Finding Inspiration in the Spontaneous Community Created within Literary Gatherings: Mountain Words Literary Festival, Crested Butte, CO

"Perhaps we are all here to trace and collect words, to sow meaning; we collect that thing which people discard as ordinary and bring it to a page of life where it can flourish and be the map of human struggle and therefore an instruction as to how we can all survive. " - Aaron a. Abeyta

I jumped in my car a bit last minute a week ago to drive 16 hours across Nevada and Utah to participate in an exciting new gathering of writers. The Mountain Words Literary Festival is a multi-day literary celebration at nine-thousand feet, featuring readings, workshops, kids' events, parties, panel discussions, live theater, and more. Over four days, I joined other writers, film makers, scientists and artists beginning at 9 am to stretch our imaginations and hands in a shared community at the architecturally striking Arts Center in downtown Crested Butte, CO.

Thursday morning early I found a seat with a view of the valley looking north towards Mt. Crested Butte peak for Nuha Fariha's workshop, "Better Together: Creative Collaboration". Fariha is the Fiction Editor of the New Delta Review.

I finished Thursday morning with a dive into the concepts of status and stasis, exploring where we stand in our writing. This workshop applied the concepts of playwriting by Keith Johnston in Impro for Storytellers. Dr. Paul Edwards, a retired professor of Communication Arts of from Western Colorado University and playwrite/director at the Crested Butte Community Theater, guided us through a discussion of how status actions motivate a character in a scene. I wrote some dialogue and felt a prick of Ahha!

So much inspiration here in the varied writers, teachers, panels, and workshops! More details will emerge in blog posts over the next few weeks. I just want to mention one particular writer and teacher who was awarded on Friday night the Karen Chamberlain Award for “ outstanding service to poetry in Colorado, a long history of building communities of poets & providing inspiration to us all by developing a body of powerful work”. Aaron Abeyto is a poet, novelist, teacher, and the mayor of his hometown, Antonito, Colorado. He read for us an open letter he's published in praise of books. His passion and obvious love and care for other human beings shone from his face as he read this letter. I bought his novel Rise, Do Not Be Afraid, and can't wait to become more familiar with his poetry!

 

Wisdom I took away from the Business of Art Symposium in Nevada City

Last Saturday I participated in the Business of Art Symposium in Nevada City, hosted by Nevada County Arts Council. You can find the scoop in their calendar for county-wide arts events and opportunities.

Saturday's keynote speaker, Peter Blachley, Founder, Morrison Hotel Gallery, addressed a crowded auditorium at the Sierra Expeditionary Elementary School. He inspired the crowd of creatives with the possibilities of strategic business planning for an artist career. His advice included

• make sure that your work keeps you close to the creatives in whatever field you are working in
• choose to create in a place geographically that offers you room to grow

The business of art often involves this triangle of relationship: a need, a creative solution, and a sponsor. How do you connect these three elements in your business? And if you make these connections, ask yourself:  

• What would I create if...

I began brainstorming my dream of creating a writers retreat this spring at the Lost Trail Lodge during the two keynote talks, and now I hope to move forward with collaborating on this retreat with some key creatives.

Eliza Tudor led a packed room through the "boring" anatomy of a grant application. She is a brilliant presenter, offering the crowd specific and tangible tools for finding, applying for, and winning grant funding for their projects.

I jumped on board the The Maker Movement at a panel with Liam Ellerby and Kara Asilanis, co- founders, The Curious Forge, Karyn Stanley, Executive Director, The Truckee Roundhouse, and Joe Taylor, artist, educator and Lead Volunteer at The Roundhouse. These collaborations offer opportunities for different ways to make and to network with creatives. A list of new vocabulary for me: Slack, Adobe "Capture" function, nation of Makers on Facebook, Instructables DIY website, Evil Mad Genius, CNC Router, CNC Plasma, Lasercutter, and 3d Printer.

Taking a break to soak up some sunshine, I met my new workshop buddy, artist in residence Ruth Chase. She is linking her three year project Belonging | HOME with a new program for organizations wishing to explore issues of equity, diversity and inclusion, and this will manifest as a convening May 8th, 2020. This project curates a sensitive conversation on what it means to be "at home." Her commitment to OF/BY/FOR ALL is helping deepen community impact, advance goals around diversity, equity, and inclusion, provide professional development, and develop new, community-centered ways of working. Being part of OF/BY/FOR ALL’s change network is the beginning of a journey for us all.

Our lunchtime keynote, SUMMONING PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE CREATIVE EXCELLENCE, featured the beautiful video interviews by photographer Norman Seeff and art supporter Charles Hannah. I can't wait to see more of these unique videos and photographs of performers, musicians and bands. Norman Seeff spoke to us to help us identify that moment in your creative life where you made a paradigm-shifting choice or decision that changed your path in life.

Did you know Nevada County Arts Council serves as a hub for information on the arts in Nevada County, and the go-to place for ways to get involved in the arts in our county?

Nevada County Arts Council, by resolution of Nevada County Board of supervisors, is State-Local Partner with California Arts Council. A 501c3 not-for-profit organization, it facilitates collaborative efforts that promote and sustain the visual, literary and performing arts of Nevada County to advance the cultural, social and economic life of our community.

3rd Annual Sierra Poetry Festival looking for Vendors! April 27th

Nevada County Arts Council will present its 3rd Annual Sierra Poetry Festival on April 27, 2019 at Sierra College in Grass Valley, attended by some of our most exciting local, national and international poets and performers. Opportunities to join our family of benefactors are now available.

Sierra Poetry Festival encourages both a strong local presence and international and universal themes. Each year we choose a special anchor for these themes. For 2019 our anchor point is Breath and Shadow, breath indicating the ebb and flow of nature and the seasons, and shadow being symbolic of our ephemeral existence and self-reflection.

At the literaryvendor fair, Poetry Place, you can present your business, books, activities, and other materials related to the themes and values of the event. Our theme is Breath and Shadow and this is open to your interpretation, and we encourage you to have fun with it. Poetry Place will be open to festival goers from 9am–3pm on Saturday, April 27.

The cost for an all-day vendor space is $45. Preference is given to vendors with interactive activities.

What we offer exhibitors: An excellent location at the heart of our festival, The Gym flanks the Multi-Purpose room, where our mainstage readings take place:

1. A 6x3 foot banquet table or round table (If a round configuration works for your activity, please let us know)
2. Free listing in the  Sierra Poetry Festival Program (500 printed copies + unlimited online)
3. 10% advertising discount in our  Sierra Poetry Festival Program (500 printed copies + unlimited online)
4. The opportunity to donate an item/s or premium for our Swag Bag. This is an excellent promotional tool and ensures that your products reach upwards of 200 festival goers
5. Opportunities to sponsor the  Sierra Poetry Festival. This will support Poet Leaders as well as attendance by young people via student scholarships. 

In addition to its mainstage event, Sierra Poetry Festival marks National Poetry Month from the rolling foothills of California’s Gold Country to the rugged High Sierra, bringing our rich literary community together to celebrate the spoken word and reach out to brand new audiences in fresh ways. Readings, workshops, music, an activity fair for all ages and youth performances will be preceded by a month of pre-festival pop-up poetry events.

The Business of Writing - Curiosity, Serendipity and Risk

“Life is a succession of habits, since the individual is a succession of individuals.” – Samuel Becket

Do you have questions about how to get your book project published or develop a writing career? I've developed a new 4 week class at Sierra College Truckee Campus called The Business of Writing. Through presentations and discussion, handouts with resources and panels with visiting authors, a diverse group of writers and I have been exploring the ins and outs of writing and publishing.

Sit next to a stranger on a plane, pour out your heart and discover they are an agent now interested in reading your novel.  Participate in a writing retreat and meet a publisher who later accepts a different project. Risk a dream job editor situation by giving up everything in order to find freedom and challenge through freelancing.  Write several "practice" novels that will never see the light of day. Write a novel for the Novel in 3 Days contest on a whim - and then win! Ghost write and "Fix" a celebrity's memoir. Which of these situations is real?  All of them!

What stands out in the stories of these writing careers? Curiosity to write in many forms and for many purposes - essay, article, novel, memoir, nonfiction, greeting card, screenplay, cartoon, photojournalism.  Serendipity generated by being open to and prepared for opportunity when it suddenly appears to you. Risking to write bravely, be vulnerable and give up what is certain in order to try for a daunting goal. The omnivorous-ness of finding sustenance for creativity as a writer across the disciplines of a life's experience. 

Next: what makes a good query stand out and hook the attention of an editor?

Writing Great Stories: Notes from Chris Millis' Talk at Sierra Nevada College 11/6/15

Chris Millis presented a dynamic and powerful talk on what makes good story and especially a good screenplay.  He played excerpts from movies that model this structure such as Moonstruck, Star Wars, Boogie Nights, Ali, and his own hilarious anti-hero film Small Apartments. Here are my notes from his talk.  I find that rewriting my notes into a post helps me assimilate the knowledge into my own work.  

What follows are Chris' talking points:

Chris started with setting up some context on story by quoting Toni Morrison, my newest hero (as I've just finished reading and teaching The Bluest Eye), from her essay The Site ofMemory.      

Excerpt from The Site of Memory – Toni Morrison:

I consider that my single gravest responsibility (in spite of that magic) is not to lie. When I hear someone say, "Truth is stranger than fiction," I think that old chestnut is truer than we know, because it doesn't say that truth is truer than fiction; just that it's stranger, meaning that it's odd. It may be excessive, it may be more interesting, but the important thing is that it's random - and fiction is not random. Therefore the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth. Because facts can exist without human intelligence, but truth cannot.

Humans need story to reveal the meaning of our existence

Plot is character revealed by action – Aristotle

Resources:

·         Syd Field – Foundations of Screenwriting

·         Robert McKee –  Story

·         Blake Snyder – Save the Cat

·         Creativity, Inc

·         Andrew Stanton – TED talk on Story

·         The Site of Memory – Toni Morrison essay

Average Screenplay is 110 pages total

Act 1: 9-10 scenes (1-30 pages)

            Presents thesis, Ordinary world

Act 2: (31-84) (page 55 is the midpoint)

            Strange new world, Presents anti-thesis

Act 3: 85-110 pp

            Wisdom, Synthesis

More on Synthesis:

Hegel: The only way a battle could cease between a thesis and an antithesis was through the construction of a synthesis that would include elements from both sides and transcend the opposition, a transcendent “third” that is a new entity in which both are included.

Jung: The individual is faced with the necessity of recognizing and accepting what is different and strange as a part of his own life, as a kind of ‘also-I’.

How the subject has to recognize in the foreign power it fights the misrecognized part of its own substance – reconciliation of the subject with its alienated substance

We must see the character at work/home/play – play includes some special skill that can come to its full flowering – important in the synthesis

Pixar's 22 Rules for Storytelling:

Movies as models of this structure:

• ·         Moonstruck
• ·         Star Wars
• ·         Small Apartments
• ·         Boogie Nights
• ·         Ali
• Toy Story (all of 'em)

Act 1:

Significance of opening image: metaphor of thesis

5 minutes into the movie: present a statement of theme, the basis of all decisions and the bigger idea of the movie

“Save the Cat” moments – you have to make people care – they need a problem they have to solve

Catalyst – the inciting incident 12 minutes in

Refusal of the call – individual vs. systemic problem, a period of indecision – character must leave Act 1 of their own accord, a decision is made!

·         Who will be the sounding board?

·         Who will be the mentor, supernatural aid?

Act 2: 25-30 minutes

·         Antithesis is presented (about 10 scenes)

·         B-story line begins (love story?)

·         The promise of the premise is given to the viewer in first half of second act

·         Characters bond and are tested, make friends and enemies

·         Introduce a new character just before the midpoint (p 55) – often there is a reversal of momentum here, tangible vs. spiritual goal conflict

Second half of Act 2: 9-10 scenes

o   Ideas fail, desperation grows

o   Friends abandon the hero

o   Consequences from earlier actions happen

o   Walls close in on hero (trash compactor in Star Wars)

o   All is lost – p 75 – called the Death Beat just before end of Act 2

§  Also death of mentor, loss of sounding board                       

§  Usually a “false” victory or defeat here – rock bottom

·         At 75-78 minutes

·         Visualizing moments – characters stare off into the distance, internal reflection, to go inward

At the end of Act 2 – what am I going to do? Find the courage to be the hammer, not the anvil – once this decision is made, it’s the breakaway from Act 2!

Act 3:

·         desire for wisdom to be achieved

·         To transcend opposition

·         A triumph of integration and wholeness

·         Combine knowledge and mistakes to succeed

One more thing: 5 final steps! Stack the odds against the hero and make the ending surprising as well as inevitable

·         Urgency -  beat the ticking clock

·         Surprise

·         New new plan

·         Crossing return threshold

·         Climax – falling with style

Coda? Denoument – not Deux ex machina!

If you have a problem making your plot have what it takes for the audience to care, go back to the beat right before the midpoint (at p 55) – find something there to be addressed or assimilated or overcome in the climax

Final image – opposite of opening image?

Why write story?

·         Contribute your own myth – make new mythologies!

·         You get a little window to tell your stories – what will be your story?