Have Pen Will Travel

     I may have found a new venue for writing.
Over the past couple of years, I’d attended a writing group at a nearby museum. This had been one of my I’m retired now, time to try new things ventures. After twenty years of teaching and reading other people’s writing, I thought it was high time I produced some of my own. And aside from the fact that every single other person in the group was writing memoir, and the landscape of my own memory is one big slab of Swiss cheese, I enjoyed it. It turned out to be the impetus I needed to push me through completing two novels and the one I should be writing right now instead of this.    

     Eventually,though, it turned into just an opportunity for conversation and I’d also listened to every possible essay about the other members’ childhoods, weddings, previous jobs, former husbands, and emotional upheavals, and it was time to move on. 

          Benefit – I’m no longer shelling out money to sit in a room and write. Drawback – like those birthday cards you meant to send, but never did, but felt like you had because you’d thought about them so often? - my writing was becoming more theoretical than actual. Oh, and now that I’d lost that every-Wednesday routine, my grasp of whether today was Monday or Saturday was sketchier than ever. 

          Then another refugee from the museum writing group put out the word that she’d tracked down a drop-in writing group at her local library. She had already attended one session and reported that no seemed to be in need of therapy and the person facilitating was business-like and organized. 

          So yesterday I packed up my tablet, keyboard, and of course snacks, and GPSd my way across two towns. It was worth it. Two disciplined hours later I had produced something I never would have thought to write at home and listened to six other completely different and well-written pieces. Tangible results and entertainment – all for free!

          And most importantly, a delightful lunch and chat with my friend afterwards.