Have an idea for a book but don’t know where to start? Want to organize your thoughts and feelings through journaling? Need to write a strong cover letter for a job application or help with the essay portion of your college application? Whatever shape your writing desires take, we have the resources to help you express yourself for that intended audience and purpose. Even if you don’t want anyone to read what you write, which is totally fine, it is still a healthy, rewarding experience. So, why not, with GCPL and Club Ink here to help, set yourself a 2018 resolution to “Write it.”
Here are some upcoming writing-related programs, starting with Deanna Adams’ Setting – And Meeting – Your Writing Goals class, which promises to get you organized and ready to Write it.
Setting – And Meeting – Your Writing Goals, Chardon Branch, Wed., Jan. 10, 7 pm.
The Club Ink Writing Workshop meets at the Chardon Branch every month. They will be meeting before Deanna Adams’ class. Feel free to check it out and see if it’s for you! Details here.
Self-publishing workshop
Middlefield Branch, Thurs., Jan. 11, 7 p.m.
Geauga West Branch, Wed., Jan. 17, 7 p.m.
This class will focus on self-publishing your book as an e-book, using SELF-e and Pressbooks, but there are publication opportunities for artists, musicians, and photographers as well.
Creative Journaling, Middlefield Branch, Thurs., Jan. 18, 6:30 p.m.
Author talk with Jim Sulecki, Geauga West Branch, Thurs., Jan. 25, 7 p.m.
D.M. Pulley, Turning history into fiction, Chardon Branch, Wed., March 7, 7 p.m.
Build a character (for grades 4 – 5), Bainbridge Branch, Thurs., Mar. 15, 3:30 p.m.
Meet the Author: Frank Monastra, Geauga West Branch, Tues., Mar. 20, 7 p.m.
Poetry Games
Chardon Branch, Sat., April 7, 1 – 3:00 p.m.
Geauga West Branch, Tues., April 10, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Middlefield Branch, Thurs., April 26, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Bainbridge Branch, Mon., April 30, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Poetry Games for Teens
Bainbridge Branch, Fri., April 13, 3 – 4:30 p.m.
Middlefield Branch, Tues., April 17, 3 – 4:30 p.m.
Chardon Branch, Fri., April 20, 3:30 – 5 p.m.
Northcoast Writers’ Expo featuring Christina Baker Kline (Off site at Lake Erie College), Sat., Apr. 28, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
We hope to see you at some of these events!
We have a number of resources and guides to help you resolve to Write it. Hoopla has titles on journaling, dot journaling, general composition and creative writing, and more, all available immediately. No holds, no waits. Just download and go. Overdrive has many resources available, too. And, of course, there is the vast Clevnet catalog.
Below are a few recommendations of some of my favorite writing guide books:
Fiction/General:
On Writing by Stephen King
Poetry:
Making Your Own Days by Kenneth Koch
Screenwriting:
The Elements of Screenwriting by Irwin Blacker
Non-fiction:
Writing Life Stories by Bill Roorbach
Here’s to you, to a new year, and to committing to Write it. I will leave you with this advice from Neil Gaiman:
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It’s that easy, and that hard.”
Patrick Culliton is Marketing Specialist for GCPL. He is currently reading Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.
