Carolyn Martin’s Workshop: “It Happens This Way”:
Before diving into the actively creative part of the workshop, Carolyn reminded us that fallow time—a time to rest, reflect, read, collect—is also valuable for the poetic brain. Like seeds in fallow soil, more bountiful production will emerge. Resting prepares for creativity.
Continue reading Carolyn Martin Workshop July 2021WRITERS’ MILL MEETING
July 18, 2021
Minutes with thanks to Jean Harkin
Attendance: 16 via Zoom (thanks to Laura Baca at Cedar Mill Library). Laura announced this will be her last meeting as library host with Writers’ Mill. She introduced Jennifer Keyser, who will be her replacement for a while. The group applauded and thanked Laura for her valuable assistance to Writers’ Mill during the last few years.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 202107With several new members, we started our meeting by reminding everyone of who we are: the Writers’ Mill, writers helping writers, meeting on the 3rd Sunday of every month. We all agree that our librarian is fantastic and Zoom is wonderful (if occasionally challenging). And maybe one day there’ll be mixed real-and-virtual meetings—it’s a dream, but please be thinking about how it might work. And on the subject of dreams… we run monthly contests online for which this month’s topic was dreams. Von announced the results, and you should have already received them from our contest coordinator, unless you’re a new member (in which case I’ve only just added you to the list):
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes 202101Sheila had promised to talk about writing methods, aphorisms, rules, etc. But she started by pointing out that, while some rules (like don’t touch live wires) are not meant to be broken, others (like show don’t tell) represent simply one way of looking at things. So we looked at proverbs and their opposites. Such as:
Continue reading Writing Methods (June 2020 Sheila Deeth)Carolyn Martin should need no introduction; but for anyone who’s not been to one of Carolyn’s Writers’ Mill workshops before, she’s a Portland poet with an absolutely beautiful website (just follow the link in her name), and some equally beautiful books of poetry, including a Penchant for Masquerades, which has only just come out. Continue reading Inspiration with Carolyn Martin, April 2019
A small group met this month, braving the heat to enjoy a very inspiration-filled writers’ workshop led by the ever-popular Carolyn Martin. Continue reading Carolyn Martin on Inspiration – Writers’ Mill Minutes 201807
How do you start a poem (or a story)?
Continue reading Where Inspiration Comes Sliding Through – notes on a talk given by Carolyn Martin