Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Learning from a Winner


It is always a blessing to meet
authors, especially one that you
loved listening to in their book
That was me when I
finished "Girl Meets God" many
years ago. I wanted to hear more
of her voice. I got to hear it LIVE
on Saturday.

She is writing another
memoir now. I have not been in
a "class" like this in years. Many.
I've been to lectures on writing, read
books about writing and READ.

Two principles she taught:

1. Do it. Writing is like prayer. Don't just
read about it , do it.

2. Revise. Revise. Revise.

She gave us many exercises to do both.
We wrote and we revised.

Now a few days later, I am thankful for
how it opened my mind to new ways of
seeing. We took a passage we wrote and
revised in by a child's point of view,
made a dialogue , use another sense instead
of sight, description of a person, and
many more. We started with writing our
My Name of this short chapter from
The House on Mango Street. In revising
my orginal writing about My Name , I used
my mother's point of view. That opened my mind
to memory because she has passed away.
I hope to write a memoir for my grand-
children , great, great, etc... on her so
they will know her. That is why I went
and need to do what she said: do it.

here's a link to another blog ( googled)
about a similar workshop Lauren did.

2 comments:

Nancy Kelly said...

Thanks, Bonnie, for the update. It's so fun to be writing again after so many years, even if it is only my blog! So many of her suggestions resonated with me (from the link you provided). The revision part is like magic to me. I start with one idea, then tweak, tweak, tweak until I'm happy with it. Oftentimes it's not anywhere near where I began. Can't wait until her new book is out!

podso said...

Bonnie, that is quite the blog you found via google. I wonder if her seminar was longer than ours? A good resource, right there.