Janet Muirhead Hill’s Advice on How to Use Criticism and How to Spring Back from Rejection: 5 excellent tips

Guest blogger Janet Muirhead Hill, author of the Miranda and Starlight series of six books and Danny’s Dragon, a story of wartime loss, is a member of Women Writing the West. As a seasoned writer she’s a good resource to give advice on how to use criticism and spring back from rejection. As a companion…

Janet Muirhead Hill Explains Why Writers Are So Sensitive to Rejection

Janet Muirhead Hill, author of the Miranda and Starlight series of six books and Danny’s Dragon, a story of wartime loss, is a member of Women Writing the West. As a seasoned writer she’s a good resource in going behind the scenes of a writer’s psyche to explain why we writers are so sensitive to…

Editing Tip by Nancy Connally: Recording and Listening–with an addendum for MAC Users

Nancy Connally, a member of Women Writing the West, gives a few editing tips, including her technique of RECORDING AND LISTENING to help with crafting authentic dialogue and editing. –JGR During many years of editing, I received some fine tips, such as: – Read a document backwards to catch typos and misspellings. – Set a…

Objects as Muse: Sequined Treasure Purses Provide True Serendipity

We can dialogue with objects and use them as our muses in learning more about place and ourselves in relationship to place. Several presenters at the Story Circles Network “Land Full of Stories” conference brought objects with them as prompts. In one workshop I attended the objects were displayed on top of a table. I…

Writing Prompt List from Riehl’s “Always Coming Home” workshop in Texas

In the “Always Coming Home” workshop I gave at the Land Full of Stories Conference we began by generating a list of writing topics we could write on when we returned to our homes. Each woman had a new journal to write in with a rose on the front in full bloom–her homecoming journal. We…

“Crooked House”–a poem written with her non-dominant hand by Cindy Bellinger

One of the pleasures of the Story Circles Network “Land Full of Stories” Conference I just came home from was meeting Cindy Bellinger. I attended her workshop on journaling, bought her new book on journaling, and enjoyed having her participate in my workshop “Always Coming Home.” Her website describes Cindy as “a Western girl through…

“I Remember”–workshop exercise and group poem for Giving Sorrow Words

At the Spring 2007 Integrating Spirit and Caregiving Conference I just attended the “I Remember” exercise was the centerpiece of my Give Sorrow Words workshop. Participants grouped at tables around newsprint created a life story for a woman who has dementia. Each table wrote from a different perspective/role/voice. ·The woman herself (the patient) ·Her husband…

30 Things to Do to Celebrate National Poetry Month–Plus Three More–What about enclosing a poem in your bill payment!

Poets. Org has a wonderful list of 30 things to do to celebrate poetry month (April, right?). 31) But, here’s one they haven’t thought of. My father, Erwin A. Thompson, encloses a poem along with his bill to the Great Central Lumber Company. The women down there enjoy this so much that when once he…