The Magical Unread Session

We used to meet at Barnes and Noble when Barnes and Noble used to close at 11 p.m. Now we meet at places that close at 10, because nothing closes at 11. Most places close at 9. This means that if there are a lot of people, like tonight, or if we are all writing …

You Can Never Say Thank You

The first book I ever bought about how to be a writer was Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. I still have it, and I just looked inside the title page: it is a first edition. So I was lucky, because really you probably don’t need any other book on writing, ever, except for that book. …

Keiko’s Gardening Tips

I had a dream that I was in a workshop where we had to practice giving a presentation off the top of our heads. I chose gardening, even though I have not succeeded at that. Here is my presentation. I came up with the tips as I was talking. “Have you wanted to grow a …

My New Writing Coach

I’m going to be my own writing coach. I will read my first draft of the story I’m working on, and I’ll say to myself, “Hey, Keiko, this is really good! Keep working on it!” I will reply, “Really?” “Yes!” I’ll say. I’ll be so enthusiastic I will convince myself. I will say, “Write a …

Be Brave and Write

Inspired by a quote from William Gibson: “You must learn to overcome your very natural and appropriate revulsion for your own work.” Many times we are our own worst enemy, too critical of our own writing abilities, thinking that people wouldn’t want to read our “ramblings.” We must get over these thoughts and realize that …

Why Write to the End?

Often new members come to our writing group and ask for feedback on their as-yet-uncompleted novel. Or someone who’s been with us a while will get an idea for a story while at the group, write a few scenes of it during the writing sessions, and then ask everybody what we think. This seems perfectly …

Script Frenzy: Coming Your Way in April

If you like to set big writing goals and then dive in, you might want to check out the Script Frenzy event that runs April 1-30. Script Frenzy is an annual event sponsored by the nonprofit organization the Office of Letters and Light to encourage creative writing. The goal is to write 100 pages of …

A Writing Group Poem

Hi everyone, Here’s a little poem I wrote during Tuesday night’s writing group: There’s a writing group I’ve come to know, That meets on Tuesday night. They get together and form a group, They sit down and they write. Fables, fiction, memories, And stories all are told. Such a range of story characters, Tall, short, young, and old. …