Cocktails & Writer's Block

Good work doesn't happen with inspiration. It comes with constant, often tedious and deliberate effort. If your vision of a writer involves sitting in a cafe, sipping an aperitif with one's fellow geniuses, become a drunk. It's easier and far less exhausting.
~ William Hefferman

About a week ago, the American Inklings got together and sat, not in a café, but a living room and ate and drank with fellow writers. :-D However, none of us suffers from the illusion that just doing that will produce good work! It’s the time spent at the laptop or desk or wherever genius strikes that the real work is done.

Alas, I must confess that I ignored the cries of the writer inside and busied myself with other things and so had nothing substantial to contribute to the discussion. I did not even touch my two poems that I had wanted to revise and submit again to Dappled Things (which by the way, the Lent/Easter has been published and is online for your reading pleasure). Sigh.

Sullivan did keep us on track for the most part and our new assignment is to:

Think about all the things you would like to imagine you will write during your life, or the one special work you would like to be able to say you have written. Write the text of the dust jacket for your work or for the anthology of your works.

Whew. Note to self: make an appointment with self to write, write, write!

The next meeting is yet to be determined, but we will keep you posted!

Oremus pro invicem,
Mikaela

American Inklings: April 14 @ 7:00pm

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
~ Albert Einstein on Science

The next meeting of the American Inklings will take place this Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 7:00pm at the Divine Mercy House. Among other things, we will be doing some writing exercises, vetting each other’s works in progress and gearing up to submit some of those works to Dappled Things for the next edition ~ which will be the first one in print ~ hooray!Submissions are due by Monday, April 16, 2007.

Writers ~ dip your pens and get crankin’!

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Oremus pro invicem,
Mikaela

American Inks: The Project Continues

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. ~ Elizabeth Drew

I am now 810 words into my version of the Amer. Inks new writing project. I know, it does not sound like many words after two and half days of being snowed in. What can I say? In Virginia, one inch of snow, layered with a nice thin sheet of ice constitutes getting "snowed in." Add to this fact that my car did a little icy pirouette on the way home and gave my nerves quite a shaking and I have since been severely under the weather with a bout of either the flu or a nasty little cold with an attitude.

From late Sunday evening until late Monday evening, I have plied this little cold with honey, tea and whisky - not necessarily in that order and a single malt of course. ;-D I don't know about my cold, but it has been a tremendous boon to me! I stayed abed most of Monday and almost all of today. I did not feel as weak as I did yesterday - hence 810 words later, I feel my time in the sick room has been justified.

This short story that we were supposed to simply finish has turned into a prologue and a chapter. What in the world has happened here?! My characters have happened, that's what. They practically shouted at me in a Highland accent: "this tale cannot be told in short story, lass! It needs to be a whole bloody book!" Ah yes - my characters are Scots. At least some of them. Big surprise there if you know me. If there's one accent that makes me weak in the knees besides Gothic, it would have to be Scottish. ;-)

If these characters continue to carry on like this, I may have to come to the meeting with yet another unfinished story. I don't have a choice ~ the tale cannot be told in a short story!

Oremus pro invicem,
Mikaela