A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-Four-Hundred-And-Sixty-Six

I am still preparing ideas for online workshops.  I've been focused on generative workshops, but in many ways the real interest, for me, is in using this format to hone certain basic skills.  I recall Tim Seibles referring to it as "practicing scales."  The point is not always to create great work, but to get in that practice, to sharpen your skills.  In part, this is about being ready to capture an idea when it comes, but it is also about expanding the awareness of what ideas are worth pursuing.  I think it is useful, even important, to have tricks that allow me to find my way into writing, but I think what really has gotten me to the point where I feel that I can always write a poem if I need or want to is not those tricks but the skills that they have imparted.

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