Join Novelist Yi Shun Lai & #Write2TheEnd for a Self-Help Book Swap!

Yi Shun Lai

YOU ARE INVITED to a SELF-HELP BOOK SWAP at the #Write2TheEnd offices at 420 Main Street in St. Joseph from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 14.

#Write2TheEnd is honored to welcome writer and editor Yi Shun Lai to southwest Michigan.

Lai is the non-fiction editor of the highly regarded Tahoma Literary Review. She was, for a time, the youngest-ever writer for the legendary J. Peterman catalog. And that was before "Seinfeld" discovered it. Her most recent work is NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: THE MISADVENTURES OF MARTY WU (2016, Shade Mountain Press), a humorous epistolary novel.

At the Book Swap, Lai will conduct a workshop on keeping an active journal and will discuss her writing process. She will have a limited number of copies of NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK on hand, available for signing and purchase. Light refreshments will be served.

“We have all been tempted by the Self-Help section of the local bookstore,” says Lai.
“And we've probably also all acquired some gems and some duds. Did you get something out of your book and want to pass it on now? Or was it just not for you? Bring it to the Book Swap!"

Prior to the Self-Help Book Swap, On Wednesday, July 13, Lai will be featured in a booksigning and writer’s Q & A session at the Webster Memorial Library, part of the Van Buren District Library, 200 N. Phelps Street, Decatur, from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

She will be a Special Guest at the Webster Memorial Library’s Writing Workshop with Ami Hendrickson the evening of July 13 from 6 to 7:30.

Lai will also appear at Women and Children First in Chicago, IL, on Friday, July 15.

NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK details the life of Marty Wu, a compulsive reader of advice manuals who would love to come across as a poised young advertising professional. Instead, she trips over her own feet and blurts out inappropriate comments. The bulk of her brain matter, she decides, consists of gerbils "spinning madly in alternating directions.”

Marty hopes to someday open a boutique costume shop, but it's hard to keep focused on her dream. First comes a spectacular career meltdown that sends her ricocheting between the stress of New York and the warmth of supportive relatives in Taiwan. Then she faces one domestic drama after another, with a formidable mother who's impossible to please, an annoyingly successful and well- adjusted brother, and surprising family secrets that pop up precisely when she doesn't want to deal with them.

Mining the comedic potential of the 1.5-generation American experience, NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK is an insightful and witty portrait of a young woman scrambling to balance familial expectations and her own creative dreams. Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family raves: "A breezy and charming tale ... Anyone who's grown up immersed in a profoundly rich old-world culture and feels its constant pull will commiserate—and be entertained."

All of Lai’s southwest Michigan appearances are free and open to the public.

#Write2TheEnd is an eight-week intensive writing workshop in St. Joseph facilitated by Ami Hendrickson and Kim Jorgensen Gane. #Write2TheEnd participants have succeeded in finishing novels, poetry chapbooks, non-fiction books, and more. #Write2TheEnd also conducts occasional short workshops. In addition to Lai, noteworthy authors #Write2TheEnd has hosted include Patty Chang Anker (Some Nerve: Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave. Riverhead; Penguin) and Ava Chin (Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal. Simon & Schuster).

Write2TheEnd On Your Summer Vacation

It's summer! Time to enjoy the sun, the surf, the sand -- the creative process!

Kick back, relax, and WRITE!

 At #Write2TheEnd, we look forward to working with those intrepid souls who want to make this summer both productive and enjoyable. If that's you, you belong at our first #Write2TheEnd meeting of the summer session tonight.

At tonight's kick-off meeting, each participant determines his or her personal, challenging, and above all achievable writing goal for a specific project this summer. Then, over the course of the next eight weeks, your #W2TE facilitators promise to do everything in our power to help you achieve that goal.

You might only have the seed of an idea you wish to outline, set a word count, and begin writing. You might have a collection of diaries you wish to turn into a book. You might wish to write and compile parts of an existing poetry collection into a chapbook. You might have a completed first draft and you may be determined to complete the editing process this summer. Whatever your goal, we want to help you meet it.

What's special about #Write2TheEnd?

In a word, INCENTIVE!

At the end of the 8 week session, #Write2TheEnd pays you back $100 of your registration fee if you meet the challenging yet achievable goal YOU set for yourself on night one! (That's tonight!) 

(FYI: We LOVE giving writers money. Seriously.) 

We'll provide the map: You take the trip!

Tonight (Monday, July 6, 6:30-8:30 PM) we'll help each participant determine an appropriate goal to pursue. And we will spend the entire summer (Mondays, 6:30-8:30 PM, through August 31st) supporting you and providing tools that make it possible for you to achieve that goal!

More than anything in the world, we WANT you to succeed! And we do everything in our power to help you make it happen for yourself this summer. It is possible! You CAN achieve your goal! We'll teach you how. 

The #Write2TheEnd welcomes our alumni from past workshops back for more! You know what you're getting into, and we're grateful for your continued faith in our process.

For those who aren't sure, we offer a one week guarantee. If, before our next meeting (Monday, July 13th), you decide #Write2TheEnd isn't for you, for whatever reason, we will return your registration fee, no questions asked.

You've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Networking, Ladder Climbing, and Writing to the End

On June 29, beginning at 6:30 p.m., #Write2TheEnd will be hosting a content-rich mini-workshop full of ways you can immediately start Climbing the Writer's Ladder.

Here's one of the ways: Networking.

What does that mean?

It means taking an interest in writers other than yourself.

It means connecting with them, being interested in their process, their journey, their books, and their lives.

It means reaching out to them and making new friends.

It means attending a booksigning or a lecture, or a reading, or seminar, and supporting them.

It means buying their book, reading it, and telling others about it.

What's it look like in practice? Well, if you were one of the people who packed Forever Books in St. Joseph for Ava Chin's booksigning earlier this month, you've seen it firsthand.

EATING WILDLY's author, Ava Chin, with Ami and Kim.

Kim befriended Ava years ago in an online writing group on a topic both were interested in. When Kim found out that Ava was on a book tour, she lost no time in contacting Forever Books and adding a stop to Ava's itinerary.

We spent a wonderful evening with Ava and her family, after which Ava dubbed us "The Thelma and Louise of writing coaching." (I suspect #Write2TheEnd alums will have no trouble deciding who is who...)

Networking is about connecting on a human level with the person who penned the words on the page. It's not about asking that person to do something for you. It's about forging friendships; about giving instead of taking.

This Monday, Kim and I will touch on many of the topics we present in detail during #Write2TheEnd. We'll focus on giving participants the tools to help them progress from "where you are" to "where you want to be."

We'll also provide a preview of what participants can expect from our #Write2TheEnd Summer Session, which begins right after the holiday, Monday evening, July 6th, 6:30-8:30 PM, at our offices in St. Joe (420 Main Street).

Make this the summer you meet the writing goal that's niggled at you for years--you know the one! And we'll pay you to do it!

What's special about #Write2TheEnd?

When it comes to your Big Writing Project, we'll help you ACE IT:

• Accountability
• Community
• Encouragement
• Inspiration
• TOOLS!

And then there's the famous #Write2TheEnd incentive:

#Write2TheEnd pays you back $100 of your registration fee if you meet the challenging yet achievable goal YOU set for yourself on night one!

We help each participant determine an appropriate goal for him or herself (first class, Monday, July 6, 6:30-8:30 PM). And we will spend the entire summer (Mondays, 6:30-8:30 PM, through August 31st) supporting you and providing tools that make it possible for you to achieve that goal!

More than anything in the world, we WANT you to succeed! And we do everything in our power to help you make it happen for yourself this summer.

It is possible! You CAN achieve your goal! We'll teach you how.

Write What You Want in 2015!

Happy New Year, writers!

I am writer! Hear me roar!

Let's make 2015 your year! It could be...

-- The year you finish that project (you know the one...).

-- The year you find an agent.

-- The year you get published.

-- The year you call yourself a Writer.

To help you meet your goals, we proudly introduce the #Write2TheEnd Lunch & Learn Series.

Our first event: Write What You Want in 2015, will take place on Monday, January 19 (Martin Luther King Day), from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (or so).

Bring your friends, your lunch, and a pen. We’ll provide water, coffee, tea, dessert, and an inspiring session designed to help you get your Inner Writer on!

The world awaits my magnum opus!

At Monday's Lunch & Learn, you'll draw inspiration from some local success stories. And, as with all of our #Write2TheEnd programs, you'll walk away with tools you can immediately put to work. 

Among other things, we'll explain how to:

·      Determine what project to focus on first

·      Recognize a good idea

·      Set attainable goals

·      Challenge yourself

·      Acquire needed skills

     o   Prepping & pre-writing

     o   Writing

     o   Editing

     o   Polishing

     o   Querying

     o   Marketing

·      Build a support network

·      Find your fans

To register, click the button below. Space is limited to the first 20 registrants.

What:   Write What You Want in 2015  #Write2TheEnd Lunch & Learn

When:  Monday, January 19  from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: 420 Main Street, St. Joseph, MI

Cost:    $35 / person  

Write What You Want in 2015 Mini-Session — $35

Monday, January 19, 2015 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

   

As always, tuition is free for alumni of #Write2TheEnd (TM) Writers Workshops.

Child care may be arranged. If you need child care, please let us know in advance.

We look forward to seeing you. 

Here's to the best 2015 imaginable. Come, #Write2TheEnd with us!

Write2TheEnd: Epiphanies, Priorities, and What's Next?

We wrapped our fall session of #Write2TheEnd last night with an epic THREE HOUR dinner at Ryebelle's with our new and forever *Writer* (with a capital W!) friends.

We were one participant down because SHE WAS GIVING BIRTH to our first #W2TE baby!! Even so, I can't believe none of us remembered to get a picture of our gathering! *head desk* Or of our participants with their certificates!! Ugh!

Ah well. I guess we were too happy that Ken was able to join us in Real Life this time.  For most of our meetings he participated via Skype from his travels in South Korea and China for his son's wedding! We are so proud of and impressed by his devotion to his project (which he completed), and by the support he received from his wife and family when he asked for it.

This is a lesson for us all in any creative endeavor. Our loved ones want to help and offer their support. Sometimes (always) we just need to verbalize what it is we need in order to receive it so we can meet success.

Same sun: going down in Michigan; rising in South Korea.

What Ken did right, and what we can all do in our daily lives, is he made his writing *work* a priority, even on the other side of the world.

He had a moment of pure joy and self-acceptance when "Writer" popped out of his mouth in response to customs asking for his profession -- which delighted us almost as much as seeing the sunrise from South Korea mirroring the sunset in southwest Michigan. Surreal.

Another epiphany we discussed: it's important to choose a project to focus on that speaks to the soul of the writer. If you are successful in getting a piece published, if you enjoy fame and notoriety from your work, you will speak about, think about, live, eat, and breathe your story for years to come.

Think of Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville (or Cheeseburger in Paradise, Heaven-forbid), of Lynard Skynard's Free Bird. Artists perform their biggest hits at every gig to the end of their careers -- they damn well better love them! It's so much easier to do the work -- to succeed -- when you're doing it for yourself, when it feeds your soul, versus because you *should.*

As to what's next for #Write2TheEnd? We began with a goal of building a community of working writers. Thus far, we have worked only with local writers. We LOVE working face-to-face with each and every one of our participants. We want to keep our class size small so we can truly make a difference, so we can offer each paying participant a one-on-one, so that we can continue to over deliver and adjust our instruction so it best meets the needs of those who show up to learn during each season's session.

Sadly, we won't be offering an 8-week winter session. We are committed, however, to keeping our growing community supported and active and, most importantly, WRITING, throughout the holidays and winter months. If you are hungry for a driven, supportive, knowledgable writing community to help you move forward in your writing career, we hear you. If you are not local to Southwest Michigan, we hear you, too. We will offer a very limited number of remote opportunities to participants in #Write2TheEnd Mini-Courses. Stay tuned for more information.

Something we didn't expect when we began working with local writers in September was how fond we would become of these Writers who invested in themselves -- and in us -- because they believed they had a story to tell. We didn't anticipate holding back tears when it was time to say good-bye. We didn't anticipate looking at each other like proud parents when one of our participants delivered her completed chapbook to us as a thank you, or how the hairs on our arms would stand at attention when we could identify her use of some of the tools we taught, how her writing moved us and stayed with us on our drive (or walk) home, as we breathed in the aromatic fumes of a homemade soup, or kissed our children goodnight, making us savor moments and glimpses and hold these tight against our hearts.

However could we have known what teaching you has taught us? What it has gifted us? We can't wait for our next 8-week session in the spring, and we can't wait for the next time we are lucky enough to #Write2TheEnd with you.

3 Ways to Boost Your Writing Career Before You Are Published

Wanting to be a writer is like wanting to be a marathon runner. The training necessary for success starts long before the actual event.

You're not published yet? No matter. While waiting for the presses to roll (or the pixels to align), here are a few things you can do to jump-start your writing career:

1.) Own the power of your words.

Say "I'm a writer." Audibly. With integrity and authority. Go ahead... I'll wait.

How difficult was that? Did you feel like an imposter? Did you weaken the impact with a little laugh at the end? Did you speak at a different decibel level than normal? Did you hiccup into upspeak?

The words we speak have tremendous power. If we can't say words with confidence, chances are that we'll never act to make those words a reality.

The power of our words can be a double-edged sword. Wield them with care. Beware of speaking anything into existence that can damage your fledgling writing career. "I'm a loser." "I'll never get published." "My book stinks." "I can't handle rejection." These will suck the life from your writing faster than a carb-starved dieter can suck the filling from a Krispy Kreme.

If you write and submit that writing for possible publication, you will get rejected. This is a universal truism, as immutable as Planck's constant or the certainty that if you drop your toast it *will* land peanut-butter side down. Rejection stinks, but it doesn't mean your book does. It means you have to keep on saying "I'm a writer," keep on learning, keep on revising, and soldier on.

You otter be writing!
Crack those knuckles & get to work!

Saying "I'm a writer" has great value. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In addition, when said in response to the question "What do you do?" it can lead to fascinating conversations and connections that would otherwise go unexplored.

A writer writes. That's the definition of the word. A swimmer swims. A runner runs. An otter... otts? There is no exam that must be passed, no certificate of authenticity, no licensing board that determines who gets go define themselves as "writers."

The only requirement? Well, that leads me to #2...

2.) Write.

Often. Daily, if possible.

Polish your manuscript, by all means, but set a deadline for putting that work aside and beginning work on something new.

It is critical to have an answer to the age-old industry question: "What else do you have?"

The publishing world abounds with stories of writers whose first project sold wasn't the first project finished. This is actually the norm. The standard. Who knows? The project you are shopping now might need a reader base before it finds a publisher. It's very possible that your next project is the one that will establish that base. So -- get to work!

Some are chicks. Some only aspire to be chicks...

3.) Ax "Aspiring."

You know your social media profiles -- the ones you hope and pray the Powers That Be will stumble across, read, and become desperate to sign your witty self to a lucrative publishing contract? Now is the time to run -- don't walk -- and delete "aspiring" as a modifier to "writer." Few things scream "unformed egg-contained chick" more.

"Aspiring" means "I hope to be... someday... when I make it a priority and turn the television off and get off of Facebook and have a plan."

Make today the day you quit aspiring and begin perspiring. Roll up your proverbial sleeves, set a targeted date for completion, and get to work.

Perhaps today is the day aspiring takes a back seat to conspiring. Perhaps it's time to stop sitting around waiting for the world to come knocking at your door and instead make a plan for your success. Take a class. Find a critique partner. Solicit advice from publishing pros. Start building your network and enlarging your circle of influence. Soon, you may discover that the progress you are making in your writing is inspiring others as well as yourself...

The Simplest Way to Write to the End

"I have a ton of great ideas. I start stories all the time, but never finish any." 
At #Write2TheEnd, we hear this from writers all the time. This, too:

"I have this story I'm dying to tell. I started it years ago. I've started it several times, but can't make myself finish it."

There are a million things we could say about sticktoitiveness, evaluating an idea's merits, and choosing one's projects wisely...

...but all that would just fill up space, without getting to the real core answer.

How does one finish a writing project? Do one of two things:

If it's within your grasp, take it!

1.) Pick the lowest hanging fruit.

Perhaps you have a plethora of stories all banging about in your head, clamoring for attention. Perhaps you suffer from "Magpie Syndrome" and are easily distracted from one project by others that look shinier, easier, more fun (funner?), or more worthy.

Ok, then.   Choose the story that is closest to being done -- the one that won't take much to push it over the edge to completion.

Now, look at the calendar. Give yourself a deadline. Make it reasonable so you don't set yourself up for failure, but ambitious enough that it challenges you. Sometimes all it takes to finish something is a concrete challenge we deem worthy of accepting.

Work on nothing but that until it is finished, edited, polished, and ready to send out into the cold, cruel world.

OR

Om nom nom. Writing is *delicious.*

2.) Feed your soul. Choose the project that most speaks to you. The one you can't stop thinking about. The one you *have* to write.

You know the one.

Perhaps you’ve felt writing was frivolous, or bought into the notion that there were other, more worthwhile things you should be doing with your time. Many of us were nurtured to seek more lucrative than creative pursuits, but writing calls us anyway.

So go ahead: give yourself permission to get the words out of your head and into the world.

Take that project out of the bottom drawer (or your hard drive), dust it off (or update it to the latest version of Word), look deep into it's eyes and make it a promise...

Promise to work on no other creative endeavor until it is finished, edited, etc.

Notice a common thread?

Yeah.

Commitment.

Working on multiple projects at a time is like fighting a war on many fronts. It disperses your creativity rather than distilling it and concentrating it, making it far too easy to lose focus, drive, or passion.

Want to finish something? Then it's time to overcome your commitment issues.

Pick one.

Roll up your proverbial sleeves and get to work.

Stick with it.

Wrestle with it.

See it through. Then move on to another.

We never said the advice was easy, but it is simple.

What's the best advice you ever heard for finishing something? Tell us!

Adapted from a MuseInks blog post.