Notes from Christi Krug’s talk, July 2016

(with thanks to Karin)

Christi gave us a handout, ‘Following the Thread’ and read a poem by William Stafford about Following the Thread.

– We learn from the challenges we have.

– You can still consider yourself a successful writer if you have challenges.

– One obstacle is finding your way when you are lost.

§ Writing a novel – where do I go from here?

§ Research – you can get lost in researching

§ Run-on sentences

§ Somewhere between the beginning and end the plot has a hole.

§ Where do you go from there?

– Creativity is created in times of lostness.

– Your writing changes day to day.

– You write about what you understand at this moment.

– Your life and your writing are connected.

Exercise:

– As I look back on my life what is the thread that has given me a sense of meaning or purpose?

– What kind of situations cause you to let go of the thread?

– Can you think of a time you let go of the thread?

Wild Writing exercise.

Write for ten minutes without stopping and without editing.

The prompt: The last time I felt lost….

If you can’t think of anything to write, just keep writing, don’t stop.

The voice that tells you that you can’t go on can’t be trusted.

If you stop, the editor wins.

The mind doesn’t write, the hand writes.

Word. She then asked us to find a word in the writing that caught our attention. We repeated this exercise three times.

Fear is not living. Avoiding things that we are afraid of does not make for the best writing.

As she rounded up she said that she coaches one-on-one. Additionally, she’d be happy to read what we had written during the ten minute exercise.

Writers Mill