"Within Reach"--Ekphrastic Work Featured Today 📓🖊📸

I’m thrilled to announce that a poem I wrote, “Within Reach,” based on a fantastic photograph by talented film photographer Martí Blesa was published today as part of Film Shooters Collective’s NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, DAY 5.

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Check out all of the posts each day during April at Film Shooters Collective!

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Within Reach
by Melanie Faith

It is, indeed,
something

good to be
one and small

of many who are
one and small.

It is, indeed,
filled

with gray
potential,

elemental
to advance

in ordinary sandals
against cement.

More and more
rectangles

await our future.
Stacked lenses

mirrored,
so when we wave—

that pleasant
pain bloomed

there in the back
of the neck—

we wave back
looking up.

🌟National Poetry Month Ekphrastic Project 📸🖊

Know what’s just around the corner?

National Poetry Month. (Making April everyone’s fav month for 25 years and counting.) 😊

Know what else? I’m thrilled to say that I’ve been asked to take part in Film Shooters Collective’s rad project that pairs film photographers’ work with poets’ verse each day in April. That’s right: I’ve penned a poem based on the amazing art of a fellow photographer. Stay tuned! 📸

Be sure to check Film Shooters Collective’s Insta and website each day for your daily dose of delicious inspiration.

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Care for some sweet poetic inspiration in the meantime? Check out my book—filled with oodles of tips and prompts created with poets in mind:

Poetry Power

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Now also available in the 3-book series for e-readers!

Signed copies available at: WritePath Productions, my Etsy store

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My Poem, "Wobbly," Featured ☕📚

So pleased to announce that my latest poem, “Wobbly,” was featured tonight as part of Lee Ann Berardi Smith’s wonderful series on Facebook of poetry videos during the pandemic, with the hashtag: #poemdemic.

Check out Lee Ann’s amazing video reading (clickety links above), my poem text (below), as well as other excellent videos of Lee Ann sharing verse from many inspired poets.

“Wobbly”

 

the stack of books

beside the nightstand

beside the bed

got wobbly again

I wouldn’t know why—

 

I only added three new

hardcovers last week

to the tippy-top

 

so I sat on the floor

this morning

on the carpet

with the tea stain

 

my knees tucked in a way

that would let me know

when I stood up

that they loathed to be tucked

that way, and I sorted

and pulled two or three mid-stack

 

volumes of softcover poetry

to send to an out-of-state poet friend

and a thick historical novel

that had been so-so

but a swap with another friend

 

and the memoir

about the 1980s painter

to toss into the free

book box by the gift shop

the next time I go past

 

and the rest,

like elementary-school

friends, I set out

for indeterminate recess

 

I let them group together

still holding hands

beside the printer

 

I know, despite my efforts

at any minute,

they might sing that song,

 

might play that game,

that goes

we all fall down

Photo Courtesy of Alfred Kenneally on unsplash.com

Photo Courtesy of Alfred Kenneally on unsplash.com

✨ "3 Suggestions on a Saturday Night" ✨

I have the pleasure of guest blogging today at Nicole Pyles’ wonderful blog, World of my Imagination.

Check out my “3 Suggestions on a Saturday Night” for some literary, movie, and audio amusements.

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"Journaling as a Discovery Tool for Current Projects" 🖊📕

Splendid news: I’m guest blogger today at CreateWriteNow!

My article, “Journaling as a Discovery Tool for Current Projects,” was published this morning.

Also check out journaling prompts, Mari’s marvelous book, Journaling Power, and other inspiring journaling resources at CreateWriteNow!

Photo courtesy of Nick Morrison at unsplash.com

Photo courtesy of Nick Morrison at unsplash.com

"3 Ways Receptivity Leads to Authentic Writing" 🙌📕

Great news! My article about authentic writing was featured today at Women on Writing. Read on!

“3 Ways Receptivity Leads to Authentic Writing”

By: Melanie Faith

 

We writers tend to be natural observers. Sometimes, that means noticing little nuances of behavior or movement that others might not pay attention to at all. Other times, that includes thinking about an overheard conversation or wondering about the tension within someone’s voice minutes, hours, or even days later.

This receptivity often leads to amazing results and renewed vitality in our writing. According to vocabulary.com, “Your receptivity is your ability and willingness to take in information or ideas.”

Why receptivity? Overall, we writers are meaning-seekers and meaning-interpreters. Not only do we have to choose (or be chosen by) our subject matter, but also we write and edit to bring out symbolism, metaphors, and resonance so that readers will connect to the main ideas and themes we explore. People who are closed off, even partially, tend to miss countless excellent ideas that come their way. The world is jam-packed with ideas waiting for you to notice them.

Here are three top tips for staying open to quality material you might be bypassing:

1.     Receptive writers cast their nets widely first and narrow down later.    

Since March, millions of workers around the world have worked from our home offices. Conferencing online at a distance has become an ordinary new feature of how the workplace functions in 2020 and into 2021. It can be pretty easy to feel isolated and in one’s own bubble when the majority of social interactions after the workday are also often at the click of a button rather than in our living rooms or at restaurants.

As much as my inner introvert rejoices at a good curl-up-and-read fest, I recognize the need for hanging out and absorbing ideas from friends and fellow creative makers. Nobody is an island, even with Covid-19 social distancing. We need to keep coming into regular contact with others’ everyday conversations about hopes, dreams, fears, complaints, and even the seemingly silly minutiae or anecdotes that used to be more commonplace before quarantine.

Art thrives on community and the spontaneous mingling of ideas. Cast your net wide and get a few recommendations to keep ideas flowing.

If you’re not conversing or overhearing juicy, disparate, random or rambling conversation on the regular, you’re probably missing out on some very important ideas that could positively impact your writing. Don’t immediately scroll past an argument or debate on Twitter or Facebook—read through strands of comments, even if you don’t comment. 

Put your favorite podcast on while you work out at home or take a quick run around the block. If you don’t have a favorite podcast or book or song at the moment, text a friend or ten and find out what they’re listening to or reading recently.

2.     Slow and steady: receptive writers listen and give themselves time to reflect before creating.

I’ll admit: this is a hard one for me. My mind is almost always bursting with ideas, and never more so than when I read an article that inspires me or watch a video or overhear a conversation that strike a chord. It helps my writing, though, to remind myself that when I come across new inspiration that I need to tune in and give the information a little bit of time to settle before reacting.

Give yourself some time to take in new ideas by keeping a notebook handy to jot down initial impressions, conversation snippets, or notes, but then give that information some hours or even days to rest in your notebook before using them in a new piece. This little grace period between gleaning exciting ideas and integrating or exploring them will deepen your pre-writing period. Your subconscious mind will make connections between ideas that may surprise and delight you.

Great news: often, in the hours or days in-between first hearing or learning of something and beginning to write, several other tangentially- related ideas or pieces of information will also cross your path and enrich or change the focus of your initial idea, enriching your theme in the process. We’re a fast-paced culture, but our writing process doesn’t have to be rocket-launch speed.

We hear not nearly often enough: slow it down, reflect. I’ll say this again because it’s just so soothing: slow it down.

3.     Receptive Writers don’t put too much pressure on a single idea.

Here’s something we don’t tend to talk about much, but it’s as true today as it was a hundred or even a thousand years ago for scribes: don’t expect your entire writing career or reputation to be built on one magnum opus. Realize that there are many, many ideas out there and likewise a multitude ways to interpret, structure, and create art from those ideas.

Think of your writing as a marathon run, rather than a sprint. Explore each idea to the best of your ability with what you know now, but realize that you have many chances to edit and/or add to your ideas during the course of your writing career. Also, if the piece doesn’t immediately gel or if it changes focus or shape, that’s a natural part of the process. If this project doesn’t pan out after endless weeks or months of struggling, it’s okay to let it go and begin another project. There are endless other possibilities to pursue at any given time that may refresh your writing—remain flexible and open-minded about beginning again.

Ease off the pressure for the latest project to showcase every single one of your writing talents, and ease into the openness to each idea’s potential to bring out new qualities in your writing during the writing process.  

 

Using our natural observational skills will deepen our writing. In addition, such receptivity will work wonders for creating fresh, authentic writing again and again.

Care to learn more? Clickety-click: Developing Your Authentic Voice. Starts January 8, 2021. Sign-ups now open!

Learn more about my other WOW classes and books: click.

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My Conceptual Photo in an Exhibit: Nov. 25, 2020-Feb 23, 2021! 🎉📸

I received splendid news today: my conceptual photo was chosen as part of a photography magazine’s online art show, A Show of Hands!

Check out not just my photo, “I had the Radio on,” but also 49 other fabulous photos from shutterbugs all over the globe. An honor to have my work included in such talented company. Don’t Take Pictures gallery show.

The show will run from today through February 23, 2021.

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My Poem Featured :)

Cool news this week: I was honored that a poem from my This Passing Fever collection was chosen and read online by Lee Ann Berardi Smith as a part of an awesome poetry project. Catch it here.

Care to get your own signed copy of This Passing Fever? I’ve got you. Here.

Want to learn more about writing poetry? I’ve got that, too: here.

I’m in the midst of exciting music collaborations with the poems. More details later this year. Stay tuned!

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My Article Published: "4 Photo Hacks to Inspire Your Writing"

Great news! My article was published today. If you like writing & photography, then this one’s for you. Enjoy the writing exercise at the end.

“4 Photo Hacks to Inspire Your Writing”
By: Melanie Faith

Last week, I shot my first roll of film in over a decade.

Up to this point my photos, like a lot of my writing drafts, were entirely digital and screen-manipulated. This analog film process was nothing like that computerized process, refreshingly; it shook up the way I thought about crafting my work.

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That first roll of film last week was also a lot of other firsts: first roll of black-and- white film, first time loading 120 film (I used to shoot 110 and 35 mm), first time shooting medium-format square negatives, first time using a cute, plastic Diana F+ camera.

120 film has just 12 negatives per roll. Unheard of in the digital world of endless do-overs and deletes. I still love digital, but practicing image-making on film is teaching me to approach my making creatively.

What can photography lend to our writing process?

• Renew your beginner’s mind.
I’ve been photographing since I was a teen, and yet here I was, trying several new photographic styles that were entirely fresh to me.

Many of us have been writing creatively for years, yet we, too, can capture that beginner’s mind and use it to create innovative drafts.

If you normally write prose, give poetry a shot. If you often write novels, try a short story or two.

Or pick a genre you’ve never practiced: perhaps flash memoir or writing a graphic novel or jokes for a stand-up routine.

Or switching POV from your standby third-person to first-person or second-person.

Or it could be as simple as writing a first draft longhand.

These changes won’t necessarily be permanent; they will, however, bring out new ideas and imagery that will surprise and motivate.

• Add a few restrictions to your art and watch it flourish.

In both photography and writing, sometimes if you put obstacles or limitations in your path, you can create something remarkable.

I know: paradoxical.

When shooting with film, I had just 12 clicks of the shutter. I also couldn’t preview it after taking the shots; the Diana F+ camera has a tiny viewfinder, but it’s not entirely accurate to what the lens will capture—it’s more like playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey than aiming at a dartboard. It’s a machine made for teaching how to approach and then let go of expectations.

I had my film for four days before I took that first roll for a spin; four days of narrowing down possible subject matter “worthy” of my twelve little compositions. Seven turned out well enough to submit to a literary magazine. I certainly don’t approach my digital photography that way. 

• Approach your writing with more of your full attention.

Because the camera and the shutter-release (on the side of the plastic lens!) and pretty much everything else about the camera was new to me, I had to slow down… and then slow down again… and then a third time. I watched a YouTube tutorial on loading the film about 12 times; no joke.

I quickly learned to trust my instincts more and to rule out certain subject matter in favor of other options, because I knew that I was paying $7.50 for the roll of film and almost $20 for developing.

Even though the cost isn’t exorbitant to practice film photography (especially getting third-hand cameras at an auction site like I did), that it COST me something made each shot precious.

What does your writing cost you? Sleeping in? Time out with family or friends? We value our art more when we sacrifice something for it.

• Think thematically.
Just like writers begin a novel, short story collection, poetry manuscript, or series of essays that surround the same theme or characters, photographers often challenge themselves to create a series based on the same subject, setting, or motif.

The other day, I took a twenty-minute walk with my new camera and then found, in storage, two lawn chairs that had almost been thrown out several times—their worn green webbing and silver metal bases redolent of my parents’ youth and endless picnics and fireworks displays. Yet they’d been stored away.

Gleefully, I dug them out from behind the staircase and arranged them in various configurations on the lawn. Six of out my twelve shots became a mini-series about the chairs.

If I’d had limitless shots would I have found the chairs as compelling, especially for a series? Maybe. But probably not.

It’s very common for writers, like photographers, to take part in creativity challenges that encourage such project-based thinking. Practicing your art with a group of like-minded people for consecutive days will more likely yield workable results.

We writers have NaNoWriMo in November and NaPoWriMo each April. Photographers have challenges like the 365 Project and monthly challenges, such as at Instagram where photographers post themed lists of ideas.

These challenges are often informal but incredibly liberating.

Both writing and photography rely on intuition and self-exploration. A mixture of knowing some things and making up the rest. Both arts often include elements of self-doubt or curiosity that are assuaged with practicing your craft on a regular basis.

Try this exercise: Make a list of five themes you could explore as a series in prose or photography.

Want to learn more? Try my May 2020 online Imagery Power: Photography for Writers class.

Take a perusal of Photography for Writers, my exercise-packed, creativity-fueling book. Signed copies also available at my Etsy: WritePathProductions.

Courtesy of Women on Writing https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_Photography.php

Courtesy of Women on Writing https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_Photography.php