After the Alphabet

I enjoyed my April journey through the alphabet, especially the chance to share responses from other writers, and I completed the Poetic Asides Poem A Day Challenge as well. Now I find myself in an unstructured May, with the school year completed and endless possibilities lying ahead.

Last summer I took part in an online class on Flash Memoir taught by Melanie Faith.  Since my “found cousin” Sandy was the other “student,”  we had a chance to share stories that overlapped in some areas.  This summer, we have decided to spend June and July with our own writing class based on Rebecca McClanahan’s Write Your Heart Out.

Already, as I read through the book, my notes in the margin are growing.  I know that the biggest challenges will be picking and choosing which activities to pursue, which to put on the back burner.  What drew me to the book, other than McClanahan herself, a wonderful writer and presenter, is the way it can be tailored to whatever type of writing one enjoys.  I write more poetry than Sandy does, though we both have a bent toward blogging.  My topics seem to be all over the place; she has certain areas she continues to explore, going deeper and deeper.

We learned last summer that even when the story we share is one we experienced together, the details change as we filter them through our memory.  After all, fact and truth are not synonymous.

We’d love to have others join us on this little writing journey.  I’ll post writing prompts here and links to some supplementary texts.  Anyone who wants to join us is welcome to share through the comments or on some other platform we create.  You don’t have to have the book, but I do recommend it.  I can’t wait to start writing my heart out.