Creating a Writing Life

Finding the Way in Abruzzo~~photo credit: Helen Free

I've finally surfaced after my trip--spent mostly in Italy. What a wonderful opportunity to enjoy time wandering around Rome and "working" in Abruzzo where my writing workshop was held in May. It was our third annual Italy, in Other Words memoir writing workshop and very rewarding.

The Group

Our group of eleven adults, all curious and appreciative writers and adventurers, spent an intense week together. We made literature in the mornings, explored Abruzzese cultural traditions in the afternoons, and indulged in great communal meals in the evenings.

The writers held, or recently retired from, a variety of day jobs: journalist, publisher, editor, real estate professional, anesthesia nurse, oral historian, librarian, writing and literature professor, high school English teacher. They arrived with writing experience that ranged widely--from years of filling personal journals, to blogging, to collecting rejection letters, to publishing essays in professional journals.

Writers, May 2012, Italy, in Other Words
Photo credit: Ciao Chow Linda

Why They Came
All the writers came to the workshop looking for a way into their life stories. They wanted to make meaning and literature of their memories. The group united from the beginning, and the week flew by. Amazed at their enthusiasm and serious approach to their writing, I've since thought a lot about the possible reasons for the event's success.


Why did the writers of this workshop show such sustained devotion to their writing? Why did they work so assiduously drafting and revising? Granted they were a group of wonderful people, yet all my workshops have been comprised of really solid, thoughtful writers. What made this different?
Why It Worked
I think one answer lies in the participants' intentions before arriving. Most arrived ready to jump start particular writing--whether based on the germ of an idea, something already drafted, or a work in progress. That intention, linked with the actual atmosphere of the stone burgh of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, worked well.
The Qualities of Place

Barbara at work in her room

The town exudes solitude, independence and timelessness. It's easy to focus there. No one complained of writer's block or frustration; most savored time to write. Everyone enjoyed a private room in the sparsely populated, medieval village. Despite small antique desks and chairs, the rustic rooms seemed to contribute to the industry as well. The location of the burgh high in the Gran Sasso National Park with its expansive views for miles somehow offered a perspective useful for introspection and reflection.
Working at Home
These qualities of place, perhaps, parallel what writers need at home in order to create: a place free of outside distractions, an opportunity to focus, the intention to create. And we all need to be taken outside ourselves to figure out who we are. It's not easy to provide that for ourselves within the scope of our hectic lives. It requires respect for our personal goals, strong intention to make meaning of our experiences, space and time devoted to our work.

a street in Santo Stefano di Sessanio
photo credit: Barbara Roppolo

It was easy to enjoy all that in Santo Stefano, but the challenge will be replicating it at home, finding a way to create a genuine writing life for ourselves when we are alone in the room.

~~~

Note: Another critical influence, this one recounted by the writers, was the opportunity to read their work aloud and receive direct, thoughtful response from the other writers. I'll report that next Monday.


In the meantime, consider joining me at the France, in Other Words writing workshop in October as we create a community of writers hoping to strengthen their writing and experience meaningful travel.

Sommieres, France

Research Your Travel Essay--Before You Decide What to Write

It's great when a travel story--even the entire narrative--burns into your consciousness on the plane ride home. And it does happen. But, as someone told me recently, good luck comes from good planning. So if you want to write a travel story after your summer travels--whether you travel around the block or around the Mediterranean, think ahead and collect details purposefully. It could be those details tell you what to write.

Here's the first half of "Eight Tips for Researching Your Travel Essay--Before You Decide What to Write."


PAY ATTENTION
Be sure not to ignore critical advice from rodeo photographer Louise Serpa who cautions us: "Never don't pay attention." She, of all people, knew that if you don't pay attention for a brief second, you will surely miss the cowboy's slide into the manure or the clown's slide into the bull. 
So keep your eyes and ears open, watch the cobblestones, and remember the writer's mantra: Everything is material.

TAKE PHOTOS OF PEOPLE 
Rather than more typically shooting monuments (you can find better ones online), take photos of local people doing their jobs or carrying on activities of daily life. Catch the barista making your cappuccino in Venice, boys playing soccer in the piazza in Monti, very old women working at a construction site in Bali, transporting dirt in baskets balanced on their heads. 
Capture the triumph of cooks in a tiny trattoria in Florence (who clearly added zing to that sauce). Seize the moment the nonna sits down to rest after making the day's pasta in Portavenere. 
Ask first. If you tell people you will be writing about their town, they will most likely open their arms and you might embrace a memoir essay.

PHOTOGRAPH SIGNAGE 
Take photos of significant wall text in a museum, hotel signs, handwritten warnings ("Don't Tuch!" outside an Amsterdam museum). Great stories can come from small incidentals.A favorite photo in my album is the Lucca train station because its sign brings back good memories of  an entrancing walled city where late one night college-age boys called out  "Lucca, Lucca," the humor in their voices echoing back and forth across piazzas and winding streets. I was never sure whether they were touting their town or searching for their buddy, Luca. 


PHOTOGRAPH THE UNUSUAL  

Notice the plethora of three-wheel trucks in Sicily, entrancing door knockers in Barcelona, flowers spilling off balconies in San Miguel de Allende. Find a holy niche in nearly every corner in Florence and preserve the Madonna in all her incarnations as she watches over the stony streets. 
A thematic collection of such photos can illustrate an article you might eventually write describing the change that came over you as you strolled the streets of distant towns. 

Next week: 
All about notebooks, ephemera, 
chatting up locals and finding a 
purpose before leaving home. 

Why Attend a Writing Workshop?

Because it’s terribly stimulating to get away from the usual multi-tasking frenzy.

Because getting instruction from a new source can be illuminating.

Because making friends from other states and countries transforms us. 

A writing workshop, or conference, can jump start, change and strengthen writing habits. The best part might be experiencing yourself anew as a serious writer.   

As an emerging writer, I attended several writing workshops—every time getting highly stimulated by the charged atmosphere and the excitement of being with writers talking about writing. The ones I recall are Writers at Work at Westminster College in Salt Lake City (where I met Dawn Marano who would become my editor), Book Passage Travel Writers’ and Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California (where I met many writers who are still good friends and Don George, then the editor of Wanderlust on Salon.com, who would later publish my first travel essay), and the New York State Summer Writers’ Institute at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs (where I met the essayist Phillip Lopate, who taught me so much and who later wrote a blurb for my book). You get the idea. Life changing. 

Search the web, talk to other writers, and give yourself a gift that can expand your mind.

And consider joining one of my workshops.

I have room for a few more writers in

      

             The Heart of Memoir Writing Workshop 

                  Abruzzo, Italy on May 27—June 2. 

We stay in the lovely medieval town of Santo Stefano di Sessanio in an unspoiled and seldom traveled region of Italy. We hold class in the morning, spend afternoons in the countryside learning about Abruzzo’s ancient culture and evenings enjoying the distinctive Abruzzese cuisine and local Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo, “a deeply colored red with spice notes.” Go to Italy, In Other Words for details, endorsements, enrollment information, lots of photos of the town, the hotel, and of previous workshops.

Ciao Readers!