Bud, a Writing Project TC in Colorado, tweeted a line from a book this morning. The words are attributed to Vincent Van Gogh:
If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint”, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
The same is true of writing, isn’t it? The only way to silence the voice that tells us we cannot write is to write. So get out there and write today!
If you are interested in experimenting with digital storytelling, Helen Barrett had a link to an ebook from Microsoft that might give you the courage you need to give it a try. The ebook links to examples of student-produced stories and research on the value of digital storytelling as well as guidelines on how to set up such a project. Of course, there are big sections telling you how wonderful Microsoft products are for creating digital stories, but there is some valuable information to be found in it.
You can download the ebook here.
Well, I can’t guarantee that, but I can get your name and your writing published on the HPWP e-zine!
It is time again to start going through your writing to find something you would like to have published. Poetry, short stories, essays, and just about anything else you might write are welcome!
I hope to get the next issue up by April 1, so please get me your pieces by March 1st.
Well, I ended up not writing about last week’s prompt. What about you? Never fear, it is a new week and there is a new prompt. Again, it is an opening line. This time it is from Jane Smiley:
The end of September is a great time to have a birthday if you want to be a writer.
- Jane Smiley, 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel
Please feel free to post anything you write here as a comment. We’d love to read it!
Another first line as a prompt. This one comes from Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg.
Again, write to the prompt or not. Post your writing here as a comment if you feel so inclined.
This video provides some insight in the shift in thinking on the part of NWP and others from working in schools and education to working with learning, wherever it takes place.
Thanks to Scott McLeod for his post, where I first saw the video.
Time to get the creative juices flowing again after the holidays. Here is your writing prompt:
“Then there was the bad weather.”
- Ernest Hemingway, opening line of A Moveable Feast
Do with it what you will. If you would like to post your piece here as a comment, it would be great. If not, that’s OK, too!
The next marathon in the Clovis/Portales area will be held next Saturday, January 9. We will meet at The Java Loft in Clovis at 10:00 am and will write for a couple hours before moving on have lunch together somewhere. We hope that you will join us!
Due to some scheduling conflicts, the monthly writing marathon was moved to December 19th. We had a wonderful morning writing. Dee prepared a list of prompts — places, foods, colors, sounds, smells, etc. — and we took off writing. It was a lot of fun! We hope you will make plans to join us on the 2nd Saturday of January for more writing!
It is that time of year again… No, not the holidays! It is time to start thinking about the Summer Institute. (Well, truth be told, I think Gretchen thinks about it all year long! But the rest of us probably don’t!) Here is the brochure for the 2010 Summer Institute with the application form. Be sure to let good candidates for it know they can find it here!
