A flood of writing emotions

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”~Helen Keller, American writer

I arrived at Barnes & Noble early enough for tonight’s Deadwood Study Group. The format has changed over the years, and right now the focus is freewriting from a prompt presented by the coordinator, Barbara. I chatted with other members who had arrived early–remember, I have two meetings left with these inspirational folks–but pulled out my Snoopy Moleskine journal to write the prompt. The topic was: a song that evokes a strong place, time and emotion.

Haiku Horizons #153

Always the memoirist, I asked, “Is this real or fiction?”

Barb said, “Whatever you choose.”

I blended reality with fiction, using a real song, the real name of a real bar, but added two fictional characters. We all lost track of time because no one set a timer. I stopped early because I reached a point where I couldn’t go on because it finished neatly:

“Of course “How Deep is Your Love” would play as Kayla walked through the doors into The Surf Club. Tonight, however, the bar was empty. The club had all of 5 people–she counted–and not one of them was Dylan. There never would be.”

Everyone said “Ooooohhhh” when I finished reading.

I’m making the best use of this group while I can in person by submitting a piece for critique today and in 2 weeks. Tonight’s piece was based on this comment I heard somewhere:

Take old blog posts and publish them in an eBook. It gives you an easy backlist because the text is already written.

Yeah, let me tell you, it’s not as easy as cut-n-paste.

Sure, the physical act is easy enough, however tedious. Two years ago, I pulled together all my blog posts with the Zentangle tag. Unlike pattern books or now the onslaught of coloring books, I plan a book-book on Zentangle from the perspective of the musings and lessons from a CZT. That’s me, by the way.

When John and I talked yesterday, he gave me some creative insights and options to approach the book. Our discussion changed my focus and idea of the book almost to the point that tonight’s critique would not be helpful. This group always surpluses me. [NOTE: I meant to type the word “surpasses,” but “surplus” works just as well when I think about it.]

I got what I needed from them without knowing what I needed. There was enough of a split between length and number of books that I will have to make my own decision on that. As for the rest, well, the best thing is the positivity that everyone vibes. Why? A segment I forgot I wrote made everyone adore the humor of my book idea:

“I dabbled with ambidexterosity in high school trying to impress a guy I liked who was. I gave it up after 2 weeks because he didn’t seem to notice me. What a waste… for him.”

That was cool. Spread positivity.