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Writing Workshop

MAD’s Monday Muse: Showing Up

by Mary Ann on September 21, 2009

We amateurs think we have to wait for the big idea, the next scene, the next line, to arrive before we sit down to work. But the pros know the Muse sits in wait for us, gifts in hand, expecting us to show up and honor our intentions to write. [Read on...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Two Hats

by Mary Ann on September 14, 2009

Besides being MAD about Words, I’m mad about the movies. I often take The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, by Michael Ondaatje down off my bookshelf and read it again to feed my two obsessions. Murch is an Academy Award winning film editor who worked on “The Godfather” and many other [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Well-Dressed Writing

by Mary Ann on September 7, 2009

“Everyone who writes strives for the same thing. To say it swiftly, clearly, to say the hard thing that way, using few words. Not to gum up the paragraph. To know when to quit when you’ve done. And not to have hangovers of other ideas sifting in unnoticed. Good writing is precisely like good dressing. [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Mistakes, Accidents & Obstacles

by Mary Ann on September 1, 2009

This week, another gift from the sea.
“If the oyster had hands, there would be no pearl. Because the oyster is forced to live with the irritation for an extended period of time, the pearl comes to be…. Mistakes and accidents can be irritating grains that become pearls; they present us with unforeseen opportunities, they are [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Like Building Sandcastles

by Mary Ann on August 31, 2009

I’m away on a little vacation, but I’m still thinking of you, and I remembered this remark by the great John Gardner, because I’m in sand-castle-building territory.
“The best way of all for dealing with writer’s block is never to get it. Some writers never do. Theoretically there’s no reason one should get it, if one [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Don’t Hold Back

by Mary Ann on August 17, 2009

I saw the Julie & Julia movie yesterday. Julia Child’s fearlessness, her joyful energy and passion, drove her to success. Author Annie Dillard doesn’t hold back either. Isn’t interesting how often good writing advice makes good life advice, too?
“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Stamina

by Mary Ann on August 9, 2009

I can play with sentences for hours and hours.
“There’s no reason you should write any novel quickly. There’s no reason you shouldn’t, as a writer, not be aware of the necessity to revise yourself constantly. More than a half, maybe as much as two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn’t [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Persistence

by Mary Ann on July 27, 2009

I don’t know about you, but I find it comforting when a famous author says that writing doesn’t come easily. Early success led Michael Cunningham to believe writing and publishing would continue to be easy for him. Then he struggled for years before he was published again. Talent and skill matter, but they don’t count [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Embrace Your Wanderlust

by Mary Ann on July 20, 2009

The road to a complete written piece is rarely smooth and straight from beginning to end. It’s bumpy; there are detours and dead ends; and your windshield is more likely than not to get muddy. Instead of freaking out when the end is not in sight, how about enjoying the ramble? Take side trips and [...]

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MAD’s Monday Muse: Shut Up & Write

by Mary Ann on July 13, 2009

We love to write. We want to write. We need to write. We long to write. And yet, we find all sorts of ways to avoid doing this thing we love, want, need, and long to do. One way we avoid writing is by gathering with other writers to do writer-like things.
And while it’s [...]

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Brian Turner, Kerouac Writer in Residence

by Mary Ann on June 28, 2009

Here’s Brian Turner, the poet we in the Orlando area are fortunate to have in residence at Kerouac House this quarter.  And we feel extra fortunate to be able to offer you an opportunity to work with him.

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MAD’s Monday Muse

by Mary Ann on June 22, 2009

I love Lorrie Moore’s writing. She can put me in the space where funny and sad overlap, and that’s a place I like to be in. [read more]

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