhaps that was because I realized the others, mostly men, were more frightened of public speaking  than I. One man, a friend of my brother, surprised me. I thought, because he was a successful business man, he would have no trouble speaking publicly. However, I learned that the greatest fear of most people is that of speaking before a large group.

We were taught that the most important thing we had to do was just be ourselves.  Don’t put on airs or try to impress others. "Just be the same person you are when you stand before an audience as you are to your spouse, your kids or your friends." Those wise words from our instructor hit home.
The second thing I learned was to listen. When someone in our group stood and gave his five-minute talk, we gave him our undivided attention. That helped him relax and do his best. The more we listened the more we learned about each other. We began to feel like a little family. I find this happens in my writing classes, especially memoir classes.

In one of Dale Carnegie’s books he writes about the importance of listening.
“When you listen well, and let others talk, they will go away saying you are a wonderful conversationalist.”

While listening we aren’t thinking of what we want to say, how we are affecting our listener, we have the easy task of seeing the speaker, reading the speakers’ mannerisms, and taking in his words, roiling them around in our minds and seeing the real person before us.

As a school teacher I saw that children, who wouldn’t be quiet and listen, were the students who usually made the worst grades. Listening is an art we must perfect if we are to attain excellence in relationships, in our work and especially in writing.
When we stop listening, we stop learning. We stop being a good conversationalist. When we refuse to  listen we close out those we might learn from, those who could offer us just what we need.


Link:  Never too Late to Change Your Life

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