Give Yourself A Gift of a Writer's Workshop

Are there others out there who are looking for a good writing workshop, but have been unsuccessful? Have you joined groups that didn't last more than a few weeks or months?

Why is it so difficult to find a thriving writing group like those listed in Writer's Digest Magazine or The Writer Magazine? How many others out there would like to join a group of writers en route to publication and production?

Are you apprehensive about paying for eight or ten classes or sessions where you might not get the individualized attention your writing deserves because of the number of students?

We can all agree that some of the good things in life are free: a hug or a kiss from a loved one, an encouraging word, or timeless advice from an elder.

But what about free writing groups that are so laid-back and loose that there are new faces every meeting, or meetings that aren't scheduled regularly? While they may bash fee-based groups, they overlook the fact that people get what they pay for. Lack of organization can oftentimes lead to disruption of meetings and eventual empty seats around the workshop table.

We're looking for writers who are enthusiastic about their own and supportive of others in the workshop. It's also important that the community of writers are mature and able to take criticism and debate, rather than argue or justify their work.

We've had a successful group that's lasted years and we are looking to add members in our Memoir/Creative Nonfiction, Screenwriting/Playwriting, and Fiction Workshops who share the same commitment and philosophy.

Past members have gone on to publish in literary magazines and with traditional publishers.

If this sounds good to you, check us out online, http://www.morningsidewriters.com, and click on the appropriate group heading and application.

Office Politics and Disturbances

I work in an environment that leaves a lot to be desired. It's a cramped space, and the owners need to invest in improving the workspace, rather than hoarding the money away for a rainy day. Back to front, the storefront is in need of repairs and expansion, or the offices need to be relocated altogether. 

I know we're in a financial crises, but I don't think that's reason enough to have mended a drafty hole in the bathroom wall. One best wear a pullover sweater during colder temperatures if all the bits and pieces are to remain intact. 

The space is small bordering on claustrophobic, and many of my new coworkers were never taught to use their inside voice, and without proper cubicles and distance between desks, voices carry and crawl up the back of the neck. The resulting migraine headache, preventable. 

I've worked for small business owners before, but never a family-owned business in a cultural enclave replete with different customs and belief systems. I initially thought of this experience as a form of affirmative action, but it's not the same. 

Working in this place is like stepping into a time machine to a place before passports were needed. A time of feudal villages, warlords, and autocracies. 

Regardless of the industry or office size, politics exist in the daily operations. It's wrong for a small business to be run like a family, even if it's family-owned and operated. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity to prove myself, but don't look forward to jumping through hoops or being subjected to the whims of an immature, moody boss. 

Cultural Awareness

The five boroughs of New York City are vast, and if one is unfamiliar with the various subways, buses, gypsy cabs, it would be easy to get lost in what might feel like a strange land. The double-edge sword of living in New York is that we can become desensitized to other ethnicities. An inherent danger of a perceived melting pot is living in cultural enclaves due to fear, ignorance, and intolerance.

I've always been aware of myself as an African American having been born and raised in the southwest, but it wasn't until I relocated to the East Coast did I understand that my view had to change.

America attracts people from around the globe, and nowhere is this more apparent than in New York. While I don't think there's a danger in living in such close proximity to our neighbors, but the evening tells a different story with regular cultural clashes, police brutality, and hate crimes against minorities and immigrants. 

Morning commutes to work, school, or job interviews, the subway car is filled with a cacophony of accents, dialects, and laughter. We're stuffed inside like sardines, breathing on each other as we grab hold of the safety pole as the express train bolts underground. 

What do our parents teach us about people who are different? What can our parents teach us if we've never encountered someone from a remote region of the world?

My mother didn't raise me to be racist or intolerant. Life in Texas isn't representative of life in New York, but things were simpler back then. Houston is so big that conceivably a group of people could isolate themselves and never encounter a different ethnic group. I grew up in a predominantly African American community: church, grade school, civic organizations. It wasn't until junior high that I had Mexican classmates who were bussed in from the surrounding areas. 

It wasn't until high school that I'd had Asian, white, or international classmates. Imagine my surprise and or naiveté when I encountered non-black students who weren't as intelligent or more intelligent. Black students were taught that we had to be 150% better than our white counterparts on the other side of town. 

It took a few weeks to make friends in the more culturally-diverse high school I transferred into. There were mornings I didn't want to wake before the crack of dawn and wait for the big yellow bus, but I know now that there was something better in store for me in the tony River Oaks location.

I learned, slowly, to embrace people and situations previously unfamiliar. Some of those lessons have remained with me, while others are still hard to grasp. Cultural acceptance is an individual choice, and can't be taught, legislated, or mandated. 

We sometimes have to remind ourselves that an overhead racial slur, a veiled or obvious slight at work, or an in your face attack, too, is an individual choice. 

Writing Group Dynamics

Five years ago I formed Morningside Writers Group, after an unsuccessful search for an existing writers group that worked. I didn't know at first what worked meant initially. I went on gut instinct.

What didn't work for me back then:

• traveling more than an hour from home or work to attend meetings.
• mixing writing genres in one group.
• combining inexperienced writers better suited for a beginning writer's class with seasoned and/or published writers.
• defending creative work. If it's not on the page, please don't expect me to read minds.
• habitual tardiness or absences.
• lack of commitment; not seeking publication, production, or sales.
• inability to see beyond the top of one's nose or fingertips.
  
• inability to play in the sandbox with others.
  

I can see now how and why the original MWG blueprint might have been flawed. I didn't have a measuring stick to gauge writing abilities versus writing potential. I didn't have a Clinical Psychology degree to navigate the different personality types.

One of the biggest mistakes was that I didn't screen and restrict the number of members. I tried to recreate a surrogate (artist) family in NYC that I had in Houston. These were strangers, no more likely to greet me on the street save for their interest in writing, and the new fangled thing I'd coined as Morningside Writers Group.

The process felt and can feel like Times Square during rush hour, sorting through writers and their application samples. Some people are just passing through, testing the waters, poking around, and perhaps spying. All aren't destined to join and maintain writing group memberships.

Building and maintaining a thriving writers group is hard work, and five years later, there are a few regrets. If I could offer advice to anyone wanting to start a writing group, I'd say proceed with caution, expect disappointment when some applicants don't meet membership criteria, and welcome surprises when eventual group members meet and surpass expectations.

An unfortunate aspect of all groups is a revolving door of personalities, face, and writing abilities.

Above all else, those foolish enough to organize and moderate a writing workshop or workshops, as I do, know that it will require business acumen, superb organizational skills, and the patience of Job. The inside joke is that I created an affordable one-year MFA program.

I'm often asked why I formed MWG. My background is in performance (acting, choir, and dancing). I moved to NYC to perform on Broadway, but I (a) lost interest, (b) was tired of unscrupulous and oversexed playwrights, directors, and producers, (c) was fed up playing children, teens, and or perpetual best friend.

I was inspired by other actors who took control of their personal lives and careers, and made the leap to writing. I read and give feedback as an actor/director would. I believe in staging fiction, and the actor as writer.

If the writing doesn't come alive on the stage in my mind, it needs work in my opinion. I appreciate and welcome opinions other than my own, and to that end, I created a twelve-item critique form that most complain about completing at first, but eventually come around. I know the critique templates have been floating in cyberspace for years, hopefully guiding writers to improve subsequent drafts.

I set out to create a writing community, and I've been successful more so than not, despite a myriad of setbacks, online attacks for people not granted interviews, or accepted into the workshops after an interview or audit session. There are good and great writers, just as there are good personalities. At the end of the day, chemistry is important when forming and sustaining creative or artistic groups.

I've built a solid foundation on which writers can produce quality work and receive detailed feedback before submitting to contests, editors, agents, and publishers. I have to remind myself regularly why I keep Morningside operational, rather than writing in a dimly lit corner in a local coffee shop or bar as some opt to do because they've been burned by other writing groups, or just don't play well with others.

Why do I do it? I'm a natural big brother and mentor, and I want to see others do their best, as they bring out the best in me. I'm hardwired for groups since my earliest beginnings.

United We Stand

It’s always sad when we’re prejudged on the basis of race, creed, and gender at work, school, or in politics. No one wants to fill a perceived void to make upper management or the front office feel as if a good deed has been done. The opposite would be a homogenized school or workplace devoid of variety: voices, styles, ethnicities, and faces.

We covet who and what we find familiar. Blacks, browns, yellows, and olive tones tend to seek out each other, whereas a majority of whites, and those misguided souls who think they’re white, aspire to be white, or are actually successful in passing for white, congregate and try to isolate themselves from everyone else.

We are not born prejudiced or racist, but are taught to be by our parents and family. Granny Gums was famous her southernisms. On the subject of racism, she’d say something along the lines of, “What if you were blind and didn’t know I was Black, and only able to judge me on how I treated you?” This doesn’t hearken back to America’s severe racial divide, but makes sense in the context of black domestics keeping house and raising white kids.

Why do we fear other people? I don’t want to take anything from anyone else. I only want what’s fair as I pursue my happiness. However, that’s probably not the consensus in America and worldwide.

America’s in the midst of making history, and yet the pervasive woes are skin color, religion, and creed. This country was built on the backs of African slaves, indentured Japanese servants, and various Native American tribes who were cheated out of their land.

The distant history is still present in too many minds, which clouds recent developments, improvements, compromises, and inroads within the last fifty years. These states are not united, and the hang-ups that divide us seem insurmountable.

Twenty-two days aren’t enough overcome, coddle, and cajole deep-seated hatreds and institutionalized racism. Unfortunately this country isn’t ready, willing, or able to move beyond its turbulent past and embrace a new beginning.

Is it impossible to elect a biracial African American male as president of America? No, it would take a vision that many refuse to consider and share.

Hear my battle cry, and vote for Barack Obama on November 4th!

Hear me roar if you fear that change won’t happen – it takes you, me, my brothers, family and friends registering, and actually casting our votes!

We can change this country together if we want, but what will that cost each of us? I’d rather not wait until November 5th to discover that fear, rumor, lies, and insecurities were reasons Barack Obama wasn’t elected President. It’s within our hands to begin restoring this country so that all people who call this land home can come together as one.

Which Writing Group Is Right For You?

Are there others out there who are looking for a good writing group, but have been unsuccessful? Have you been burned by other groups? Have you joined groups that didn't last more than a few weeks or months?

Why is it so difficult to find a thriving writing group like those listed in Writer's Digest MagazineThe Writer Magazine? How many others out there would like to join a group of writers en route to publication and production?

Are you apprehensive about paying for eight or ten workshops where you might not get the individualized attention your writing deserves because of the number of students in a class?

We can all agree that some of the good things in life are free: a hug or a kiss from a loved one, an encouraging word, or timeless advice from an elder.

But what about free writing groups that are so laid-back and loose that there are new faces every meeting, or meetings that aren't scheduled regularly? While they may bash fee-based groups, they overlook the fact that people get what they pay for. Lack of organization can oftentimes lead to disruption of meetings and eventual empty seats around the workshop table.

We're looking for writers who are enthusiastic about each other's writing. It's also important that the assembled group of artists are mature and able to take criticism and debate, rather than argue or justify their work.

We've had a successful group that's lasted years and we are looking to add members in our Memoir/Creative Nonfiction, Screenwriting, and newly formed Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction divisions who share the same commitment and philosophy.

Past members have gone on to publish in literary magazines and with traditional publishers.

If this sounds good to you, check us out online, http://www.morningsidewriters.com, and click on the appropriate group heading and application. or