My husband recently participated in a home brewing contest. While there, I did something I’d never done before – poured beer for hundreds of people. Observing the brewers, their families, and their interactions, I realized they had a lot in common with the writing community. Namely creativity, camaraderie, affability, and their support and encouragement of one another.
Throughout the day, I observed many parallels that translate easily from beer to books.
Summer’s here, and it’s time for a road trip! If the price of gas is keeping you close to home, take a virtual trip with a fictional road trip. Here are several I recommend:
This Life by Jennifer RodewaldWriting is a notoriously solitary occupation, but bringing those polished words to the page or the screen is not.
Tapping furiously at your keyboard in your comfy clothes, crumbs dusting the keyboard and your favorite beverage at hand may eventually result in a first draft. Chances are if you didn’t need help and encouragement getting that far, you will if you want to push that draft over the goal line as a published product.
There are all sorts of writing communities out there. Some are as loosely associated as a shared hashtag. Others involve dues and duties. A plethora fall in between. You can find groups built around genres, locales, and various media.
For Catholic writers, a community built around faith can offer the support, encouragement, and development you’ve been seeking.
Almost ten years ago, with a couple of novels in various states of readiness for the world under my belt, I joined the Catholic Writers Guild. It is the single best thing I did to further my writing.
Leave a CommentWelcome to the July 2022 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com! My husband has been doing a bit more…
6 CommentsBeing that I, uh, only recently completed my summer 2021 reading list, I’m keeping this list short. Find below: the book, the blurb, and why I want to read it.
Blurb: Gone with the Wind, novel by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1936. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937. Gone with the Wind is a sweeping romantic story about the American Civil War from the point of view of the Confederacy. In particular it is the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a headstrong Southern belle who survives the hardships of the war and afterward manages to establish a successful business by capitalizing on the struggle to rebuild the South. Throughout the book she is motivated by her unfulfilled love for Ashley Wilkes, an honorable man who is happily married. After a series of marriages and failed relationships with other men, notably the dashing Rhett Butler, she has a change of heart and determines to win Rhett back.
Why I want to [re-]read it: This classic is probably, next to The Outsiders, the book I’ve re-read most. And guess what? I picked it up because of the The Outsiders. It’s long been a favorite, but I haven’t re-read it in a very long time, and I’m curious what impression it will make at this point in my life.
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