Your Writer Platform with Tara Lynne

Carol Crawford says: Tara Lynne Groth provides nuggets of practical information that writers can use right away to build their platform and market their work. Her class is dense with information and ideas -- I couldn't take notes fast enough. She makes social networking less mysterious and talks about resources all writers should know about - but not all of us do.


Register for Tara Lynne Groth workshop on August 22 by printing out the registration form found at top of blog page and send your check to Glenda Beall, Writers Circle, 581 Chatuge Lane, Hayesville, NC 28904.

Make check to  Glenda Beall, please. Space is limited to ten students. Fee is  $35.00.
email: glendabeall@msn.com      phone: 828-389-4441

Invest in Yourself

Alice Osborn sends out a newsletter chock full of good advice for writers. This is a little snippet from one of them.

6. Invest in yourself with a good computer, and with go to conferences, classes/workshops to keep developing professionally as a writer. Read "how to write" books and books within your genre. Hire a writing coach and do your homework. You need to put some skin in the game and when you spend money on yourself, you’ll know you’re a “real” writer.

I believe that we must invest in ourselves as writers and in our writing. 
If I want to be a doctor, I will study medicine. If I want to be a painter, and I did at one time, I will study painting with the best teacher I can find.

When writers tell me they can't afford to go to workshops or study with writing teachers, my reply is we spend money where we want to spend money. We set our priorities. We pay dues to organizations for writers because the organization can benefit us and other writers. How do they do that? Sometimes it is simply by connecting us to those who can help us. It is by bringing together the best authors for us to hear and learn from their experience. 

I am pleased to look back on the past year of classes at Writers Circle. We hosted excellent instructors, some who teach at colleges in North Carolina and Georgia: Scott Owens, William Wright, Robert S. King, Carol Crawford, Karen Holmes, Robert Lee Brewer, Michael Diebert and Dr. Gene Hirsch. That is an outstanding line up of talented writers and poets. Thanks to Karen Holmes who introduced several of the poetry teachers to Writers Circle. She is already on the schedule to teach next year.

Beginning in March, 2014, we will start a new series of workshops and we are in process of lining up more excellent teachers for the writers in our area. I hope everyone will take advantage of the opportunity to study with them.

I am blessed to have had classes with outstanding writers over the past seventeen years including Kathryn Stripling Byer, Nancy Simpson, Steve Harvey, Maureen Ryan Griffin, Fred Chappell, R.T. Smith and so many other writers at conferences and through the John Campbell Folk School writing program. Conferences and week-long writing retreats are well worth the investment if you want to be a writer. But those who can't afford to spend a few hundred dollars in one lump sum, can certainly set aside $35 - $40 dollars a month for a three hour writing class. Meantime, they can attend critique groups and get feedback on their work. That is always helpful if you join a group with writers who are experienced and who have had their work published in reputable publications. 

Check our Schedule page on this site often to see who will be teaching at Writers Circle around the Table in 2014.

The Business of Writing

Writing, submitting,  publishing, marketing, writing, submitting, publishing, marketing, on and on it goes.That is the writing business. I'm not sure I'm cut out for the business.
I love to write - poetry, non-fiction, fiction, in my journal, letters, articles - but submitting my work is WORK.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if all we had to do was write? That is what many of us do - we just write. We don't even revise. We just write and keep our writing to ourselves.
That is so, so easy. I have tons of writing I've done over the years. I have notebooks filled with stories I've forgotten, some are non-fiction pieces and some are short stories. I still have a poem I wrote in high school. My teacher, Miss Feagan, wanted me to submit it to a magazine. But, even then, I didn't want to do the business of writing.
I think I understand those writers and poets who died and then became famous. They did it the easy way. Emily Dickinson had the joy of writing, but she left behind all the business of writing.