Are you writing/creating?  If so, keep at it.  If not, why not?

I recently attended the inaugural Maine Crime Wave conference offered by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA).  If you are not a member of such an organization, I highly recommend you join.  If you live in Maine, I highly recommend this one.

Imagine a full day of panel discussions and workshops in the company of other writers and creatives.  Imagine sitting in a workshop with an author whose books you’ve read and receiving insights into that writer’s process.  Imagine a panel made up of those who write and those who publish offering advice, constructive feedback, and encouragement.  Imagine opportunities to chat with others who “speak the same language,” to have a manuscript critiqued, to interact with a broader community.

How could you not come back to your writing desk inspired and enthused?

The theme I heard most often repeated by writers and publishers alike was:  write a good book. Put your seat to the seat and keep putting it there until it’s done. Publishers are looking for well written characters in well written stories. Don’t think about publication until you have written something to publish! It’s that simple. Take one step at a time and the first step is: write a good book.

I can’t say enough about the value of occasional conferences, retreats, and workshops.  They constitute an important part of my writing life.  I’m not a crime writer, but I gained a great deal from this very full day of immersion in the writer’s craft in the company of other writers. (And, I may just pull out that short mystery story I wrote years ago and give it a rewrite!)

Reinforced message of the day:  seat to the seat.  Again and again and again.

Ekphrasis.

What is it and why should you care?

Simply put, ekphrasis is a written response (poem, short story, short short story, haiku, novel, etc.) to a work of art (painting, sculpture, photograph, fiberwork, etc.).  It may be written from the perspective of the viewer, a figure in the painting, any object/item in a painting, a landscape, the artist, the sculpture itself, etc.  It’s a sort of sky’s-the-limit kind of exercise.

For example, I participated in a show called, “Ekphrasis: Face & Figure,” and wrote a poem from the point of view of a young woman in a painting.  I sat with the painting, spent time really seeing it.  I jotted words and phrases as they came to me.  Then, over the course of a month, the poem emerged in her words.  It began, “If it’s true, what they say about men and girls who wear glasses …”

I also wrote a short story in response to a painting by Maine artist Leslie Anderson.  (Shanti Arts Publishing and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance invited Maine writers to submit stories and mine was one of the ten selected to be included in the resulting book, Summer Stories.)

More than 20 of Leslie’s paintings were presented.  One entitled, Last Night At the Lake, featured lawn chairs on a dock facing a setting sun across the water.  This immediately sent me into a story.  The painting chose me!

Interestingly, in both cases (poem & short story), other writers chose the same painting as I did.  The resulting poems and stories were, of course, very different from one another.  This fascinated me and inspired this post.

Below, I am offering photographs of some of my works.  I invite you to “respond” with a written piece of your own. (It may just be a line.)  It may arrive full blown.  It may require lots of time and space.  Whatever your process, I suspect it will prove interesting.

I’d appreciate you letting me know your first impressions: words, phrases, images, thoughts,   …   But, that’s not necessary.

Please consider sharing the “end” result at some time.  [Comment on this post, email me or send a message through Facebook.]

You are welcome, of course, to keep it to yourself and simply enjoy the ride.

Below you will find a series of faces and a figure:

(All photos copyrighted materials, Mary Lou Bagley)

Let one or more choose you.  Then,  … write!

As you look out upon this new year, dear ones, I extend an invitation.

I invite you to take a moment and revisit these Time To Write postings from 2013. (There are 9 of them and most are short.) I’ve offered them in friendship as encouragement, inspiration and support.  Though we may be solitary creatives, we are a community — interconnected beings.  We keep each other going.

Give yourself this gift of time: reflect and be reminded of who you are.

What words of encouragement do you have to offer in exchange?

Blessings on this next trip around the sun!

  ~ Mary Lou