In the Spring of 2011 Ruth Folit invited me to do something I had never done before: lead an online writing practice group. Ruth is the designer/producer of LifeJournal, journal software and the founder/director of the International Association for Journal Writing. Our writing practice sessions aren’t really “online,” they’re more “live chat” with participants from across the country and anywhere in the world connecting via phone or Skype. Following is a blog Ruth posted at IAJW‘s site, which she graciously allowed me to repost as a guest blog.
Online Writing Practice—Growing the Writer Within
A couple of days ago was the first of a handful of Wednesdays with Judy Reeves in what’s known as an Online Writing Practice. It’s an hour of time spent, mid-day, with a writers of any shape, size, age, gender, or level of experience.
I can imagine that the process does sound odd—people on the phone writing separately, yet together, in response to a Continue reading
I think of them more like Geppetto’s workshop where he cobbled together his puppet, Pinocchio, who he wanted so desperately to be a real boy. Isn’t this what we do when we participate in a writing workshop? Piece together shards of characters or settings or incidents of our lives to create our own living thing—be it a novel, a memoir, a poem, an essay, an