Jennifer Simpson

Writer, marketing consultant, community builder and teacher. Director of DimeStories International, where authors share their 3-minute stories at open mic events in four cities and online.

My First Creative Writing Class

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The first creative writing class I ever took was back in the 90s. I’d been living in Chicago and was back home in San Diego visiting.  My friend Karin invited me to join her at a writing class at a place called The Writing Center in the part of downtown that was long ago Chinatown, and still a little sketchy.   The teacher, Judy Reeves, doled out writing prompts like hors d’ouvres at a cocktail party. The format was simple:  Judy shared a writing prompt, set the timer, and we wrote.  Furiously. It’s like we were all drunk on the creativity that was in the air.  I was terrified.  Sure, I’d been writing, but I wasn’t a WRITER.  Everyone else in the group, however–  well they just blew me away with their talent.   For one prompt, Judy asked us each to write down a secret–fact or fiction and place it in the basket. Then we each drew one.   I don’t remember what secret I shared, only the one I got:  “She slept naked.”  I was surprised and pleased with what I wrote (It’s probably in a notebook in a box in my basement).  One woman, however astounded me.  For some reason I am remembering her name as Mimette. She pulled the secret “He had webbed hands.”  While the timer ticked away, Mimette wrote a complete story (with a beginning, a middle and an end) about a man who had become a monk so he could hide his webbed hands in his long-sleeved cassock.

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Self-Care & Creativity

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Just what is self-care, anyway?

We hear this expression all the time from our family, friends, the internet, TV shows, you name it: practice self care. But everyone’s idea of what this looks like is a little bit different. Is it a monthly pedicure? A home-cooked meal made from your favorite fresh ingredients? Going for a run?

And why, after all, do we need to practice self-care in the first place? Aren’t we all attuned to our own needs, mental, physical, spiritual or otherwise? Do we not tend to ourselves every day? Yes and no. We feed and groom and entertain ourselves each day (usually?), but because we all lead such busy lives that pull us in so many directions, it’s easy to lose track of our needs and to lack the opportunities to slow down and do little things just for ourselves.

There are many definitions of self-care out in the world, but my favorite I’ve come across so far comes from  Fort Garry Women’s Resource Center in Winnipeg, “Self care is care provided ‘for you, by you.’ It’s about identifying your own needs and taking steps to meet them. It is taking the time to do some of the activities that nurture you. Self care is about taking proper care of yourself and treating yourself as kindly as you treat others.”

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Pivot for Plume

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“Are you familiar with the word ‘pivot’?” the judge asked.  The judge was on a panel of mostly male  business owners in the community as well as some folks in the entrepreneur ecosphere. Melanie and I are both graduates of the University of New Mexico’s creative writing program. We both hold Master’s of Fine Arts degrees: Melanie in fiction, I in creative nonfiction. We we are both well aware of the word “pivot.”  Creative writing is all about the pivot.  How many times have we written a story (fact or fiction) presented it to a workshop so sure we would leave the room with our fellow students applauding our work… only to leave instead with stacks of copies of our work marked up with red pen, words and phrases circled, paragraphs underlined, and questions written in the margins? Or how many times have we submitted a piece to 12, 23, 37 literary journals only to receive 12, 23, then 37  rejections which send us back to our computers to do a hard revision and start all over again?  So yeah. We know about pivoting.

Melanie came up with the idea for Plume back in 2016.  We began working on it then, but got involved in other things (jobs, raising kids, travel) and didn’t really get going until a year later.

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It’s a Girl! Plume’s first featured writer

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If you’ve talked to Melanie or me over the last few months, you know that Plume is ….  well, maybe you don’t know what it is other than something for women creative writers.  We’ve actually been refining our idea, researching the market, and we entered a business plan competition that we hoped would net us some startup funds.  Melanie wrote about those results in the previous post (hint: as writers, we know how to handle rejection).

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Anyway, the judges were so impressed with our plan and our competence that they decided we didn’t need their money (that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it).

Onward!

The core of our subscription is that each subscriber will get a letter from a featured successful woman writer, along with a sampling of her work in the form of an essay, a short story, some poetry, or an excerpt from a larger work.  We have some amazing writers lined up and have been absolutely blown away by their generosity in sharing their writerly advice, and their creative work.

A Plume subscription will also include some encouragement, a writing prompt, some nourishment for your creative soul, and some magic from New Mexico…  join our mailing list so you don’t miss out on our inaugural edition coming soon to YOUR mailbox!

Meet Amy Wallen

Our first featured writer is Amy Wallen.  I’ve known Amy for many years, first as a fellow writer in various groups in San Diego, then as the founder of DimeStories (nee First Fridays).  In fact, when I applied to my MFA program, I asked her to write me a letter of recommendation…  first she asked me, “Do you really need to go to graduate school to write a book?”

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Writing Alone, Writing Together

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women writing together

With a hat tip to one of my writing mentors, Judy Reeves, I thought I’d write about writing groups….

image- writing alone writing together book by Judy ReevesThe first writing group I ever attended was a half-day workshop facilitated by Judy Reeves, author of A Writer’s Book of Days, and Writing Alone, Writing Together (and More!) .  It was in 19- 90-something hosted by the first iteration of the San Diego Writing Center.  The 4th Street building was once part of  San Diego’s Chinatown around the turn of the century, a detail that irrelevant, but interesting.  My best friend Karin had invited me…

Judy shared writing prompts and set the timer.  The rules were simple–to keep the pen moving.  We wrote, and wrote, and wrote.  And we shared.  I still remember one prompt: we each wrote a secret, real or fiction,onto a small scrap of paper and put it into a basket from which we chose at random.  One woman, had drawn the secret “He had webbed hands…”  She wrote a story of a monk, who chose the monastic life not for some calling to god, but because of the robes.  He could hide his hands… 

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