Writing Prompt - Where I'm From

I did a writing mini- workshop this morning and really liked this Mad Libs activity using the poem Where I’m From by George Ella Lyons. Figured I’d share mine here. Original below. You can also check out Lyons’ web page for a massive international project using her poem.

Where I’m From

-      Kenya’s version 

Writing Inspiration: We All Write and Roc Fringe 2018

As part of the Rochester Fringe Festival, I saw a powerful presentation by a group of Black Women Writers in Rochester. It was set up as a glimpse into their writing group process. Each writer presented a couple of pieces with real time responses from the rest of the group (and fellowship shouts of praise from the audience). The plan is for an encore presentation at The Avenue Theatre next Friday. I intend to go and make my 18 year old daughter go, as well.

Some interesting things that were said, that might serve as writing prompts:

Writers Write: Sticking to my #NaBloPoMo goal

When setting goals it is best to set them in such a way that does not depend on your mood. You see, people think about what they want to accomplish and get all gung-ho about everything and excited. Then, some time later, their mood changes and they just don't feel like doing The Thing any more. Maybe they're tired, or busy, or just feeling unmotivated.

But (effectively) setting a goal means that you give yourself a structure and, hopefully, a reminder about doing The Thing even when you don't feel like doing The Thing. Even if you're tired or busy or unmotivated, if you have set a goal to jog three days per week, then you get up and do it. If you were just going to depend on your mood, your perceived motivation, and your flexibility, you're not really working toward your goal, you're just doing what you feel like doing, when you feel like doing it. Do you see the different? It's an important one and one I have to talk to parents about ALL THE TIME. Your rules and goals should not mood- dependent. This is usually how I fail at 30-day challenges. Once the going gets tough, or inconvenient, I'm out.

I say all this because I don't really feel like blogging today. I'm tired. I'm in the middle of a good book and I want to finish it TODAY. It's The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, by the way. Don't you hate when someone references a book they like and then don't tell you the stinking name!! TELL ME WHAT BOOK IT IS... 

But I digress.

So, even though I'm tired, I'm posting this blog. Because that's what I said I was going to do for National Blog Posting Month. And Writer's Write.

The Case for Multiple Book Clubs

Hello. My name is Kenya and I hoard book clubs. [Hello, Kenya!] 

“Hoard” is obviously the wrong word, which suggests that I am trying to keep all the book clubs to myself, even when they are no longer useful to me, like so many candy wrappers, like I can’t get to my kitchen door without stepping over the book clubs in the way. That would be ridiculous... not about books, but about book groups!

The way I see it is: Books are my main hobby. Sporty people (I believe they are called athletes) and fisherman enjoy hanging out with others who share their interests. There are sports channels and fishing tackle stores and people in camo looking at dead fish, etc. Well, I also like to spend time with people who enjoy my favorite past time. I’m assuming things here, obviously; I don’t know any fisherman and very few athletes.  

Plus, when I moved to Rochester, I did so without knowing many people here. Hubbo works from home and is completely imbedded in the geekdom of the comic book industry and my kiddos are getting older (aka: less needy). I needed a way to meet and play with new friends of my own. Enter, book clubs! 

My plan was to try a few and really settle into one. But I realized that book clubs are kind of like people, or a church. Or a favorite Target store. They each have a personality and a culture. No single one can provide every single thing you need. So, right now I have four.  

My Friends (Sometimes we only barely remember what we are there for): My primary book group meets every 6 weeks or so. It was my idea to start it, but I didn’t really have anyone to invite (being pretty friendless) so it’s me, my friend, Meredith, and now 4 other people of varying degrees of separation from my friend. This is the club that typifies my idea of a friend’s book club: we all know each other fairly well, an average of two people actually read the book, we talk about it for no longer than 15 minutes, there’s at least three bottles of wine, and, more recently, it could be considered the Crimes against Humanity game club. Let me digress to warn you against introducing this game to a group of people that already has any other purpose. Anyway, we pick mostly light- reading fiction. Our most recent book, Landline by Rainbow Rowell was a favorite. I think only one person didn’t finish it! It’s considered YA by some, but is an excellent book about looking back on your life and figuring out how you may be missing out on the wonder of you relationship. We generally get a little loud and make fun of each other at least half the time.

My Library (Great at reading/ structure but not a lot of silliness): My “Library” book group is a discussion group organized by the local mortuary. Ha! No, seriously, it’s organized through the library. There are many libraries in my county and I basically attended the two that were conveniently timed and kept going back to the one I liked best (it was a smaller group). The average age of the participants is probably about 55 and I’ve never seen another person of color at a meeting. Everyone is super nice but a little mystified by the plight of any non- suburban characters. I like this book club largely, but not only, because of the structure. We are there to talk about the book. It’s also somewhat informal; we digress and get tangential but the majority of the time is spent on the book or making connections to other books. A recent favorite from this group was The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon. This book sparked some discussion about the history of mental institutions and families.  If you're in Monroe County and want to find a library book discussion group: click here. Barnes and Noble and some other books stores also have them. Check websites!

My Brains (The intellectuals):  My third group is for local Young Professionals. I qualify, by their definition, for about 2.5 more years, but I’m not planning to tell them that I’m getting close to being shoved out on the block of ice into the wilderness. This group is organized by a local group called Writers and Books. All of the participants are writers, avid readers, educators, or some combination. They teach words, breathe words, and use words like “trope” when we’re discussing books. Of course, by the end of each discussion, we’ve started googling the authors and making judgments about how closely their work resembles their real lives. And their hair. We always judge their hair. This group is intellectual and juvenile, all at the same time. The participants are idealistic and energetic. Members get together outside of book club for other local events. It’s also the only group where men regularly attend. Last month we read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore, a favorite book of one of the group members. Great discussion. And everyone brings food inspired by the book!  

My Diversity (#WeNeedDiverseBooks and book clubs): I’m the least connected to the fourth group, called Ebony Voices. I attended a book discussion event for The Snow Child as part of the “If All of Rochester Reads the Same Book” project in 2014. A woman made several remarks about fantasy novels during the discussion that rubbed me the wrong way and I was ready to snub her so she could feel my righteous indignation. But after the discussion was over, she approached me (“I’ve never seen you here before.”) and invited me to her own “friend” book group. The group has been together, in iterations, for about 25 years. The participants are all professional women and read only books by authors of color. I’ve only been to a few meetings because the schedule isn’t ideal but the discussions we have in this group are unlike any I can have elsewhere, rich in history, shared experience, and spiritualism.  Who Asked You by Terry McMillan was a well- received book and reminded us all that there’s more than one side to every story.  

Of course, you’re wondering how I keep up with the assigned reading. It would be easier if they weren’t almost always scheduled the same week of the month. Truly, sometimes I read everything and sometimes I don’t. Last week, I hadn’t read the book for the Library group but went to enjoy being with the group and hearing about the book, anyway. 

So, tell me, what do you get out of your book discussion groups? Maybe I can come sometime?

Workshops about Writing: Training to get on my own nerves?

A couple of weeks ago, I started a workshop about creative journaling. It was kind of interesting. It's a small group of women (shocking). We did a couple of those "make a poem about yourself using the following prompt" kind of exercises. A little lame, but what can you expect. They're meant to EXPAND YOUR COMFORT ZONE, or whatever.

On some level though, I'm a little worried about learning too much about the "techniques" of writing, because I don't want it to ruin the free- for- all of my reading. I mean, Hubbo colors comic books for a living and he is all the time ruining things by talking about the usage of colors and shadowing and blah blah blah. I'm crazy enough without getting too stuck the the technical aspects of writing.... so why sign up for a workshop, you might ask..

Actually, it's mostly because I like getting together with people and talking about stuff that I like, like books and writing and what not. But also, I'm trying to make a larger space for writing in my life... hence this blog... hence this workshop.

I missed the second week, by the way. Because my kid was sick and "needed" me. Cute, right? She's 18.

Some notes about: starting a journal and the workshop to come back and pick up later:

1. sticking with it - yet another journal with two completed pages
2. getting in touch - feelings, time, a craft
3. collecting ideas -
4. the use of paper over a device - mixed feelings
5. making fun of people - can be done in all formats!
6. In every group of women there is always that one lady that should use the time for therapy
   

You're not talking about me. Are you?

Less than a year since my last post. Not too shabby.

I was thinking today about emailing a friend of mine. Now, what's the bid deal about that, you say? Well. In the last email he wrote to me, he was lamenting the curse of facebook. Ya know, there are people that you left far behind in your past and BAM!! There they are. Friend requesting you on some social networking hub and reminiscing about crap you NEVER meant to remember in the first place... and, now... I have to wonder if what he was really saying was that he's been trying to get rid of me for the last 15 years and I keep emailing him back. That's probably not it, though, right? I mean, he DID email me back last time... I'm sure I'm over thinking it.

I find myself completely over- scheduled. How do I manage to take on so much worthless crap? Not worthless so much as unpaid. Do other mothers who work full time struggle with over booking their volunteer- ready hours? Part of it is my guilt over throwing away all of the fund raising packets that come home. That fund raising shiz is for the birds, ya'll. Truth.

How Hard Could It Really Be?

I read a Chuck Palahniuk book today- Tell All. Not the best Chucky P book out there, in all honesty. But ok enough. I always feel like there are so many "good enough" books out there... and probably even more just plain crappy ones, that really, how hard could it be for me just to write one. All you need is a good story. Or, a good enough one. And some mastery of the language. And not even that, really.

But I get the sense that maybe it's not as easy as it sounds. Because people work so long on books. Really, what are they doing the whole time? Maybe I should just start something, anything, and see what happens... that was the basic premise of this blog entry... if you couldn't tell.

Other things that look easy but really aren't:

• Psychotherapy
• Taking artsy photos
• Making children do what you say
• Push-ups
• Running
• Cooking from scratch with or without a recipe
• Apologize when you don't think you're wrong
• Budget

Ahhh... here we are again.

I wonder how many times I’m going to come back to this blog. It's like so many other things: knitting, scrap booking, cross stitching. All great and wonderful pastimes that are made for people who need ways to pass their time. Apparently, I'm only sporadically one of those people. Like today.

This time, though, I'm a little surprised. I could have sworn that I wrote something here a few months ago. But the date stamp tells me that was over a year and a half ago. Either there is truth to the old "time flies" thing, or senility has started a bit early. I'm not ready to hang my hat on either option just yet.

Maybe I will be more active here, now that I have a job that requires fewer hours... at least on paper. I will also have a higher number of people to piss me off as I start teaching next week. Getting pissed off is a sure fire way to get into the writing mood. So... until next year... I mean... next time.

Update: April 16, 2015

Hahaha!!