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Writing A Letter the old fashioned way can help release writers block

I have a confession to make. I have been fighting writers block for quite awhile now.  When I sit down to write, it feels as if my fingers are no longer attached to my hand, they just type on their own. It has felt as if there are no feelings or thoughts flowing from my brain and down through my fingers and onto the keyboard.  So early last week, as  I was typing an email to a friend, I suddenly thought about how much typing has dominated my life.  I suddenly felt a longing for my childhood days when I was writing a letter to a pen-pal in Yugoslavia, or to my brother’s friend who was serving in Viet Nam. I thought about the airmail stamp, of licking it and putting it on the airmail envelope then dropping the letter into the mailbox.  And then I thought about the the time I wrote a story in the sixth grade when I felt proud of my penmanship, and my wild imagination that took me to the planet X where I flew an X-15 rocket around the planet to the far side and saved the planet from destruction.  My inspiration back then was a brand new television show called Star Trek, and another show in which the Robinson Family continued to be “Lost in Space.”

So as I finished typing the email to my friend and clicked send, I vowed it would be my last personal email for one week.  For me, typing a letter has become a detachment from everything that is important to me.  In that moment I suddenly longed for the act of  writing. For my own sanity, I needed to get back to basics. I needed to hold a pen in my hand, put it to paper and form the letters that make the words to convey my feelings and thoughts to the recipient of my letter.

I posted my intentions to my wall on facebook. I made a declaration that for one week, my response to everyone who sends me personal emails will be a hand written letter from me.  “Yes, it will take longer”, I stated, “but I need to get in touch with my writer self again.”   I also requested they also include their mailing address, just to make sure I had the updated information.

Five of my friends responded to my post, sounding rather excited about receiving something in the mail that wasn’t a bill. When I sat down to write the first letter, I thought, “Why not encourage others to hand-write a letter as well?”  So I did.  In each letter I wrote, I included a blank stamped envelope on which I put their name and address in the return address corner. I asked them, in the letter, to use that envelope to hand-write a letter to someone they care about and include a blank stamped envelope in their letter, asking their  friend to do the same thing.  My dream is to get the whole country to hand-write one short letter. The cost is one stamp, two envelopes, and the paper on which to write their letter.  (No, I don’t work for the post office.) After this one week of hand-writing letters, I feel better.  I feel like I have reclaimed the writer within.  I found the part of me that had moved out of the way for the sake of technology.  For me, this past week has been a rebirth.

I know there are probably many of you shaking your head and saying, “What the heck is the big deal? I can type my feelings just as well as I can write them!”.  Perhaps others of you are stuck in a writer’s block mode right now, struggling to get in touch with the act of writing again. Why not try hand-writing a letter to a friend. You may find yourself experiencing an “aha” moment (along with a little writer’s cramp) as you put your pen to paper and discover that writing a letter for old time’s sake, is just what you needed to help you move forward with your story or poem. Write a letter to a friend about the first letter you ever wrote. How old were you when you wrote it? To whom was it written?  What was going on in your life at the time that you couldn’t wait to write the letter and tell that person all about i?

Have Fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Did you ever have a pen pal?

What country did he or she live in?

Have you ever written a fan letter?

Are you horrified at the thought of eaves-droppingon someone? It might help to know that practically everyone does it, though usually not intentionally. How many times have you been in line at the grocery store or sitting in a coffee shop, or waiting for a haircut, and accidentally overheard a sentence or two of someones conversation?  I love to sit in a coffee shop and write in my journal, and one time I wrote down the little bits of conversations I overheard around me and made a poem out of them.  Now, please don’t get me wrong.  I don’t purposely eavesdrop on other people, but when you are writing, and pause to think, and are in the close quarters of a small shop and the acoustics permit, the volume carries. Then there are the people who talk louder to out-do the volume of the background music playing.  I consider conversations that happen to float my way on the waves of sound as public domain and excellent fodder for poems, short stories, or character development.

For those of you brave enough to try, here is your writing warm-up for this week: go to a coffee shop and write down the tidbits you hear from accidental eavesdropping and then include them in a story.  Or pick one and write a back-story leading up to the tidbits you over-heard.  For those of you who may feel a little guilty about recording what you accidentally overhear, I have provided some below for you to use. (By the way, these are the real tidbits I used as material for a poem.)

1. “I have an appointment to get the valves adjusted…”

2.” okay three minutes…”

3. “Monica how are you….”

4. “I had to go the speed limit…”

5. “Did everyone leave early…”

6. “I’m not looking forward to my classes today…”

7. “hi…”

8. “my mom was in the middle of paining my room…”

9. “I got to sleep on the couch anyway…”

10. “yes two green ones…”

It just goes to show, you never know who may be listening. Have fun!

Until Next Time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion! (and enjoy your next cup of coffee)

I’d like to know: What’s the strangest tidbit of conversation you have overheard?

The Pantoum is a form of poetry discovered by Europeans in Malaysia in the 19th century.  Writing your first Pantoum can be quite challenging and a little confusing at first.  However, once you get the hang of it, the Pantoum offers a wonderful alternative when you’re feeling stuck in a rut and is a wonderful addition to your creative writing toolbox.

1. Write a stanza of four lines:

Writing this Pantoum is easy
Once You get the hang of it
Just let yourself be creative
And pull out all the stops

2. Start your second stanza with the second line of the first stanza:

Once you get the hang of it
Just write it as it comes

3. In the second stanza, the third line will be the fourth line of the first stanza:

Once you get the hang of it
Just write it as it comes
And pull out all the stops
As you let the poem write itself

4. Notice that the second and fourth lines of the new stanza above are new.

5. Write the poem any length you like making sure to start each new stanza with the second line of the previous stanza and using the fourth line of the previous stanza as the third line of the new stanza, EXCEPT when you get to your final stanza.

6. For you final stanza, begin it the same as the others by using the second line of the previous stanza.  The second line of your final stanza is the same as the third line in the first stanza you wrote.  The third line in the final stanza is a repeat of the fourth line of the previous stanza and the final line in the last stanza should be the same as the first line of the first stanza. So it will look something like this:

1. Writing this pantoum easy
2. Once You get the hang of it
3. Let yourself be creative
4. And pull out all the stops

2. Once you get the hang of it
5. Just write it as it comes
4. And pull out all the stops
6. As you let the poem write itself

5. Just write it as it comes
3. Let yourself be creative
6. As you let the poem write itself
1.Writing this pantoum is easy

NOTE: Don’t forget that you as a writer have complete creative license to deviate from, adjust, and manipulate the rules as much as possible. Who knows, you may invent an entirely new poetic form.    Have Fun!

Until Next Time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

I am a big fan of sci-fi television shows.  So I thought today we’d try stimulating our imagination toward the weird and exciting adventurous other-world hero’s journey.  You become the hero, embarking on a quest of some kind, to accomplish whatever your imagination conjures up.  Here are a couple of  opening scenarios to choose from:

1.  Imagine yourself as a child, climbing a tree in the backyard.  You hear a noise below you and quickly scurry down to find out what it is.  Your best friend is standing under the tree looking disheveled and harried when you reach the ground.  Asking him or her what has happened, you both hear a noise behind you.  Turning around to face the trunk of the tree, you see a door suddenly open and light pouring through.  A hand with nine fingers appears and reaches toward you and your friend.  Curiosity gets the better of you and you both move toward the hand, which is now beckoning you closer while you hear a child’s faint whisper pleading for help coming from beyond the doorway somewhere.

What do you and your friend do next?

2. You are a ham-radio operator and decide to take advantage of your day off work to play on the radio.  It is the time of year when the biggest skips are reportedly occurring and you want to find out what the furthest distance of contact is that you can make.  As you turn the dial, and call out, you suddenly hear a high pitched screech come through, then a frantic voice speaking in a strange garbled language you don’t understand.  Suddenly you hear plainly that same voice yelling the words “STARSEED TRANSMISSION!”  What happens next? What do you find out about this strange radio signal you’re receiving and what adventure awaits you?  Have fun!

Until Next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Here are a few ideas to help get your creative juices flowing for the weekend. There are more to books than one might think so for your Friday writing warm up today, sit down in front of your bookshelf and write down the names of the first ten books on your shelf.  If by some strange chance, you don’t have books, you can do it with old Record album titles, CD’s or movie titles.  Write a story incorporating each title into the story in some way.

I’ve provided my own list below for you to use if you prefer (I threw in a few extras in case you need them) :

The Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam, If you want to Write, The Four Agreements, Vedic Astrology Simply Put, The Complete Stress Management Book, Out of Africa, Listening Woman, Don’t Get Mad Get Funny, What Color Is Your Parachute, The Princes of Ireland, Toxic Faith, The How To Herb Book, World Poetry.

A variation on the above exercise is an idea I gleaned from a face-book note circulating around.  Just grab the first book you come to.  Don’t look for one, don’t pick one out, just grab one. Turn to a certain page number, for the purposes of this exercise I will just say turn to page 55. Find the second paragraph on the page and copy the third line down in the paragraph. Begin your story with that line.

If the first two don’t tickle your fancy, here’s a third idea for you. Turn to the table of contents in a book and write down the titles of the chapters.  You can either skip around, write them in order, or use every other one. After making your list, incorporate them into a story.  May the creativity flow!

Have a good weekend. Remember writing can be fun.

Until Next Time,

Walk in Beauty, Write Life With Passion!

Hello Readers,

Today’s blog features the third and final interview with local Tucson poet, Eli Langner. In three years time, he has defied the publishing odds with thirty of his poems having been accepted for publication.  In today’s interview he shares with us some tips and insights into the strategy that has worked so well for him, and some warnings about the pitfalls he’s experienced along the way.

Tucson Poet Eli Langner

DT:    Hello Eli. Thank you for meeting with me today. In the past two interviews you’ve given us some wonderful tips and insights about what’s involved in the crafting of a poem and things to consider in before sending your work for publication.  Today I’d like to talk about the process invovled in submiting your poetry for consideration and inclusion in journals.  In your first interview you mentioned that your mother’s friend Ann advised you to consider using a poetry submission service.  Why don’t we just start there? What is a submission service and have you submitted your poetry using other methods?

EL:     First I think it’s important for poets to know that they have to be clear about what their goals are. If the goal is to publish poetry and make mountains of money, it would be better to forget that right now, because people aren’t paying for poetry. If your goal is to publish poetry just for the thrill of seeing your work in print, there is a greater choice of venues to which you can submit your poem for publication. For example, if publishing in your local newspaper will satisfy you, it is a much easier process than sending your work to college journals or poetry contests.

If your goal is to establish your credentials as a poet by submitting to college journals, keep in mind that there won’t be any letters you can put after your name or any kind of educational degree.  Your literary standing and credentials as a poet comes from the number of university journals and literary magazines in which your work is published.

So, if that is your goal then there are two ways to go about it. One way is the way I do it and use a submission service. That’s the expensive way but it gets very good results which I will talk about later. The second way to do it is to go on your own which means more paperwork for you.  It entails buying the latest edition of  Poet’s Market, going through it and noting all the different submission or reading dates. Because different journals read at different times and there are limited windows of opportunity, you’ve got to figure out when you’re going to send things out to whom according to the deadlines.  It can be quite a daunting task, but it is do-able.  It’s an acceptable way to go about it for people who are highly organized.  I’m not one of those people, which is why I use the submission service.

DT:    How does the submission service work?  You pay a fee every month and then what?

EL:     First of all, they have to review your work and see if they want to take you on as a client

DT:    So they choose you?

EL:    They want to be sure you have endurance as a writer.  By the way, the service I use is called Writer’s Relief. They don’t just handle poetry, they handle manuscripts as well.

DT:    So they accept you and then what?

EL:     They have cycles that run two months in length, so you pay for the two months at a time.  It’s comes out to about $200 per month.

DT:    What do you get for your money?

EL:    A person receives a lot for that amount. They proofread all of your work and send it in a PDF copy.  They take the information you send them about each poem you are going to send out within the two month cycle, put it into a database and then set up a filter to sort and target your work toward certain journals that are more likely to accept it. Then they print up address labels for the journals and a cover letter for each poem and send them to you.  It’s up to you to put the labels on, sign the cover letters and send your poems out. The submission service takes care of the details and makes the submission process easier by doing the grunt work for you.

DT:    So basically it’s a secretarial service?

EL:     Yes, in a way, but they are knowledgeable about publishing and submissions. And what they also do that’s included in the price is create a personal database for you, which you then monitor. It allows you to keep track of all the poems you have submitted and to whom you sent them.

DT:    Do they specialize in the college journals or do they let you know about other contests and venues for publication as well?

EL:    They have what’s called a news flash which has all that information in it and includes information on calls for submissions for specifically named magazine articles. But their main focus, and what you pay them for, is to make your job easier and to target your work.

DT:     What is the average acceptance rate for publication?

EL:    The standard acceptance rate for poetry is about one percent or less. So if you send out to a hundred different places you might get one acceptance. You have to keep in mind there is a time lag between submission and acceptance. Your material could be kept anywhere from three months to a year before you receive word on one acceptance.

DT:     Is that what yours has been?

EL:    No. My acceptance rate has been at about seven percent which is very high for poetry.

DT:    Well that says something about the quality of your poetry.

EL:    Yeah,  that as well but I have to say it has been their assistance in helping me target my material to  specific journals as opposed to the random shot gun effect of sending it out that has really made the difference. Using the service is much tighter and more effective. So my seven percent result came from sending out less than thirty at a time every two months.  And from that I’ve had about thirty acceptances in a three year period. That’s about ten acceptances a year which is a very high rate.

DT:    Have any journals accepted more than one of your poems?

EL:    Yes, Fulcrum accepted four of my poems yet their infrastructure seems to have fallen apart, so I don’t know if they’ll actually make it into print, but I did get four acceptances. I’ve also had two different journals that wanted the same poem, double acceptances. In some cases I’ve had triple acceptances where three journals want the same poem.

DT:    Will all three of them publish it if it’s multiple submissions like that?

EL:    It’s highly unlikely. Usually the first one you gave it to will publish it and then the second one doesn’t want it because most journals are only interested in previously unpublished material.
That brings me to another important point poets need to be aware of. Let’s say that you decide “Oh, I don’t want to go through all this rigmarole with trying to get my work published, I’d rather just instantly publish it on the internet.”

DT:    Right, self- publishing?

EL:    That’s fine to do that but you need to realize that if you publish on the internet, you will instantly render the poem un-publishable for anyone else. Because they (journals) will not want previously published work, which includes anything that you have posted on the internet.

DT:    Even if I’ve posted one on a Facebook page?

EL:    That’s right. And let’s say you went to all the trouble, time and effort of submitting that same poem to various journals and finally, months later, you hear that it was accepted in one of them. The journal will want to know, and ask you if you are sure it hasn’t been published anywhere else.  If you tell them “Yes, I posted it on this one website,” they might say “Oh well, sorry, we consider that a previous publication.”

DT:    I knew there was reason I wasn’t publishing my poetry online.  I’ve always been opposed to it and I’ve never done it except just a couple of times but they were poems that had already been published anyway.

EL:     Yeah, that’s another strategy. Just put poems on the internet that you’ve already had published elsewhere. That would be okay. I just thought I’d give a little warning there.  But keep in mind also that it’s not always a hard and fast rule. There are journals that will print previously published material, but it’s the exception rather than the rule.

DT:    That’s a very good warning and something I don’t think many poets may think about.
What’s the pay-off for being published, beside the fact that you’re racking up a lot of credentials in doing it? Do you get paid money when it’s published or do they pay you with a copy of the journal?   I know it can vary from place to place but in your experience so far, what has been the case?

EL:    The standard payment from most university journals is one or two copies of the journal with your poem in it. There are rare instances where you get paid. When I say rare, I mean rare. For example, there was one time I submitted a poem and of course I didn’t hear back until months later.  I received my acceptance letter and included with it was a check for a hundred dollars because it had also won the second best poem of the year prize. That is the reason why I tell other poets not to expect to make heaps of money with your poetry. Money payment is the exception rather than the rule.

DT:    What about Contests in magazines and things like that?

EL:    With contests and some literary magazines, you pay them for their reading fee, which is an accepted practice, by the way. But the journals like those I submit to have no reading fees. In a few instances, I will submit to a particular journal for a contest.  Those often have reading fees of $15 to $20, which is acceptable and reasonable.

DT:    That’s usually rolled right over into prize money isn’t it?

EL:    It might be how they raise the prize money. It might also go toward hiring people to review the thousands of submissions. Sometimes with the entry fee you will receive a subscription to the journal for a certain number of issues. But at the same time, there are poetry scams out there.

DT:     I did a blog not too long ago about things that people need to be aware of.

EL:     Well, I want to dispel some of the confusion a little, if I may. Just because a website charges a reading fee does not make it a scam. There are many respectable, reputable sites that charge a fifteen or twenty dollar reading fee. If it’s a hundred dollar reading fee, then I would be highly suspicious of it. But a small fee is normal and acceptable.

DT:    What would you tell someone about watching for scams?

EL:    First of all, if a company or person is contacting you out of the blue, and you’ve never heard of them before, that’s a warning sign. To find out if something is a scam or not use Poets And Writers Magazine Website.  It is a good resource. Their website is set up to disseminate information to writers and poets and they often have lists of scams and contests that should be avoided.

Poets should keep in mind that as hard as it is to be accepted for publication, it’s much more difficult to win a contest. With contests you’re not only talking about being accepted for publication but also being the best of the best. So don’t be disappointed if you enter a contest and you don’t’ win. It’s easy to enter but extremely difficult to win.

DT:    The scam I got caught up in was the “Well, you didn’t’ win but if you pay for the book we’ll include your poetry in it.”

EL:    Now that sounds more like a scam.

DT:     I was in my twenties. I was in Junior college, just starting out with the whole “I want to get published” thing kind of thinking. Yes, I can say my poem is in a book but it’s not a legitimate book that is carried by Barnes and Noble or promoted in bookstores at all. It’s a dead book.

DT:    Eli, I was wondering if would mind sharing what some of the disadvantages to using a submission service might be, other than the money paid to use it? How is it looked upon in the literary world?

EL:    I’ve never run into any prejudice related to using the service.  I’m the one sending in the submissions and cover letters, so for all intents and purposes, it looks the same to the poetry editor. When I’ve told people that I use a submission service, the main drawback they see is the expense. There was however, one woman I spoke to who thought that because I was doing simultaneous submissions that I was cheating. But it is a commonly accepted practice to do simultaneous submissions. It’s unfair to think that you’re going to send one poem to one place and wait six to twelvemonths to hear from that place and then send another  original work. There’ s just no way.

DT:    Why would simultaneous submission be a problem?

EL:    There are some journals that accept simultaneous submissions and some that do not. And some require you to notify them up front if you have submitted simultaneously to another place.

EL:    But getting back to the submission service, I would not be spending this amount of money if I didn’t feel I was getting the full value of the service. But they do an absolute bang-up job.

DT:     Have you had any bad experiences with editors or anything like that?

EL:     Yes, I had one that comes to mind right away. When you submit your work, you’ll receive either a form letter or rejection slip in the mail. If you get an acceptance, it’s usually a letter addressed to you and then they need more information from you like a brief bio of what you’ve done, the names of past journals you’ve been published in and things like that. But sometimes, in rare instances, you run across a totally bizarre poetry editor, which happened to me once. An editor sent me a form with my acceptance letter, and they wanted me to sign a contract stating that I agreed to their editorial corrections.

DT:    Was that the first time you’d ever had to do that?

EL:     Well, the contract was not that unusual but it was strange that they seemed to be making such a big deal out of it. They had returned my work with quite a few suggested changes and I let them know which changes were okay and made my own suggestions as to changes I preferred they make.  I sent it back to them, thinking everything was fine. Several months later, I received a phone call from one of the editors. She said to me, “You know we’re just about to publish and everything is hectic and I hate to burden you with this last minute change but I’ve made a few changes to your poem and I just wanted to check and see if they are okay with you.” She started reading it to me and when she got to the second stanza, I’m listening and thinking, “I did not write this!” My jaw is hanging open as I’m on the phone with this woman because she had completely rewritten my poem. When she gets to the end I say, “Well that was a very nice poem. But I didn’t write it, you did.” The changes were so extensive that I made an artistic decision not to publish it and she was fine with that. They did however publish the other poem I had submitted to them with just minor changes. And that’s the happy ending.  You may run across a totally bizarre editor but it’s the exception not the rule.

DT:    What happens to copyright when you’re accepted in a journal for publication? Do you keep the copyright?

E.    You grant what’s called first time rights which mean that the journal has the right to be the first to publish it and then the copyright reverts to you. There’s another arrangement called exclusive rights, where they have the exclusive right to publish that work, and they are the only ones who can publish it with the agreement that you won’t submit that work to anyone else, ever. But that is rarely done with poetry journals and would be an unusual arrangement.

DT:    When you do simultaneous submissions, do you notify the other journals?

EL:     Most of them will send you rejection slips anyway. In the rare case, when someone else asks you for the same poem, you immediately notify them and say “I’m sorry, that poem has been previously accepted elsewhere,” to let them know. In very rare instances, they will say “We love your poem so much we want to publish it anyway, even though it is not our policy.”

DT:    Is there anything else you want to add for my readers before we bring this interview to a close?

EL:    I would like to add that most poets write and submit for the love of poetry. Many poets I’ve spoken with have said that it’s almost a compulsion that they have to write because the words came to them through a dream or in a stroke of inspiration. They just felt moved to write the words down. I think that’s how a lot of great poetry happens.

DT:    What are your writing habits?

EL:    Usually an idea will come to me out of the blue and I get tickled by it and I think well this is a wonderful idea for a poem and then I will feel moved to write about it. Or I will have some emotional experience that will move me to sit down and write. If I’ m going through a phase of grief, there are a lot of poets who write who are motivated to express their grief. So there are all different situations and circumstances that move one to write poetry. I mean it could be a gum wrapper, there’s something in the colors in it and you found that the cartoon picture on the gum wrapper is whimsical and you found it lying in a puddle filled with soot and dirt and the juxtaposition of those two things was somehow poetically moving to you. You never know where inspiration is going to come from.

DT:    So you just write when it strikes you?

EL:    Yes and I am also motivated by deadlines. I’ll write a poem specifically for the purpose of entering a specific contest. I will look at their website and see what they’ve accepted before and then squeak my entry in the day before the deadline. That’s a great motivating force.

DT:    So is there strategy involved?

EL:    Yes, definitely. If I’m going to submit this to a contest and hope that it wins and as a fallback position, perhaps it won’t win, but it still may get published. I would not want that poem to be published elsewhere thus rendering it unusable. So my strategy might be to only submit it to that contest or to a series of contests and let the best contest win.

DT:     Are there any plans for publishing a book of your poetry?

EL:    That again is a strategy. I plan to submit to journals for quite some time and then probably take all the poems that have already been published and create a book out of them.

DT:    What about chapbook contests when you’re submitting a group of poems?

EL:    My strategy has been  to assiduously avoid chapbook contests because it’s a good way to burn out all your poems at once and make them all non-submitable elsewhere.

DT:     So strategy sounds likeit is definitely an important element in publishing.

EL:    Well, it is because of the rule that no one wants to publish previously published material. That’s why, if you do create a poetry website, I suggest you only pick a few sample poems that you don’t mind if they don’t get published.

DT:    Are there any other tips or advice you want to give my readers before we’re done?

EL:    Just this: If you are really fixated on making money selling your poetry, you’ve got to get very creative with it. Most consumers these days will not buy a book of poetry. I know of one man, who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese. He took his poems originally written in Mandarin, and etched the Mandarin characters into paintings that he does. The paintings are illustrations of his poetry and they’re beautiful with the Mandarin underneath. When he sells a painting he also includes a little card with the English translation on it.  I don’t know if he’s successful but I thought it was a brilliant marketing strategy.

DT:    What role did open mikes and poetry slams play in all of this for you?

EL:     That was my start in getting people to listen and hear my poetry. And then I still do stuff like that. I go to poetry readings, and it’s very gratifying to have other poets hear my work and give me feedback. In addition to that, I do the submissions because I want the greater world at large to read my work. It’s still a very insular group. Each college journal may only have a circulation of a couple thousand copies but still, I’d rather have a thousand people reading my work than have twelve just listening to it.

D;     Well, let’s say you have thirty publications, then that is almost thirty thousand people who have your poems in their hands.

EL:     Right. And again, we don’t know how many of those people actually read every poem in the anthology but there’s a high likelihood and so it gives me a good feeling. And it also gives me a good feeling to know that there are lettered experts who are highly jaded and highly selective who have gone through thousands, a slush pile of thousands of submissions and that they have pulled my work out from those thousands and that they’ve chosen me for publication. That is extremely gratifying.

DT:    That brings us to the end of our time. It has been a pleasure to meet the man behind the poetry. Thank you for these interviews, Eli. I wish you well in your continued success as a poet. It’s going to be fun to watch your star rise.

EL:     You’re so welcome and thank you Debra.

Are you  feeling blocked in your creative imagination today?  Have you been sitting and staring at your computer for the past hour and the ideas just aren’t coming?  Meeting a friend at the local coffee shop and writing together can help re-start your creative juices.   Here are a couple of options you and your friend can choose from:

1. First, each of you can write personal entries in your journal.  Sometimes all it takes is being in the same room with another writer to stimulate the pen to start moving across the page.

2.  Another option is for each of you to write the first paragraph of a story on separate sheets of paper.  If finding topics to write about is difficult, use a book of writing prompts, or if you didn’t bring a book with you, a short conversation can spark and idea or two.  After each of you have a paragraph written, trade papers and write a below what your friend has written, continuing with the theme he or she started.  Continue this trading back and forth after each paragraph.  It’s a good idea to decide ahead of time how many paragraphs or pages you want to write on each of your topics, making sure to finish with the topic you originally wrote.  Read the two stories to each other.  This tandem writing technique is a lot of fun to do and can generate more creative ideas for use in your own writing later.

Have fun!

Until next time,
Walk in beauty, write life with pasison!

For all the journal writers and victims of writers block out there, I thought I’d give you a writing exercise today but first a little introduction.  I read a book a few years ago called “Only What We Could Carry.” It was an anthology of testimonials told by Japanese Americans who had been interred here in the United States during WWII. The stories are poignant and moving; a grim reminder of a time when many American lives were uprooted and sent into chaos.  My mother (now 91) told me of an experience she had while a nursing student in Portland, Oregon.  Her best friend Tea, a Japanese American, was given notice to get her affairs in order and be ready to leave.  She was forced to drop out of nursing school, leave most of her belongings behind, and relocate to a camp along with hundreds of other Japanese Americans.  There were many restrictions put upon Tea and the others as to what they were allowed to have with them inside the internment camp.  Tea had divided up most of her possessions among her classmates, asking them to care for the items until she could return to claim them.  To my mother, she entrusted her most prized possession; her camera.   After the war, my mother sent Tea’s camera to her and received a letter from Tea a week or so later. In the letter Tea thanked mother for her trustworthiness and integrity. She wrote that none of the other nursing school classmates, of whom she had asked to keep her things, ever returned them to her.  In hearing this story, I learned much more about my mother’s life that day.  It is a story I will cherish and remember the rest of my life.

It is in these kinds of stories that we learn more about who we are and where we come from, both as individuals, and as a nation.  Below are a few writing suggestions to help get you going today:

1. Write a list of ten things, in order of importance, you would pack if you were ordered, like Tea, to take only what you could carry, not knowing when you would be returning. Write about each item and why it’s important to you.

2. Is there a story in your family history; one told to you by an elder, that has been passed down through the generations? Write that story, using as many details as you can remember. Write a description of the elder who told the story to you. What influence has that person had in your life?

3. Write a  story from your own life which you’d like to pass on to the next generation.

Writing or typing at your desk can be backbreaking work.  Slouching forward, slowed blood circulation and carpel tunnel are three conditions the career writer can avoid by using ergonomically correct furniture and routinely getting up and stretching.  A few simple warm-up stretches can get the blood flowing to your legs and arms and reduce tension in your shoulders, back, and neck.  I have found the following five stretches most  helpful. They don’t take a lot of time and can be done right in your office in under five minutes.  Do them gently. The idea here is to undo some of the muscle constriction and slowed blood flow resulting from prolonged sitting.  If you have a history of muscle, bone or joint injuries, check with your doctor before trying these.

1.  Many writers have a tendency to slouch while sitting at the computer.  Prolonged periods in this position can cause constriction of the chest muscles. This first exercise is excellent for preventing your chest muscles from tightening up too much and also helps bring your shoulders back into alignment.

To do this stretch, stand in a doorway with your feet together just behind the threshold. Bend your arms at the elbow (as if someone said “stick ‘em up”), and put your forearms flat against the wall on each side of the doorway.  Now gently lean through the doorway with your whole body, keeping your feet behind the door jamb and your back straight. You should feel your chest muscles stretching.

2.  A second helpful stretch is standing push-ups.  Stand at arms length from a wall placing your hands flat against it. Lean into the wall, bending at the elbows, touch your nose to the wall and push yourself out again.  This  helps strengthen your upper arms, while also stretching the chest and shoulder muscles.

3.  This third stretch helps the upper arm circulation and stretches the rib cage and diaphragm.  While in a standing position, raise your arms above your head and breathe in, stretching your lungs to capacity. Keeping your arms extended above your head, lean to one side, exhaling as you go. Hold your pose for a few seconds and return to the straight up position. Repeat the stretch for the opposite side.  After you have stretched both sides, drop your arms and lean toward the floor from the hips and just let your arms dangle down in front of you for a moment. Don’t forget to breathe deeply.

4.  To stimulate circulation in your legs, walkng in place is great when you can’t get outdoors.  Even a short walk or march in place, to the count of 50, will stimulate the blood flow.

5.  This last of my favorite exercise  will work the lower back and hamstrings.  Sit on the edge of your chair (if it has wheels be careful), and grasp the edges of each side of your seat behind you near the back of the chair. Bending one leg so that your foot is under the chair, stretch the opposite leg out in front of you with your heel on the floor and toes pointed upward. With your back straight, lean forward at your hips keeping your leg straight out in front of you. You should feel a stretch in the back of your leg and your lower back. When it comes to exercise, it is important to remember that whatever you do to one side of your body, do to the other.  Reverse your leg positions and repeat with the opposite leg.

Getting up from your chair and moving around every hour or so, provides a break from routine and restores maximum blood flow to the lower extremities.  I suggest trying a different one each time you get up from the chair. This adds variety to your time away from the desk and doesn’t monopolize your entire break time.  To learn more about office yoga and simple five minute stretches there are websites and books galore on the subject.

The equation is simple: healthy body + healthy mind = stimulated imagination + happy writing!

Until next time,
Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Every year in November hundreds of writers participate in the NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. According to the website, the idea is to allow yourself to write without concern about whether it’s for publication or not.  The focus is on the quantity instead of  the quality.  You don’t have to be concerned with the continual tweaking and editing along the way; just get it down on paper. It’s a reversal from the norm.

Borrowing from this idea, I suggest we Tucson poets create a similar writing challenge.  Let’s spend this month writing poetry every day. Don’t be concerned about the number of words,  just write two poems, or one 100 word prose, every day for thirty one days. You’ll have sixty two poems by the end of a month. That’s  enough to create your own chapbook or jump start your own poetry blog.  If you’re willing to take the challenge, post a comment below to let me know you’re starting.

Remember, the idea is to write without worrying about “crafting” the poems. The only rule I have for now (I may think of another one or two later) is that you choose either prose or poetry and stick with it for the entire month.  At the end of your thirty one days let me know how it went.  I’d love to know how you liked the challenge?  There aren’t any entry fees or prizes involved. This is strictly for the fun of it.

So, any  takers?

Until next time, walk in beauty, write life with passion!