Last week, I had the privilege of spending an evening with the Maitland chapter of the Florida Writers Association where we discussed the Art of Writing Short. We explored a number of examples of flash fiction and micro-memoir, including the elegant simplicity of six-word memoir. Everyone agreed: it certainly requires skill and practice to put our thoughts into fewer words without sacrificing depth or impact. Writing short is indeed an art form all its own and presents a worthy challenge for writers.
Participant Tony Taylor said, “In a group with speakers such as Patricia, we get that needed boost to get us past the blank page” and summed up the Art of Writing Short presentation as “challenging but encouraging” and that he left feeling grateful, challenged, and inspired.
Cheryl West had some great takeaways from the evening as well. What was most helpful to her was “capturing the moment. Don’t wait; just go for it.” She decided her next step is to “stop preparing and take advantage of what time I have, even minutes.” She encourages other writers to “forget about what might be interesting to others. Write what is interesting to you.” Well said, Cheryl!
Cheryl has already signed up for The Basics of Writing Well workshop on Saturday, August 11th to help jumpstart her next writing project.
Congratulations to prize winner, Erwin Wunderlich, who will receive a free Writing Your Life video of his choice to start his writing library. Even though Erwin is an accomplished writer, I hope the Writing Your Life instructional video he chooses will prove useful to him in his next project.
FWA Maitland was such a fun, lively group who asked lots of great questions and inspired interesting discussion. Thanks so much for your warm welcome and enthusiasm!
Thanks for being such a great group and remember: The only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all!
