Milspeak Creative Writing Seminar will begin Saturday, August 25, 2007. We’ll be meeting from 0900-1130 on the 25th, and on Sep. 8, 15, & 22. Remember, if you’ve already participated in a seminar and would like to participate in CWS 6, feel free to join us. CWS 6 is a free writing workshop offered to active duty military members, veterans, retirees, civil service workers, and military family members and former members of the military. The only requirements for participation are: you fall into one of the above categories, you are 18 years of age or older, and you can get on base to attend the workshop at the MCAS Education Building. Additionally, you will need access to a computer, the Internet, and a word processing program compatible with Microsoft Word. .WPS files are not acceptable. If you or anyone you know meets the above requirements and would like to attend, six seats for CWS 6 remain open. Please ask those who might want to participate to email me at this address by Friday, 17 August. For those of you already signed up, please RSVP by sending a brief message on or before Wednesday.

Basic Schedule for CWS 6
All meeting times are 0900-1130

Aug 25: Introductions, Writing Strategies, Prewriting Exercises including topic selection, & How to Critique Others’ Work
                Assignment for Sep 4: Write first draft,  3 – 10 pages, nonfiction story

Sep 1/No meeting – first draft writing time

Sep 4: Email first draft to Sally by 1800. Sally forwards drafts to pods for critiquing.

Sep 8: Pod Workshops
            Assignment for Sep 15: Write second draft based on reader response & lessons learned

Sep 15: Group Workshop
            Assignment for Sep 22: Write final draft

Sep 22: Final Draft Read Aloud and Celebration

Welcome!

 During our first meeting (Aug 25), I will give a craft talk. We’ll discuss structure, strategies, using figurative language, and workshop critique methods. We will skip the second Saturday (Sep 1) to give you time to write a first draft. Each of you will critique at least two but not more than three other writers’ work during pod workshop Saturday. We’ll cover critiquing methods during our first Saturday.

During our second meeting (Sep 8), each of you will bring to workshop a copy of the first draft manuscripts you have critiqued. Your comments will be shared with the writers whose work you have critiqued. Writers (including you) will then take your notes home and create a second draft. On the third Saturday, Sep 15, writers will bring their second draft manuscripts to workshop and read them aloud to the group. We will pause after each reading for comments. Writers will then take our notes home and revise again to create the final draft of the piece. On the fourth Saturday, Sep 22, we will gather to read aloud final drafts and to celebrate our accomplishments.

Writers observe life, measure life, and attempt to relate through language what they have learned about life. Attempts, or trials, using language to make known the unknown have been called essays since the French writer Montaigne’s (1533-1592) collection of essays was first published in 1582 under the title Essais. The Essais was published as two books, with expansion to three books in the fifth edition, which was issued during Montaigne’s lifetime. He had a hand in the revision of each edition, and each changed in the same way Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass changed with each new edition published during Whitman’s lifetime.

Writing is a process of re-seeing people, places, and events. Re-seeing is revising. Writing is a process of revision. During CWS 6, writers will learn writing & revising strategies. We will serve as readers of each other’s work. Readers’ comments are essential to re-seeing/revising writing. What you write today might not be the same understanding of a thing, a person, or event that you recall tomorrow. Particularly after you’ve seen your writing through a reader’s eyes.

During CWS 6, I will ask you to choose to write either a personal essay or memoir.

A personal essay can be defined as an attempt to capture the truth or essence of a subject at a particular moment, a truth that shifts with each stirring of memory. To write is to make meaning of life, to record the culture of the times, to record what might be gone forever tomorrow. To write personal essay, to expose one’s opinions on a subject of interest to others, is to risk being known. To write is to risk. Personal essay can be humorous, exploratory, or reflective. Essays might, and usually do, involve research. Most important, personal essay is honest. Personal essay brings the writer’s unique experience & perspective to a subject that is important to others. Writing personal essay is a way of thinking through, of deconstructing, subjects, issues, events, and opinions that matter to a particular culture or cultures, in order to give the reader a new understanding of the subject.

Narrative nonfiction writing (memoir, memoirs, and true stories about people, places, or things) tells a true story about a life. Narrative nonfiction resembles fiction because the writer attempts to recreate scenes using vivid descriptions of characters, settings, and action. The narrative (or story) might be ordered chronologically, logically, or thematically. Beginning writers often find using chronological order provides the structure they need. Narrative nonfiction is also descriptive. Descriptive writing evokes dominant impressions – the writer attempts to capture sensory details of a moment – the sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and sensations of a happening. Narrative writing can be humorous, exploratory, or reflective, but it is always true to the writer’s perception of events. This means that someone else who observed or participated in the same event might have a different point of view as to how that event unfolded and what it means. The truth that matters is the writer’s truth. Memoir writing is different from writing Memoirs. Memoirs cover an extended period, generally an entire lifetime or career, and memoirs are usually written by well-known, famous people. Memoir focuses on a single important moment in the writer’s life. Memoir is usually shorter, although the book-length memoir is currently en vogue. Memoir is written by people from all occupations. The best memoir takes individual experience and gives it universal meaning. In memoir, chronology, characters, and action linked to a specific time and place are dominant subjects of the writing. This doesn’t mean that you can’t dip into childhood memories to expand upon a scene in the memoir you write during CWS, nor does it mean that you cannot dip into the future when relating an event or time from your past.

During CWS, I would like you to focus on writing about a specific subject or event that explores some aspect of military life. Although the narrator of personal essay and memoir is almost always “I,” the eye must consider and translate that vision onto the page for a reader. For instance, “I once owned a dog that I loved,” can be restructured through revision: “On my living room carpet, Munchkin, my chocolate-brown Shar-Pei, rolled into a blur of wobbling and flopping furry wrinkles, until she more resembled spilled pudding than dog.” Okay, so the sentence is wordier and longer – that means I’ll have to work out the wrinkles during my next revision. Writing is a process of revision! Writing is a process. CWS will help you learn your own process. The basic phases of the writing process are: Prewriting, Drafting, Revision, Polishing/Editing, and Publishing. Reading other writers is an invaluable part of writing.

Attached to this email are a couple of short nonfiction pieces I would like you to read before you begin writing your own essay or memoir. We’ll discuss these pieces and you’ll receive copies during our first meeting.

Create a list of topics you might want to write about. Create a list of everything you know about that time – use short blurbs or single words. Bring this prewriting work to our first workshop. After our first workshop, allow yourself to write a crappy first draft. Expecting to write perfect prose in a first draft is pure fiction. No one does it! First drafts allow a writer to get their ideas on the page. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, spelling, or descriptive language – don’t worry about getting it all right, just write! Organization comes through revision. Remember, writing is revision.  After you’ve finished getting the story down, print your work, take a break, then read your work with a critical eye a day or two later.  Have a pen in your hand while you read.  Mark the page up.  Use arrows, lines, dashes, write in sensory words, add figures of speech, check the order information is revealed, circle those pronouns that should be nouns, replace some of those was’s with action verbs, get out the thesaurus and find new words to use instead of the one that has become a tic in every sentence.  Read your work aloud! Then, return to the computer and make your changes. This is the draft that you will email to me by Tuesday, Sep. 4.

During our first Saturday, we’ll about a few books, handbooks, and websites that might be helpful as you develop your writing skills. Writing is a craft, and like any other skill, it takes practice to be a skilled writer. You don’t have to be a genius to be a writer, but to be a writer you must be willing to work hard.

If you have questions before we meet on Saturday, please email me. If you will not be able to participate, please let me know as soon as possible. I’ll be looking forward to meeting and working with each of you.

Sincerely, Sally

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