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Inside Look

Heeding the Muse, Part III - Listening

By Joseph Nichols, Bluegrass Writers Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are you looking here for? I said listen.

Listen.

Heeding the Muse, Part II - Synchronicity

By Joseph Nichols, Bluegrass Writers Studio

 

Where does inspiration come from?

             Last week we discussed the difference between Pull and Push Inspiration, how the former is a writer’s ability to draw from their beliefs and passions to solidify a message that they go into the poem or story intending to speak to their readers.  Push inspiration, on the other hand, was when something outside of and beyond the experience of the writer forces its way into their creative process, begging, screaming to be spoken. 

            Today, I want to share one method of identifying the rolling wave of Push Inspiration.  It is probably the most often occurring and tangible way I experience the Push in my own writing.  It can be summed up in one beautiful and straight forward word:

Heeding the Muse, Part I - Classification

Dr. Dolittle's Pushmi-Pullyu

By Joseph Nichols, Bluegrass Writers Studio

            Every time I go to a professional writer’s question-and-answer session at the local bookstore, the same question is raised: Where do you get your inspiration? The writer always seems annoyed; I’m sure they get asked that so many times they want to vomit. Accordingly, they always give the same, simple answer: Observation and Work.

            Neither of these are satisfying answers, or at least they aren’t for me.

            So, as writers, where can we look to gain our ideas, beyond just keeping our eyes open to the world around us and establishing the habit of sitting down to write daily?

How to Lose Focus in Ten Days

At Camp Hope, NOLA, I looked up. This is what I saw on the ceiling tiles above.

By Kristen Thompson, Associate Coordinator, Bluegrass Writers Studio

     When you’re looking into MFA’s, all of the talk is about “the program”: Should I attend a residency program or a low-residency program? Which program should I apply to if I write crime novels? Once in the program, we submerge ourselves in our courses and workshops, and finally narrow our attention to own thesis. We can easily forget to look up.

Every Day I Write the Book

By Jen Parks, Bluegrass Writers Studio

In the Footsteps of Lovecraft

By Earl P. Dean, Bluegrass Writers Studio

A Jury of My Peers

By Kristen Roach Thompson, Associate Coordinator, Bluegrass Writers Studio

     “But I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers. Still crazy after all these years.” -Paul Simon

     Maybe this lyric can explain my long-overdue, 40-something studies at Bluegrass Writers Studio. A jury of my peers always sounded like a dream enterprise. But who, exactly, did I picture as my peers, way back in the 1970’s, when Simon crooned this and taught me what nostalgia was? At the ripe old age of five, having seen a meeting of the minds among a certain Skywalker/Solo/Kenobi/Bacca crew, my idea of justice and equality may have been a bit overwrought. Not only would my “peers,” whoever they were, not convict me for my behavior, they’d probably be alongside me, wreaking the havoc we deemed necessary.

Still Hungry?

By Laura Wooffitt, Bluegrass Writers Studio

This is part three of series on where to eat in Lisbon, our home away from homepage. For part one, click here, part two, here.

Continuing my list of favorite cheap eats and how to get there from the Baixa-Chiado Metro stop; all directions are given from Rua Garrett, facing the elaborate cafe A Brasileira:

Where to Eat in Baixa Chiado

By Laura Wooffitt, Bluegrass Writers Studio

This is part two of series on where to eat in Lisbon, our home away from homepage. For part one, click here.

Welcome to Lisbon! Está você com fome?

By Laura Wooffitt, Bluegrass Writers Studio

To the Lisbon Bound and others interested,

When you finally make it to the top of the quadra-decker escalator (meaning the four sets of escalator/stairs rising out of the depths of the Baixa Chiado metro station), a lot of things can be overwhelming. There are tons of people, crazy taxis, trams curving round the street in front of you, and again, lots and lots of people. It’s difficult to get your bearings, especially on good places to eat, usually it’s a spur of the moment, let’s try this and hoping it’s not outrageously priced sort of thing!

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