Read As If Your Writing Depended On It – It Does

Posted on November 21, 2015 by beverlymagid in Beverly's Blog

It’s hard to believe I haven’t posted since July 2, but life and writing have continued at a fast pace. After a week in Idyllwild’s Fiction Writing this summer, I actually went back to my novel. I should say I re-began my novel and have been at it ever since. Now in the middle of […]

Beverly Magid

Beverly's background was in publicity and journalism, but now it's writing novels. Historical fiction mostly, female protagonist, ordinary women in extraordinary situations. The new book, Where Do I Go, will focus on Leah Peretz in 1908,on the Lower East Side, fighting the horrors of garment sweat shops. Exciting female empowerment!

Beverly Magid

I’ve been taking classes with Jack Grapes since last fall, after an absence of ten years.i started then for the same reason as now: I felt creatively depleted and need new energy. But I’m more attuned to it now, the exercises are giving me more power and interestingly enough a lot of it is coming out in poems. I’m not so arrogant that I call myself a poet, but I’m definitely coming out with the poems. Jack concentrates on the process, in his Method of Writing, not the story, but the amazing thing is, by concentrating on the process and some of the exercises, the story or content just pours out.#beverlymagid #sownintears #wheredoigo #flyingoutofbrooklyn

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Beverly Magid

Who would have believed I started writing poetry? Not me. Not since high school. Then, I didn’t know how to translate feelings into any other form. Nothing good, but full of emotion. Now after a couple of courses with Jack Grapes and his Method of Writing classes, I, with a little encouragement, have realized that I don’t have to wait for a novel to formulate in my head, that I can express myself in any manner I so choose. It’s been very freeing and most satisfying. I encourage everyone to just break free and let your imagination soar. You can figure out later what to do with it with as many drafts that are necessary. In the meantime, just fly.

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Beverly Magid

A trip not only opens your eyes to the beauty in the world but also our connection to the land, to the strangers who inhabit it, who soon become friends, to the fragile yet strong tie that connects us all. A trip to Alaska in the most glorious fall colors time, which everyone kept exclaiming was unusual and perfect re-inspired me to the friendship of people around the globe and the glory of nature. Undeveloped spaces still exist and people still want to reach across the divide (albeit not in Wash.DC) so it gives me hope that we might survive the chaos occurring today.
PS if you’re in Los Angeles come to my Author’s Talk at the Sherman Oaks LIbrary on Moorpark October 1 at 6:30pm. I’ll be discussing my current novel WHERE DO I GO, and the challenges which faced immigrants in the early 1900’s in New York City.

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Beverly Magid

A real slump, that’s what Trump has done to my writing. I keep looking for some idea that will light my passion, carry me through the dark days and starless nights. A book requires more than a fleeting spark, it needs a steady conflagration that lifts you up and keeps you moving. Not giving up but still happy that the third novel, WHERE DO I GO, kept me going even after two major accidents.

Hope you all got your copy, it’s about a woman who didn’t give up either.

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Beverly Magid

I kept thinking that I would come up with another idea which would hopefully blossom into a story that then evolved into a novel. But that was before kids were ripped away from their parents, migrants were described as infesting our country, SCOTUS upheld a travel ban, downgraded unions, refused to rule on gerrymandering, Congress refusing to curb the President’s power which could lead to a possible disintegration of our democracy, and that is only a few of our current calamities. My stomach is in knots and my brain is fried. Fiction will have to wait until I can concentrate on made up stories versus real life chaos. The midterms is my obsession right now and working to flip the Congress and now stop confirmation of any of Trump’s Court nominee.

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Beverly Magid

Do other writers have the same problem? I’ve written my novel, launched it, watch it go up and down in sales, get a great response from reviewers and readers and now - nothing. I feel like an empty vessel. Nothing more to say, at least in the world of story telling. I know all the self-help motivations, but at the moment, they don’t feel as though they apply.

Maybe three is my lucky number, three books is not a bad report to leave behind, but not doing research, not having every waking moment taken up with figuring out characters, their lives, problems, hopefully solutions, it all seems too strange. Maybe I have to make me one of my characters, in the novel of my life and an answer will eventually be illuminated.

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