Alchemists—Changing the World into Words

As I drove home from the Women Writing the West Conference in Golden, CO, I looked up and saw this. I pulled over as soon as possible and ran back to take the photo. Aspens and Sky © Dawn Wink

“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.” ~ William H. Gass

I’ve spent much of the past month with alchemists, alchemists changing the world into words. Fall always tends to be a time of book events and writing conferences, as if the turning of the leaves from emerald to gold somehow also ushers in all-things-literary. 

Me at the incredible Billings Public Library. I want to spend the winter there!

The South Dakota Festival of Books (along with the accompanying buffalo, birthdays, and burned trucks) came to a close with a lively radio conversation with Karl Gehrke of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He jumped right into the heart of Meadowlark in ways that others skirt around! I knew that Mom and Dad were in town that day and parked somewhere listening to it live. They called two seconds after the interview ended. Apparently, I did okay. Here is our audio conversation about Meadowlark: Great-grandmother Inspires Novel.

Alchemists—One of the greatest gifts of writing is the community of other writers that one joins. A community of people interested in life, in fine details, in humanity in all of our reality and vulnerability. It is an amazing experience to be surrounded by writers. Energy fills the air. Even more of a gift are writers who support one another, lift up the spirit and work of others. This sense of kinship, of a deep understanding that we all spend the majority of our writing lives alone at a desk, often in the pre-dawn or late-night darkness. Perhaps because of this, we become downright giddy when we’re together! 

Me, Susan Tweit, Julene Bair, Page Lambert

This past month has left me in awe of the passion, perseverance, and well-honed skills (because it takes all three) of writers.  Three incredibly gifted writers and I gathered at the Women Writing the West conference to share our experiences in writing, “Place as Character.” Two of my co-presenters wrote exquisitely about this. I share their words and images. Susan J. Tweit lifts our time together beautifully, “Community, not competition” in her Writing, Community, and Women’s Voices. Page Lambert conveys the spirit and of our experiences in her Heart of Place, “For each of us, and with each new story, Place will be different. At its heart will be everything that has ever been born, lived in, or died in that place, everything in the past, everything in the present, all energy— every sound, smell, ray of sun, every shadow, every sorrow, every joy.” 

This opened before me my drive home from from the Women Writing the West Conference—San Luis Valley, CO.

With Mom, High Plains Book Awards

Mom and I came together in Billings, MT for the High Plains Book Awards. I sat on  the Best Woman Writer panel with other writers of the Great Plains, including Canada. We realized that community often runs North-South, rather than East-West. We found more in common with one another, than with people of our own country on either coast. Mom and I had wonderful slumber parties!

The Tony Hillerman Writers Conference brought together writers of years of experience with writers attending their first conference. Joe Badal (The Lone Wolf Agenda) said of the conference, “Anne Hillerman (Spider Woman’s Daughter) and Jean Schaumberg’s spirits of kindness infuse this entire conference.” Joe, Susan Tweit, and I spoke on “The Art of Blogging.” Joe writes of Everyday Heroes, Susan of Restoring Land and Community. As a voice, we spoke of following your passion.

Luci Tapahonso and Anne Hillerman

Luci Tapahonso (A Radiant Curve) spoke of “Saad: Luminous Beads of Wisdom.” Luci stood at the podium, “”Saad—words, story, a system of language. A clear, luminescent string of beads. The beads represent words, song, stories. We are made of saad: stories, songs, prayers.” Magical, powerful, a world unto itself in the room. In the Diné tradition, a child’s first laugh is honored, celebrations follow, blessings made. Imagine such a world…

So, these past weeks have been a world of words. Alchemists changing the world into words. To distill all learned would be to focus on the essence of community, kindness, perseverance, and never letting go of one’s dreams.

Chilean writer Isabel Allende describes writing as, “A constant exercise in longing.”

May we never stop longing.

***

The turning of the leaves. Nest in fall.

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Authentic Creative and Professional Community through Social Media

Original by Jim Doyle

When I shared in Dewdrops last week that in a few days I would be giving a workshop on Authentic Creative and Professional Community Through Social Media for New Mexico Women in Film (NMWIF), Noé came home that evening and said, “What? Wait, are you attending or giving this workshop?” It’s been a tad busy around our home lately with end-of-semester and school-year portfolios, finals, grades, kids’ sport banquets, deadlines and more deadlines. Not that it is that unusual, though, for Noé to say, “Wait, you’re doing what?” in our home. 

Bathing Bad

A heartfelt thank you to Linda McDill and Melissa McCurley for inviting me to spend the evening with NMWIF. What a treat! This was a marvelous evening with wildly creative people -actors, screenwriters, and artists. First, the location. Noé and I walked into an older building in downtown Albuquerque to find a room swathed in luscious purples, reds, golds, and smelling of lavender and all kinds of other warm, yummy smells. This man I’d never met before walked up, looked me up and down and said, “Cute shoes, the meth is on the table,” looked at the coffee in my hand, “and where’s my coffee?” I was actually speechless. I’d just met Keith West-Harrison, owner of Great Face and Body, host of our event, and creator of the “Bathing Bad” Bath Salts used in the hit TV series Breaking Bad. The “meth” on this table was actually candy, tastes just like rock dandy, and a gorgeous color of turquoise. If only every presentation happened in this room of a luxury spa, smelling of lavender. And the stage where I presented has been used for music concerts, movies, and burlesque. It’s not every day that I get to present on a stage where burlesque dancers recently swayed. I loved it!

Linda McDill, President of NMWIF and Melissa McCurley, member and actor on Breaking Bad.

Here are the ideas I shared, discoveries I’ve stumbled upon along the way that have made a profound difference in my relationship with social media. Remember, I was the person who swore up and down that I would never do social media, because of this, that, and the other… I considered naming this workshop, “Yet Another Time Hell Officially Froze Over in my Life.” There is actually quite a stack of those now.

What I have experienced since that time is an incredible professional and creative community I never would’ve known, had it not been for social media. What I’ve discovered is social media is just another creative medium – just like quilting, creating jewelry, writing, painting, and any other artistry. Social media is a canvas to fill with color, a page to fill with story, a necklace to bead, a cake to decorate, a song to write and sing, a garden to plant and tend. Once I realized this, my entire relationship with social media changed and I fell in love with the creativity of it all. 

Please grab a pen and paper and scribble your thoughts, if that feels right.

So, here we go!

~

Clouds

1) What do you want to get out of our time together? What do you want to learn from this? 

Here are some of the things people in the workshop wanted to take away from our time together:

* To understand the holistic view of how the many different formats of social media can work together

* Connecting these formats without being redundant

* Why should I talk to people I don’t even know online?

* What is the line between professional and personal in social media and how do I not cross that line?

* How can I present a personal presence and still be professional?

* How do I avoid the dumbing down that I see happening in social media?

All of these are thoughts and wonderings I’ve wrestled with myself.

Park Güell, Barcelona

2) What is your vision for your social media community?

Who is your intended readership?

What are your professional goals?

Personal Goals?  

How would you like people to describe your social media presence?

3) The formats for social media we’ll focus on here are:

• Blogs

• Facebook

• Pinterest

• Twitter

Dewdrops

BLOGS: Blogs can be a way to share ideas and create community around the world.  When I started Dewdrops, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. In my first post in August 2011, I wrote, “So here is my hope – that this blog will be doses of writing, dewdrops, that might knit us together in this wild, heartbreaking, and exquisite experience of life. Inevitably along the way, there will be thoughts and questions about language, culture, writing, teaching, the land, kids, and anything else that composes the chapters of life. I look forward to our journey together.” This tender hope has guided me along the way and guides me still. 

While I knew almost nothing about blogs, two things were clear to me about my vision for Dewdrops:

• Community rather than Self-Promotion

Some of the downfalls of blogs tend to be an erring toward narcissism. This is what gives blogs a bad name, and with good reason. Just as any good memoir, what engages people, even if a writer is writing about herself, is the human experience and connection created. My intention with Dewdrops is to create a place for community. How to do that? A writer’s intention comes through in the writing. When I sit to write for Dewdrops, I think of the readers, think of what I know about their lives, think of their gifts and my own gratitude for sharing this journey. If we write authentically, focusing on community, the reading becomes a shared experience between reader and writer. When this happens, what a gift!

• Quality rather Quantity

What matters in blogs is consistency. What is right for a writer varies wildly. I’d rather post less and write pieces of depth and/or substance. I know this goes against a lot of philosophies about blogs out there, but this feels very right for me. I post about every two weeks. People are busy and time to read is precious. I respect this as a writer and as a reader. This is also dependent on topic and readership. Whatever feels right for you, and your readers, it is the consistency that counts.

Character and Texture: The more I write, the more the character and personality of Dewdrops unfolds and develops, the more natural this space for community of ideas feels. One thing I’ve learned is I love to texture the pieces with photos, with color, with vignettes from real life. I write about what I love, whatever that may be. If we write about what we feel drawn to write, instead of thinking about what we should write, these creates an authentic community of kindred spirits. We’ll find each other. 

Community: It has been a blessing – and fun! – to come to know the members of our Dewdrops community. Creating posts which allow members’ talents and gifts to shine creates community and is a real treat for all. For example, Writing Spaces of the World and Artists Among Us. 

FACEBOOK:  Ah, Facebook. My mom was on Facebook for years before me. “I have to stay ahead of my grandchildren on technology, so I can communicate with them!” I figured that if one of us was on Facebook with my kids, we were covered. Remember how it felt to me like I was standing in the window of a department store in the downtown of a major metropolitan city – in my underwear? What I’ve discovered is a supportive, creative, inspiring community is possible on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawn.wink.3?ref=tn_tnmn Here are some things that helped me:

• Friend/Like the pages of people you admire: For several months before I actually started sharing anything on Facebook, I Friended and Liked the pages of people I admired and studied how they negotiated Facebook. I was aware of what I liked, what didn’t feel right for me, what they would share, and what they didn’t share. This helped me enormously to get a sense of the possibilities and potential. This gave me a sense of the personalities of each. Most of the people I followed are writers and convey a shared sense of both the professional and personal: Luis Alberto Urrea, Elizabeth Gilbert, Isabel Allende, Craig Childs, Terry Tempest Williams, and Anne Rice.

Nefe & Breaths

• Follow sites on FB that you love: Took me several months to learn this. I found myself again and again drawn to images and quotes from the same sites over and over.

I’ve found I love Nefe & Breaths, Writer’s Write, and Wild Woman Sisterhood, among others.

• Share what you love: I only Share what has an energy charge for me. That’s the deciding factor. If I feel a jolt of recognition, excitement, or importance, then I’ll Share. My student, Melissa McCurley, brought her Character Journal to our Fiction Writing

Melissa’s character journal

class and I fell in love with all she’d done. I was amazed at not only the ingenuity of her idea to create depth in her characters, but also at the sheer aesthetic beauty of the journal. Each page is devoted to the history of a character – conveyed through collage, seeds, lists, clusters, even a bullet she found on the ground. I loved what she’d created and ask if I could share. This inspired a long conversation on Facebook about journals, about the contents of Melissa’s journal, and how other writers were going to include in their own writing.

Another path to follow..

• Create themes: This I fell into and I love. I found myself drawn again and again to photos of paths in different places around the world. I started to Share under the title of, “Another path to follow…” I discovered that other people loved these paths, too, and looked forward to them. I found myself drawn to the definitions of very cool words and Shared those. These took on a life of their own with people commenting, and Sharing. I discovered people looked forward to these paths and words and these little communities take on a life of their own.

• Personalize: How much to personalize and remain professional and appropriate? Always the question. This, too, has developed over time for me. I’m guided by what I would like to receive, know, see from people I love and/or admire. Underlying it all is an assumption that, even though Facebook has privacy settings, once it’s on FB, it’s out in the world. I don’t share or write anything I wouldn’t mind having on the front page of the morning paper for the world to see. And there are sometimes more personal glimpses, like what I

Blessings on my 45th.

shared on the morning of my 45th birthday: “My birthday present to myself this morning was to write in my journal by candlelight, the full moon bright in the window. I wrote of my gratitude for the many blessings I celebrate on my 45th birthday. A student asked me yesterday what I wanted for the future, and I realized, “To expand on the present. To love, to parent, to write, to teach, to give thanks for the nest of family

Respite in the Rio Grande

and dear friends.” Blessings all. All the more cherished for the birthdays in other chapters of life. It is a time of deep gratitude.” 

And sometimes there is just the spirit of fun and whimsy at unexpected joys, like the time I was driving home from observing student teachers in Taos and on the complete spur-of-the- moment, I pulled over along the Rio Grande to put my feet in the water. In the midst of a busy week, this was sheer heaven – so I shared.

Editing Meadowlark

• Upcoming publications or announcements: With MEADOWLARK‘S upcoming publication, I’ve shared aspects of its journey. In deciding what to share, I think about what I enjoy

seeing about others’ artistic journeys. These aspects tend to be fascinating to me. I’ve shared aspects of writing and editing. A community of readers, friends, writers and other creatives gather around this journey and creates an energy of its own. 

• Idea Inspiration: And sometimes these themes and posts inspire one another, when for example a series of photos I took of a nest with eggs beside our front door and Shared over the course of a month became this piece on Dewdrops: The Nest Behind the Skull. 

PINTEREST: Pinterest is series of visual boards, each arranged around a theme. This is a marvelous opportunity for writers and artists. The fun is the themes of the boards – Some of the topics of my boards are: Meadowlark, Raven’s Time, Beautiful – Colors, Textures, and Places, Dewdrops, Wildness and Beauty, Quotes to Live By, Education, Writing, http://pinterest.com/dawnwink11.

Grace, MEADOWLARK

When thinking about boards, what ideas, artistry do you want to get out into the world? What kind of community do you want to create and be a part of online? Two things to think about with pins: 

• Personalize. Include some kind of little idea or note that is yours and connects you and the people who follow your boards.

• Include live links to your own work. If I pin something on the Meadowlark, I include a live link back to what I’ve written about Meadowlark on Dewdrops. 

Why do Pinterest? Because it creates the opportunity to connect and share your work with people in all kinds of ways that would otherwise remain closed.

TWITTER: Twitter is about the business end of keeping up with writers I follow, people I love, and important ideas in education and writing. My attitude about Twitter is, “Just the facts, ma’am.” It’s an important way to share own’s own work in a community, as well as receive and pass along ideas and work we support. I follow a number of writers, educators, and organizations in the publishing industry. 

 

4) Some things to consider when creating your social media presence:

• Your reality – My reality is that I work full/over-time teaching at the college and beyond, have three teenagers active in what appears to be every sporting, school event possible and I realize these are the good ol’ days with them and mothering comes before all else, write books, have been given the gift of finding love in this second chapter of my life and want to be a fairly present spouse to him. Soooo, my social media presence needs to fit into this. Consistency is what is important. It’s the composition of that consistency that varies. What is your reality? What implications does this have for your presence?

• How to handle certains topics –  One thing that I’ve wrestled with quite a bit is how to handle national and international tragedies. And, of course – politics. Will you address these? If so, how? 

To bring everything together, as you move forward:

Hummingbird outside my window.

5) Your Authentic Creative Social Media Community

• Which formats attract you?

• Possible Themes

• Envisioned Community

• Professional Goals

• Personal Goals

• First Steps

If you are looking to work with a professional (and fabulous person) to help you with this, I highly recommend Ashley Biggers, who specializes in Social Media for Writers. 

~ 

I just finished this piece and can’t help chuckling. This cracks me up that I am writing about this. If somebody had told me a year ago that this would be my experience, I never would’ve believed them. And, yet here I am. Much to my amazement and surprise, this new creative format is one that I love. I am deeply grateful for the people and opportunities this format has brought into my and my family’s lives. Incredible, really. 

I hope these ideas have been helpful. I’d love to learn your ideas, experiences, and suggestions. 

With Keith West-Harrison, co-owner of Great Face and Body Day Spa and host of our event. He gave me a copy of an incredible book Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World. “A deeply inspirational work. Phil Borges has brought us face to face with heroes—remote and mostly unknown women—on the edge of a slow but steady transformation, bringing social and economic justice to women and girls worldwide,” wrote Isabel Allende. Thank you, Keith, for graciously hosting our event, for this gorgeous book, and for your care for the world.

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Dreams and Deadlines in 2015 – Some Ideas on Organization

Cooking for New Year’s Eve 2014

This is the process I use at the beginning of each New Year. While the numbers in the center of the cluster change, the process does not. I wrote of this process two years ago and will sit down this evening to cluster 2015.  I learned of clustering from “Writing the Natural Way” by Gabrielle Rico. It is now foundational in both my writing, journaling/dreaming/planning, and, as you experience, feeling centered. I now know to turn to clustering with any writing project, many journal entries, books, any especially situations where I feel overwhelmed and lost. Somehow the path appears.

Hourglass

For many of you this will be the first time you’ve received this piece. For those who received this two years ago, I hope you will have the same experience that I did when I read—a reminder of the deep rhythms and rituals that ground our lives.

As the time of one year draws to a close, and another begins, I hope that some of these ideas will open the paths to your own dreams and deadlines of 2015.  

* * *

Wink Ranch

As my family and I drove back from the ranch after Christmas this year, I thought of the New Year and pulled out my journal and scribbled initial ideas along the spectrum of absolute Must-Dos to Want-to-Creates. As the sun almost sets on this year, and we anticipate the sunrise of the new, many of us are in the midst of thinking, scribbling, planning, and dreaming. I toss these ideas I’ve stumbled upon along the way into our communal notebook. As you enter the near year, perhaps you’ll find something here for the sunrise.

Clustering, journals, and lists are the only way I get through life. (Well, those and running. And, coffee.) They are absolutely essential for my writing, planning, and dreaming. I am a paper and pen, textures person, so all of mine are in this form. If you’re an online person, all of these can be adapted, as I learned this semester from one of my students. I’ve explored, wrestled, and played with almost any format that I came across through the years. I’d say the most important thing that I learned is to just trust your instincts about what works for you. After severals years of exploring and wrestling, I’ve discovered this system—if something so intuitive, circular, and often messy—can be called that, works well for me. I hope you’ll find some things that work for you, too.

Journal decorated with pictures from magazines and clear wide tape.

Notebooks and Journals- whether they’re hardback, spiral-bound, lined, or blank pages, what I have found is to be very important is that they be inexpensive! – otherwise I feel the silencing weight that whatever I write must be worthy of such a beautiful journal. It never is and the journals sit unopened on the shelf.

I now stick with inexpensive bound books, lined or unlined. The first thing I do is decorate them with pages from magazines or cards and wide clear tape. Inexpensive and easy – otherwise it’ll never happen in my life. Quotes are often an aspect of the journey. This one reads, “No great thing is created suddenly. There must be time. Give your best and always be kind.” – Epictetus.

For more visions and ideas in journals, author Amy Hale Auker shares images of her years of highly textured journals here. I look at these and am inspired. Enjoy!

Clustering ideas for Language and Story lecture series

Clustering – I first learned about clustering in Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Rico. Ever since I read this book, all of my planning, dreaming, and writing begins with clustering. Start by writing whatever you want to cluster ideas around in the center of the page and draw a circle around it. Then, and the key here is to just go with whatever intuitively comes to you, write whatever comes around those ideas and circle, then whatever is associated around those ideas, and circle. Trust. Be messy. Be wild. Every essay, class or lesson, book, new project, dream, hope begins with this process.

In my experience, the unlinear aspect of this process that works so beautifully at this stage. This is where I seem to tap into ideas that never would’ve come to me had I begun with lists or narrative form.

Journal with lists

Lists– Then, come the lists. My journals are full of them. In the morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is push the button to make coffee and sit with my journal by the light of a hurricane lantern. Absolutely and positively no electric lights. I write about whatever comes to mind, and then, inevitably, come the lists. I skim back through previous pages and there are many more lists there. Whatever hasn’t been crossed out, I’ll move forward to the list I’m working on. This is highly interactive. Over the years I’ve realized that if I hadn’t written these things down, they would’ve been lost to the busyness of life. So, half the journal page is writing and the other half is a list.

Dewdrops ideas

When I began writing Dewdrops, I started to keep a separate little journal in my purse with me always. Ideas for these pieces seem to come to me at the most inopportune times. I am always in the middle of something else. I’ve learned to grab my journal out of my purse and write a few key words that would be incoherent to anyone else, but instantly plop me back into that thought or idea when I read. I also happen to really, really believe in the quote on the front, “Some people dream of success, while others wake up and work hard at it.” Sometimes I need this little extra reminder at 4:00 am.

Raven’s Time notebooks

A collection of notebooks devoted to a future book “Raven’s Time: Wildness and Beauty,” help me save ideas that would be gone with the wind were they not written down somewhere.

Within these books are ideas, quotes, conversations, emails printed and glued in, images torn from magazines, titles of books, lyrics of songs, and lots of lists to follow-up on.

Clips and quotes

Raven’s Time – the book sketched out

14″ X 17″ artist’s sketchbook

Sketching ideas and clustering in a 14″ X 17″ sketchbook often expand ideas, where the smaller notebooks sometimes feel as if they confine my thinking. Using the large sketchbook feels like the ideas grow. Often, using different media opens up ideas. In addition to the clusters in the sketchbook are some pieces with pastels and paper.

Ravens in sketchbook

 

Pastels-mother and children

When I started the cluster around 2013, I had hazy (and often overwhelming) ideas about all of the deadlines and dreams going into 2013 – the proposal for the online Raven’s Time class, Women Writing the West Catalog responsibilities, application for the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Fund, new fiction writing class course details, Writing Workshops on the ranch, outlines for Dewdrops, et. al. Through the clustering and resulting lists, the ground feels firmer under my feet. A much better feeling to start the new year – and each new day and project.

Clustering dreams and deadlines of 2013

Creation Box

Kenna Rojdnan, puts together a Creation Box at the beginning of each new year. She writes, “This is my creation box. I’ve had it for many years. It holds all of my wishes for me. I simply lift the lid to the swirling, whirling Universe that’s inside and place a picture or a written description of my wish into the vortex of the Creative Force, then I forget about it. (I’ve got a pretty good imagination, so the inside of the box really does whirl and swirl for me.) Each year, I open the lid and pull out each piece of paper or picture to see what I have manifested that year. I am always amazed at how many things I’ve actually been able to create. I take the ones I’ve created out of the box, placing the all the others back in, and I do a gratitude ceremony for the ones I’ve received. Some are small wishes, some big, but each one is honored equally. This is a great idea to begin your new year with. It works beautifully for me!”

About organization – Never mistake me for one of those fastidiously organized people. Surely, nobody who lives with me or knows me will. When I walk into acutely neat houses, I always wonder if there is some eccentric aunt locked in the attic. My journals and books are piled all over the house, where ever I was last sitting or reading. And, I do love organization. My friend, Loran, introduced me to this wonderful organizational website recently: abowlfulloflemons.net. I will never, ever pull this off and bow to those who do. I do love the ideas for organizing the home office and planners. I’m going to incorporate some of these ideas into my own desk and planner. The colors and textures alone are worth it!

If you’re thinking about what you’d like to create in 2014, some possible ideas:

• Play with notebooks and journals in whatever form.

• Cluster around 2015 or around specific dreams/projects.

• Create the lists that compose what it will take to bring these aspects to life.

• Play with lists in notebooks the morning. Sit with a notebook and scribble ideas as they come. Often, they take a little while to emerge. sit and enjoy the candlelight and coffee/tea. Listen.

• Compose a Creation Box

I sit with a cup of Christmas Tea, my notebooks and journals spread out everywhere. There is something deeply, deeply comforting about this. Grounding.

Here’s wishing you a 2015 full of dreams, love, and wonder! Let’s create beauty and kindness in the world.

Love,

Dawn

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