Grammar Nazis and What They are For?

I hate to use the word Nazi lightly because I have written Holacaust memoirs. So know that when I use this word, I am not joking.

Grammar Nazis are horrifying to me because they crush a lot of writerly spirits before they have the chance to fly. When I used to tell people I was a writer, about half of people I told would get very stiff and worry that I was going to correct their speech or critique their spelling in an email.

I dislike grammar nazis for this reason. True, I have my own pet peeves, (like 'lol' and lots of exclamation points), but they don't bother me enough to write hateful emails to people. I get several emails per year from just such people. As I read I get the feeling that a blood vessel is about to burst in the writer and I am sorry that I caused them so much pain. But not really.

The truth is, I sometimes inadvertantly, and sometimes on purpose, add grammatical errors in my Memoirs Ink messaging--just to weed out those people. God forbid one of them take a class and be mixed in with some fledgling writer who is just getting over her 3rd grade teacher or her college sentence diagramming professor.

And did you notice the title of this post? It makes no sense grammatically. That was to attract the audience I am hoping to sway. To all of you out there who have your hands on your hips defensively, I invite you to take a deep breath. If you feel passionately about good grammar, know that I understand the pain it causes you when you see or hear things out of place. But we are here to promote writing and the genre of memoir. Sure, people aren't going to win a writing contest with lots of exclamation points all over the place, but they may very well change lives by writing down that story that was inside them for so long. And they may very well be great writers who just need a good editor.

I have one very good example of this in a student to who took my Writer's Mind class last year. She had no writing experience, yet blew us all out of the water with her excellence and her ability to be vulnerable (I have to take some credit for creating the environment that allowed this). She was a much better writer than the MFAs who often submit to our writing contest--who do not all have perfect grammar either.

Make This Your Summer of Writing Bliss

Did you know that July is National Anti-Boredom Month? Is boredom even an issue any more? I see overload as the true issue in 2012 and I declare that July is now officially the month to put everything else aside and put yourself back on your to-do list.

I find that when I write first--even if it is just 15 minutes--the rest of day is golden. And why not have a summer of golden days? Below are some suggestions and tools and deadlines to help you have a blissful writing summer.

Deadlines
I love this quote by Douglas Adams: "For a moment, nothing happened.Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."
Deadlines give writers something to work towards. If you can't artificially impose them, then get a real deadline. Memoirs Ink has a writing contest twice a year that gives many writers something to work towards. This year the deadline is August 1, 2012 and there is a late deadline of August 15th.

Group Energy Doubles the Bliss
Just like cow tipping and toilet papering is more fun with companions, so is writing bliss. If you don't have a writing friend or a whole group of them, join a class or a writing group or just finding an accountability buddy to check up on your progress every day. Lots of people take classes together and sometimes whole writing groups enter the same contest. It's amazing how the synergistic energy gets everyone happily writing. Writing classes/workshops also provide deadlines and social commitment and accountability more so than an informal group.

Mind Games
Do you believe you can achieve anything with the power of your mind?  You can. If you can only tap into the 88% of it that you can't normally access. We will be using many unconscious mind tools that can transform your writing life in The Writer's Mind, a unique writing workshop that will get you happily writing and keep you there. The Writer's Mind starts the week of July 16 and runs for 7 weeks. So if you are serious about a summer of writing bliss, visit our website and learn how to register. And if you like videos, you can watch this link to learn more about The Writer's Mind. 

Space is very limited, so please email memoirsink at gmail today to talk about whether this class is a good fit for you.

Many blessings and writing bliss,

Felice Austin

2012 Half Yearly Contest Winners

The winners have been announced!

Drumroll here....

The winners of the 2012 Half-Yearly Contest are:

First Place: Last Kiss, by Karen Ross Samford

Second Place: Metamorphosis, by Cara Achterberg

Third Place: Talking with Chloe, by Annie Murray

We sincerely thank all who submitted their stories and invite you to submit again in August. Guidelines for the Annual contest are here.

Steve Martin and My Metaphysical Writing Group

About two years ago I started a hypnotherapy journey. I am now a hypnotherapist and love using it to help writers and myself really enjoy the writing process and dig into their creative depths. Well, last month after finishing a non-fiction book project that has taken much of my time for my the last 2 1/2 years, I started working on my own memoirs again, (mostly a collection of stories from my childhood -some of the published ones are archived here) and it is bringing me so much joy. I have been using all of my own tools and finding great surprises along the way.

The funnest part about this journey is that I have started a new writing group. Steve Martin, who I adore as a writer, is in my group. Some of you know that I have been wanting to meet Steve for a while. Well, I finally met him in a metaphysical imagery journey in which we were both sitting in two chairs by a cozy fire in a cabin in the woods. If you are wondering, yes there was a stream outside. Ah, the mind.

Warning. This blog is about to enter the realm of the metaphysical and unprovable. Right where I like to be. Most of the best things in life are unprovable. Like poetry. How does it work? How does it break the chains of time and space and shift us when we hear it read aloud next to paintings of flowers and haystacks. No one really knows, and when we try to talk about it, we are using the part of our mind that doesn't really believe in it anyway. That's why analyzing and talking about the metaphysical always feels woo-woo.

But back to my writing group. Steve and I really connected when we met and we decided to start a writing group. He insisted that we invite his friend Julie, because she is a very good workshopper and has been very valuable to him in his writing journey, and I trust him completely. So we invited her. I don't know her well yet, but she seems to be quite lovely. I wanted to invite Annie Dillard, but Steve was not sure at first. He's much shyer than you'd think. I'm not sure what his hesitation was, but once we got her on Skype she was great and we all had great chemistry.

So we meet like that, the 4 of us, weekly around my square dining room table, and sometimes we are serious and sometimes we laugh and sometimes we lie on the floor and listen to a recording of some hypnosis track that I made earlier. And sometimes... well no, I won't share everything.

Suffice it to say, I'm happier than ever and producing great writing. Perhaps I will even update Cartoon Physics, soon. I hope everyone is enjoying the writing life as much as I am.

Who is your metaphysical writing mentor?

The Winners are...

Memoirs Ink is happy to announce the winners of the 2011 Annual Writing Contest:

First Place: The Narrative Voice, by Emily Gambone

Second Place: A Great Love, by Sue Granzella

Third Place: The Circus Inside Me, by Re McBride

Honorable Mention: To the Edge, by Patricia Schultheis

Please read and enjoy them and pass on or comment on any stories you enjoy. If you would like to enter our next contest, you can view the guidelines here.

Life Histories and Colorado Peaches

I'm in a very small town in the northwest corner of Colorado right now, conducting a life history interview for an 87-year old man. The interview is interesting so far, as always, and I am enjoying being in the high desert after a long absence from this part of the country. On the 88 mile drive from Grand Junction to Rangely, I saw wild horses, deer, and cattle grazing on the side of a precarious cliff. There is a quietness here that has a buzzing sound to it. I couldn't help stopping at a peach stand and I am now living off of Palisades Peaches (which is apparently the place to get peaches around here.)

It has been some time since I have traveled for work, and I'm surprised how much I am enjoying it. Lately, instead of traveling myself, I have been training others in the art of "Life History Facilitation" and certifying them through Memoirs Ink. The plan is to create my own army, because there is only one me and there is a lot of work to be done in the world. The demand for recorded life histories is growing, and I love training people. What better job could one have than to be paid to listen to interesting stories, learn new things and sometimes travel to interesting places.

Here are just a few of the things I learned about today:

The Road to Berma
The Flying Tigers
Mount Everest
The Forbidden City in Tibet
Gurkas
Riding an Elephant

2 Memoir Genres That Will Change My Life This Fall

I'm a memoirist. It even says so on my cards. But for some reason I have largely ignored the sub-genre stratification of memoirs. A memoir was a memoir. But now I see my error. There are war memoirs, there are midwifery memoirs, there are political memoirs, and so much more.

Let me tell you about two genres of memoir that are currently on my radar and why. They are: food memoirs, and dating memoirs. Culinary memoirs are on my radar because I love food and because Memoirs Ink just started a food memoir blog called Heart of the Platter. Starting this blog has changed my culinary life and brought me and others around me much joy. (I'd like to invite readers to think about food stories, too and submit them if they have them. They are fun and easy to write.) The latter genre, dating memoirs, came onto my radar when Tamara Duricka Johnson showed up in The Writer's Mind Class this February.

Tamara was in the editing phase of her dating memoir, 31 Dates in 31 Days, which is forthcoming this October 2011 from Seal Press. I got to hear her story and read some of the chapters. It was fun to see how her dating experiment changed and stretched her, and ultimately brought her true love (but you'll have to read it to find out how). I realized that dating memoirs are a legitimate genre. And so in honor of Tamara (who is now a dear friend), and her forthcoming book, I have decided to do her 31 date challenge this fall. Lucky for Tamara, and some good men out there, I am currently single, rooted in self-love and open to any and all learnings. Seems like the perfect time to do it.

Eek!

However, I am not quite crazy enough to attempt 31 dates in 31 days, so I will be doing the 30 dates in 60 days (September and October), and the 31st date will be a second date of my choice sometime around the end of October.

Just to satisfy the highly voyeuristic, I might blog about it here every other week or so and let you know how it is going. And I'll be doing a guest post on Tamara's 31 Dates blog sometime in October.

So fun! May the force be with me.

Me at my last Art, Music, and Spoken Word Salon. (Before I spilled tea and honey on my shirt.)

P.S. If you are in Los Angeles and want to set me up with someone handsome and healthy (nerdy welcome too), or be part of my date quest yourself then hit me up through the blog. In general, I'm only saying yes to people who I know through someone, but hey, there's no harm in trying. That is a lot of dates to fill.