JoCoWrites

By Virginia Brackett

Chapter 50 emphasizes the importance of feedback to the development of any project. Our authors tell us, “By regularly seeking feedback, you’ll be able to tackle harder challenges and put forth bolder ideas.” I relate this idea to the importance to writers of critique. I’ve presented entire sessions focusing on the importance of the critique group, and I’ll land on a few of the high points here.

Let’s begin by considering who you will ask for feedback. You should choose carefully. In general, a family member may not provide the best critique, as they may be too close to you and your project. On the other hand, if you want input on how your young character might word a sentence, your adolescent or teen may be just the sounding board you need.

I highly recommend that your critique buddy be a writer themself. While a voracious reader’s feedback can also be helpful, the writer better understands the barriers you face. They will also understand and be able to use vocabulary referring to elements important to writing, such as “figurative language” and “symbolism.”

You can locate critique groups fairly easily these days, due to the Internet, and even find those who write your specific genre. Many will allow you to observe for a couple of sessions, so that you can better understand the rules for submission and commentary. Yes, I did say rules, because any group that hopes to remain organized must have them. Those rules may direct the number of words you can submit, a date by which submissions must be received, the order in which feedback takes place, even how long the feedback can be.

Most critique groups do not focus on mechanics, such as the use of grammar and proper punctuation. Those are more the concerns of an editor. Your group should comment on matters such as organization, characterization, verisimilitude, and the use of elements of prose and poetry. You can focus on editing later. Now with the presence of software such as Grammerly, many basic problems will be noted for you as you write.

The chapter’s title is “The Test of Silence.” While silence may not seem to relate to critique group work, it does! The reason for that title is that in order to benefit from feedback, we must listen to it carefully. We all have to squelch that very human tendency to think of our own rejoinder while others are still talking. We may feel challenged to not respond to each comment about our work as it is spoken, but our own comments should follow those of the group. By waiting to respond, we have time to absorb what is being said, to make notes about the feedback, and to think of questions we may have to turn back to the group.

Finally, a true working group should offer you not only compliments, but also explain precisely why they believe a sentence works well or why it doesn’t seem to belong. As I always say, a happy face drawn next to your paragraph is pleasing feedback but does nothing to help you improve.

By Virginia Brackett

Chapter 21 challenges you to “Direct Your Curiosity,” and it prompts you to look – really look – at an object. Then you write about the object, following the authors’ guidance to “Write down one aspect of the object that jumps out at you . . . .” This is an excellent prompt for writers, whether to get your creative juices flowing or to begin an article or a poem about that object, or perhaps because you're thinking it may have a place in that mystery you're planning. I’ll use as an example one of the many artifacts I studied in order to write my family memoir that centers on my father, “In the Company of Patriots.” Because my father died in military service in Korea when I was a baby, I never knew him, and I knew the research I would do for a book could offer me insight. However, my initial plan to write a book soon overwhelmed me – a book is a huge project! I was blocked on how to even begin, so I decided to sit down and study some of the objects my mother saved from my father’s time in the Army. I wasn’t concerned about whether I would use my description in the book. Rather, I needed a way to ground myself in its subject. I selected the now-fragile goggles my father had worn as he drove a tank, an activity that brought him much attention in Korea. I’ll throw that teaser out there in hopes you’ll be curious enough to check it out! The goggles’ design held no surprises – two lenses were set inside material with a strap that stretched around his head, a simplicity of design that spoke of the past. I gently stretched the band, my fingers reminding me that this material had touched my father’s body. No doubt, a DNA analysis could be performed that would link me directly to him in a biological sense. OK – that was exciting, but I’d thought about genetic connections before. The aspect that truly interested me were the lenses. Time had darkened and cracked them into a strange pattern that I compared to an agate. I held them up to my eyes, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see through them. I was surprised, however, to discover that the cracks rippling through the darkness allowed bits of light to penetrate. That proved to be an ah-ha moment for me as a writer. I could never see exactly what he saw, but research about his life would permit some light to shine for me, for my family. Even if I only gathered tiny slivers of perspective, I, and hopefully readers, might benefit from my work. So, choose your object – simple or complicated – and allow it to become a beginning for you.

By Jesseca Bear

63: The Futures Wheel

How do hope and delusion differ? Does hope belong in the future? When I think about the future, I tend to think about bleak news articles acting as oracles for the chaos and strife to come.

I am an anxious person and I like to feel like I always have control of my life. No surprise birthdays or breaks from routine for me, please. I grew up with religious prophecies during my childhood, so I grew up believing the events of time to be somewhat fixed and certain. In my twenties, a little more wary of life’s certainty, I dabbled in tarot cards and hoped to gain some insight into what my life could be like. When we feel our most vulnerable and powerless is when we crave prediction the most: where will I live? Will my family be healthy? How can I avoid pain and instead experience maximum joy? We use fortune-telling or prediction as a means of control. Control is also a means of self-preservation: If I know what to prepare for then I can find ways to survive.

The concept of the “futures wheel” reminds me of the wheel of fortune, a popular image from the Middle Ages that is also the tenth card in a tarot deck. Joseph Campbell once said of the wheel, “There’s the hub of the wheel, and there’s the revolving rim of the wheel. And if you attached to the rim of the wheel, let’s say fortune, you will be either above, going down, at the bottom, or coming up. But if you are at the hub, you’re in the same place all the time.”

We can’t predict the future but with hope we can survive it. We can control how we take care of ourselves, and optimism is a big part of self-maintenance. Control and hope are arguably both delusional, but the latter allows us to design a life in which we are stable and flexible enough for all of life’s events. If the wheel of fortune is our metaphor for life, then we must use hope as the hub of the wheel as we live and design our lives. Hope is essential for living. We must design from a place of hope.

By Virginia Brackett

No doubt you recognized that Chapter 52 was written for us writers. Its focus on the use of comparative language, or metaphors and similes, to clarify an abstract idea is one all skillful writers experience. The authors tell us of “bold” work ideas that the person proposing the idea must “find the essence and share it in a way that someone else can easily understand.” The skillful writer makes abundant use of comparative language as she keeps her audience in mind. For instance, if you want to explain the concept of not judging others, because we can’t know everything about them, to a child, a comparison works well. You might compare that situation to our viewing a tree. We can clearly see the trunk and branches, but the roots are an equal part of the complex that is a tree. Comparison to an iceberg might even better serve, as what we see above water is usually only a fraction of the entire iceberg. One concern is to not lapse into cliché or employing comparisons that are so well known they have grown stale, such as the phrase “the tip of the iceberg.” We must challenge ourselves as writers to look to such time-honored comparisons as examples, but to develop fresh comparisons of our own.

By Virginia Brackett

Chapter 13, “Party Park Parkway” practices perfect alliteration – see what I did there? The title gets writers rolling right into the first few paragraphs that discuss the importance of trust to successful group interactions. While the chapter focuses on various kinds of groups or teams, for our purposes we can see how well it applies to a writing critique group. Important takeaways: we must trust in order to feel safe; to trust those around us, we must depend on their being “invested in” our personal success, and we must be invested in theirs; when we trust we feel free to be honest and disagree without threat. In my experience true trust within a critique group takes time to build; as the chapter notes, it can’t be “rushed,” and it certainly can’t be “faked.” In order to establish trust, rules for conducting critique are critical. If everyone must adhere to the same length requirements, the same submission procedure, the same conduct during the critique, then respect for one another as individuals, as well as respect for the writing that we share will grow organically over time. Time is an essential ingredient to trust-building. For instance, we do not enter the first day on a new job, in a new class, even shopping in a new store with trust. The unknowns loom too large. Regardless of what we’ve heard or read about a new place or new group, we must experience it ourselves, and experience it more than once, before we can relax and trust that what seems to be true, actually is. This need for experience in order to trust and gain comfort is even more essential to a well-functioning writing critique group. That’s because we feel especially vulnerable when we offer our writing to others. Our writing reveals much about us, and that type of revelation is not something we generally engage in during a first experience.

By Virginia Brackett

To begin at the beginning, I love everything about the title of this book. The words “Creative,” “Acts,” “Curious,” and “People” all relate so well to writing and writers. Those words predict an active experience, and to be a writer one must – well – act, or write. We can think about writing, coming up with ideas as we jog, prepare meals, run errands, in spare moments at our work desk, but the follow-through to complete a piece about that great idea is essential. Even after beginning a piece based on what seemed a creative idea, if we depend on the rush of emotion we feel when we begin the act of writing to carry us to the conclusion, we will not make it. The individual who finds the task of assembling a written work fun from the first paragraph to the final is a rare and blessed creature indeed. Writing is a serious of “acts,” some of sheer will. This remains a truth that will endure. The term “curious” can be our motivator when finding a topic to write about and assist us in the follow through. Let’s say you want to write an article about an already popular topic, such as fostering animals. You and the everyday reader may understand the topic in a general sense – you understand that people take homeless animals from a shelter and keep them for a measured amount of time, until they can be adopted into a forever home. But you and others likely don’t understand all of the effort that goes into fostering. As a curious person, you want to know more, and you begin by asking questions, such as how does one get started fostering? What are the steps to becoming a foster parent for furry kids? Does everyone qualify, or must one meet certain requirements? By following the lead of curiosity, you can learn much and share much as well. That sharing that arises from the writing act, which is spurred by curiosity, can be a most satisfying people-centered activity.

The Writers Conference Pre-Game is September 22nd at Central and the planning committee is excited to distribute this year's conference book: Creative Acts for Curious People How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways by Sarah Stein Greenburg.

This month we would like to see some examples of your responses to prompts from the conference book! Choose a prompt that has a writing response and post that response here along with something you learned while completing it.

Happy creating!

Submit your response here.

By Annie Newcoemr

Harvest

moonlight grazes over the tops of hills reflects footpath around lake reflects light without shadows reflects moonlight, over the tops of hills, grazing

Annie Newcomer

Abandoned

So I brought them home Abandoned angels without wings abandoned puppies wandering streets abandoned So I brought them home

Annie Newcomer

Remember

There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future Remember and then surrender remember and then forgive Remember There is no sinner without a saint, no future without a past

Annie Newcomer

By Nina Cope

Youth

It was taken when I was young. Naive, Fearful, Quiet because I was young. Changing, Hardened, Hating because I was young When it was taken.

By Charles

His eyes Are filled with A sly humor and wit Beyond his years. He ensures our days Are filled with Creativity and self-expression, And ensures my memories Of all these days Are filled with His eyes.

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I’m listening to podcasts Most of the time If you see me wearing headphones. It’s like chatting with old friends Or overhearing some hot gossip, and Most of the time I get so invested in the episode That there is no room For my anxiety Most of the time I’m listening to podcasts.

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The pie I ate Had organic blueberries Bursting with juice. Each bite I ate Was pure delight. I hope My neighbors who left it out to cool won’t mind I ate
The pie.