WRITING GROUP NEEDS WRITERS

Are you looking for a writing group to share your work and get feedback?

Join us! We meet every two weeks. Our next meeting will be August 14 at 4 pm at Colectivo cafe on the corner of Clark and Deming. Amazing new cafe: we can sit inside or outside (if it's not raining).

Flash fiction

YOU’RE LISTENING TO THE RADIO

            You’re listening to the radio while you shave. You like to listen to the news in the morning while you shower, shave, get dressed, get ready to go to work. To that excruciatingly boring job you’ve been going to for the last 23 years. Faithfully. Never missed a day except for one week when they took out your gallbladder. Every day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year. The other two you have vacation but you seldom go anywhere, preferring to stay home and clean the gutters, sweep the garage, rearrange your tools, paint the banisters and window casements.

            You’re listening to the radio like every morning when the announcer says a fire has destroyed the corporate offices of Longman and Schuler. The fire started early this morning, sometime between 4 and 5 a.m.  Startled you cut yourself. What do you do now? Call somebody? Your supervisor? The announcer goes on to say that there isn’t any news yet how it started. What’s your supervisor’s home phone number? You always said I should keep it in my wallet but never got around to it.

            You’re listening to the radio when you realize you have no job to go to this morning. After 23 years of mornings and afternoons at the office, your day is free, open in front of you with innumerable possibilities. What should I do? You ask yourself and then decide, suddenly, to do nothing.

            You will not call your supervisor. You will not go to the office to see what happened. You will not finish shaving. You will not get dressed. You will go back to bed and sleep until you can’t sleep anymore. Then you’ll get up again, have breakfast or lunch (depending on the time) and you’ll read the newspaper in your pajamas. You’ll do nothing for the first time in 23 years.

            It pays to listen to the radio.

You're moving into a new house: Flash fiction

YOU’RE MOVING INTO A NEW HOUSE

            You’re moving into a new house. Not your idea really. More like your wife’s. She nagged and nagged til you gave in. You’re such a softie. At work, at home, on the train, at the gym. You’re the nice guy.

            You’re moving into a new house tomorrow. Still have to finish packing. A bunch of boxes sits on the floor in the attic. They’re empty. You are in the middle. You have to figure out what to take to the new home, what to toss out in the trash. It’s so hard to choose. You’d like to take everything but your wife said “there is no room for all that junk, just pick a few things and throw out the rest.” And you said, “ok dear.”  

            You’re moving into a new house where there is no room for too many memories. You look around and start from the corner bookcase stuffed with yellowing books from high school and college, even your term papers. I guess I can toss that stuff you think. And begin to page through papers and books. Suddenly you hear your wife’s voice. “Dinner is ready! Are you up there?” You don’t answer. “Dinner is ready,” she repeats. “Come down right now.” Dinner is ready? you ask yourself. What time is it? How long have I been up here?

            You’re moving into a new house tomorrow morning and at this pace you won’t be done til next year. Still haven’t decided what to take and what to pitch. So hard to stuff your life in a big, black trash bin in the alley. “I hope you’re done with all that.” She places a steaming plate of spaghetti with red sauce in front of you. You stare at the spaghetti silently. Then say “Sure, I’m done.  I’m all done.”

FALL WRITING SEMINAR

FALL WRITING SEMINAR – GARTLER WRITING STUDIO

Beatriz Badikian-Gartler is a writing coach/editor with 30 years of experience teaching writing and literature in Chicago, Wisconsin, Greece. She has published a novel, two poetry collections, and numerous stories, poems, essays, and interviews in The New York Times, The Metropolitan Review, The International Fiction Review, The Winfield Post, and many others.

Seminar will meet for four (4) consecutive Wednesdays in October for two hours – 6:30 to 8:30 pm. 

Location: my home in Lincoln Park – near Armitage and Halsted (will provide address after registration). Easily accessible by public transportation. Free parking in the street.

Rate: $25.00/hour – groups of 4 or more.

Seminar will include writing exercises to generate material, discussion of published readings, brief lectures on the craft of writing, and workshops of participants’ materials.

All genres accepted.

To register: email me at bgartler@yahoo.com or call me at 312-671-1805.

If you register before September 1^st you’ll save $25. Only $175.00.

Questions: please email me or call me.

DON’T MISS THIS FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO WORK ON YOUR WRITING!

SEE YOU IN THE FALL!

YOU’RE NOT AT HOME

            Night is falling. They sky turned dark right before your eyes. You didn’t even notice it walking so fast in the rain. You can’t wait to get home. Your shoes are soaked through and the raincoat barely protects you, not to mention the flimsy umbrella you borrowed from your friend before leaving his house. Your wife will be angry when you get home and drip water all over the floor.

            You’re not at home for dinner. She’s probably packing back and forth, from the dining-room to the kitchen and back again. She’s probably looking out the window every two minutes. You’re walking as fast as you can but the wind blowing against you makes for a difficult walk. The umbrella turns inside out every few steps and you have to stop and turn it right side out. You’d be better off without it.

            Night has fallen. The streetlights are on and the wet sidewalks shine beautifully. You’ve always liked the reflection of streetlights in water puddles on sidewalks at night. From the time you were a boy of 5 or 6 you begged your mother to let you go out when it rained at night. She never let you. The woman was tough.

            You’re not at home yet. A few blocks separate you from your house, your wife, your children. You slow down and toss the umbrella in a trash bin by the alley and bury your hands in your pockets. Rain falls on your head and drips down your face, your nose. You walk slower and slower, getting thoroughly wet. When you get home your wife will surely yell at you. “Where were you? Why are you all wet? Why didn’t you take a taxi? You’re so inconsiderate.”

            You slow down, walk by your front door, and keep walking. You see your wife looking out the window. You keep walking.

SOME JOURNAL IDEAS FOR WRITERS

Here are some journal ideas for creative writers:

1) People-watch. 

The people around you can become fictional characters or the subjects of poems. You can give them roles in your writing, or just borrow details: your neighbor's nervous laugh, the shiny makeup that makes your mother's friend look like she's made out of plastic... Make notes about people you know; take your creative writing journal to a coffeehouse or a hotel lobby and describe them: their appearance, their body language, their voices, the way they relate to each other. You can go beyond mere reporting and write what you imagine as well. What do you think that woman's name might be? Where do you think she lives? Is she having an affair with that man, or are they just business partners? What is she thinking right now? What is she hiding in that big purse? Any of this can be the beginning of a story or poem. (Caution: if you are writing about people you know, be careful where you leave your creative writing journal. You may want to change names and identifying details to protect yourself against prying eyes. But you already know that.)

2) Listen. 

Eavesdrop in restaurants, in stores. Listen to your own family and friends -- really listen. Not just to what they're saying, but to the words they use, the pauses, the unique rhythms of their speech. And write down pieces of speech when they are still fresh in your ears. If you wait too long, you'll find the sentences coming out in your own voice. Learning to capture different voices on paper will help you with dialogue for stories or scripts. It can also be a source for poetry.

3) Take a walk. 

Describe your neighborhood. Describe the weather, the colors and textures, the light and shadow. Go beyond what you see -- describe the sounds, the smells, the feeling of the air on your skin. Look for the surprising details, the ones that aren't quite as you'd imagine the ones you could never have made up. These details will give authenticity to your creative writing, make it feel real to the reader. Click here for tips on descriptive writing.

4) Take a field trip. 

Are you writing a scene in a police station? A city dump? Visit one. Write down the details that will make the setting come alive on the page. On the other hand, if you're not in the middle of a writing project, taking a field trip can give you ideas for one. Go somewhere you would normally never go. By explaining you're a writer, you can get permission to visit places not normally open to the public. The basement of an aquarium? The backrooms of a funeral parlor? Take notes on your observations and see what story ideas emerge.

5) Use real-life stories. 

The news, gossip, the experiences of your friends, and even stories from history books can be sources for creative writing. Make notes on the story, and imagine the parts you don't know. Imagine it as if you were there. What, exactly, did people see? What were they thinking? What did it all feel like? What led up to the event; what happened next? Let your imagination fill in the gaps. Or imagine that some part of it had been different. How does that change the story?

6) "Free-write." 

This technique is especially useful as a warm-up for creative writing or as a cure for writer's block. 

FOR MORE IDEAS REGISTER FOR "THE ELUSIVE MUSE"
a journaling workshop at The Newberry Library this Summer
Tuesdays 5:45 to 7:45 starting June 14 for 6 weeks

JOURNALING

ONE SENTENCE JOURNALING PROMPTS

…………..pushed my buttons today when s/he …………….

If I had a do-over for one hour of today, here’s what I would do: ……..

I learned something important about myself today: ……….

If my life today had a headline, it would be ……………………

……………….is angry with me. Here’s why: …………………

The best thing that happened today is ……………………….

I wonder what would happen if …………………

I went ahead and ……………………..

If I wrote every day, I might find ……………….

I want to spend the next hour doing ………………….

Every day I wish I could ……………

THE ELUSIVE MUSE: Journaling your way to writing

Tuesdays 5:45-7:45 pm

The Newberry Library

Register now!