There is a webinar coming up soon that caught my eye and I figured it might also interest some of the folks who read my blog. It’s all about how to get the best incoming links to your website or blog. This is a topic that you might think that you already know something about but there are two good reasons that the webinar could be worth checking out anyway:
- Things change fast on the web. The best ways to get high-quality incoming links are not the same today as they were one or two years ago. It’s important to have the most updated information.
- Refreshers are always helpful. Even if you really do know all of this stuff, it’s helpful to have your mind refreshed about it. It’s like a little poke that says “oh yeah, that’s what I should be doing” and it motivates you to re-focus your efforts on correctly building new incoming links.
One of the things that I really love to do to get inspiration as a writer is to attend open mic events, poetry slams and literary readings where people read their writings from the stage. I think it’s great to experience the written word in the spoken format. It changes it, adds a new dimension and makes it something slightly new.
Attending these events always inspires me. Sometimes I hear a word or phrase that sparks something for my own writing. Sometimes I consider exploring a new form of writing after hearing it aloud. And sometimes it’s just the energy of the crowd that makes me want to write.
What’s interesting is how many different types of writing events there are and how different each one is in terms of the energy and ambience of the event. Some of the ones that I most commonly attend include:
- Open mic poetry events. This is where people of any age and writing level sign up on a list and get to read their own work for a certain amount of time. These can vary widely in style depending on the host and may even end up more like a variety show with comedians and musicians being included. I typically find these events to be interesting (albeit slightly overstimulating) because of the diversity of the group that comes to read although this, again, can vary a lot depending on venue.
- Poetry slams. I discovered these back in my college days and then lost touch with them again until just the past few months. These are events where people sign up to compete against each other for cash prizes. They get a certain amount of time to read one poem which is voted on by a set of audience members. Here it’s more about the performance than the words themselves (although the words matter) so you get a totally different vibe that’s almost more like theatre than poetry reading.
- Multiple writers reading together at an event. One of my favorite writing events in San Francisco is Writers with Drinks. At this event, five or six different authors are invited on stage to read from their works for about fifteen minutes each. They get enough time to really explore their genre but you get exposed to the writing of several different people. This is usually less intense than a poetry slam but not as laidback as most open mics I’ve been to. Each author brings his or her own following so there’s a lot of support and you really sense a writer’s community at things like this.
- Single writers reading their work. This is what you typically get when you have an author reading at a book signing in a store. They read a specific work for an extended period of time so you really get to know the work. Then they usually take questions so it’s a great way to learn a lot about a writer’s process. However, I usually don’t love these events unless I’m specifically interested in the author and have read at least some of his or her work.
- Erotica readings and performances. There is a whole other set of literary readings which is geared entirely around sex. Sometimes these are erotica authors reading from their books at book signings. Other times they are open mics of erotic poems. Or sex workers’ performance art shows that include authors reading. Whatever the format, the underlying vibe of these is sexuality so it’s a different feeling than what’s at other writer’s events.
What other types of events do you go to where writers read their works?
There are half a dozen posts about writing that I’ve been planning to get into this blog but I haven’t had a chance to do any of them. That’s because I’m swamped with other work and I’m trying to cram the work into a shortened time frame because I’m going to be out-of-office all next week. The reason for that is something exciting. I’m going to be spending the week at the MacWorld Expo here in San Francisco.
I’ll be blogging about what I learn at MacWorld over at Mac-Forums.com. You get a sample of what you can expect from my by checking out my first pre-Expo post: PC-to-Mac Convert Heads to Macworld. It explains why I’m making the switch and what I hope attending the expo will do to assist me in the transition. Anyone with an interest in the Expo should head over there throughout the week to get additional information about everything our team is finding out.
In the past few months, I have taken to rarely eating meals. As a writer with a home office, I have frequent access to the refrigerator and the pantry. As a result, I regularly eat all day long. To cut down on calories and make the most out of my near-constant snacking, I have taken to really enjoying small plates throughout the day. Tiny plates decorated with a couple of orange slices, a single spiced egg and a chunk of pretzel bread make for a wonderful morning treat. An afternoon plate of a single slice off of a sushi roll atop spinach with a side of grapefruit has enough flavor to feel filling. Until the next snack which might be cheddar cheese and spple slices or a tiny bowl of taste-infused soup. The more that I’ve come to enjoy these periodic treats, the less interested I’ve become in big meals. They’re overwhelming, uncomfortable, distasteful.
What does this have to do with writing? Well, I attended a poetry event last night. (It was an inspirational North Beach poet affair, the details of which can be read about over at my San Fran Voice blog post.) And while I was there, I realized that poetry is strikingly similar to these little plates of food which have come to serve as my sustenance. The poetry reading lasted only an hour. For many events, an hour is just getting things started. But for poetry, an hour is plenty. In an hour, you can catch the tiny snippets of phrasing, the intensity of language … the flavor, if you will. You do not need more than this to feel creatively full.
I remember only a few specific lines of the poetry from last night. The line in the image above by Jessica Loos (which I hope I’ve quoted correctly) stood out because of the way that it touched raw truth with such simple phrasing. Another line of hers which I remember distinctly was “his echo punched the beauty inside me”. Who needs to know the entire story behind the line when the line itself is so poignant? Who need the entire three-course-meal when the appetizer alone can satiate?
The truth is that I will probably never be entirely satisfied by poetry as I am by small plates of food. I will always need to fill my mind more with the lengthy books that put weight in my hands and ideas in my brain. I will forever escape to the tales of fiction books when my own tales are boring or unbearable. I will always turn to the pages of non-fiction for advice, information, inspiration and more. But poetry serves an important purpose. It gives us what we need in tiny bites. When there isn’t time or need for more, poetry can fill the hunger.
[Tags] poetry, creativity, writing, life, language [/Tags]
