Writing in Community is a book of inspiration and encouragement for writers who want to reach deep within themselves and write to their fullest potential. There is magic in a successful writing group. This book helps writers tap into that magic, and with gentle wisdom and humor, experience unprecedented breakthroughs in creativity.
Lucy Adkins grew up in rural Nebraska, attended country schools, the University of Nebraska and received her degree from Auburn University in Alabama. Her poetry has been published in various journals and magazines which include Rhino, Red Wheelbarrow, Northeast, South Dakota Review, Concho River Review, and several anthologies including Times of Sorrow/Times of Grace, Women Write Resistance,Crazy Woman Creek, and the Poets Against the War anthology. Her chapbook, One Life Shining: Addie Finch, Farmwife, was published in 2007 by Pudding House Press, and her non-fiction book, Writing in Community: Say Goodbye to Writer's Block and Transform Your Life, co-written with Becky Breed, was published by WriteLife in 2013. She also co-writes a blog of encouragement and inspiration for writers which can be found at www.writeincommunity.com.
For years I have been fortunate to lead and be a part of a generative writing group...that is, a group which comes together for the express purpose of generating new writing. The group has been a life-changer for me, that "certain energy," the magic of the group, helping me to do my best writing.
Book Excerpt
Writing in Community
Something happens when a group of people are given a prompt and are then expected to write. Writer Judy Reeves refers to this as an “electric current of connection, not just one writer to another, but one human to another.” There is a collective consciousness, a certain energy of the group, even if its members are silent, just scribbling away. Leo Kovar describes it like this: “I am given a prompt and start writing,” he says, and “I am… whoosh… off into some other space…” How wonderful! The magic is about having an open mind, listening, and allowing the images just below the surface to emerge. It is about the discipline of the writing time and the expectation that you will write, and along with this the freedom to write whatever comes into your head. Sometimes, there is the feeling that what you are putting down on paper is not even coming from your own head, but from some power greater than you are. You are just the one with the pen in her hand and so you write it down. There’s that part of the magic too, and one that thrills you and keeps you coming back.
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