We need silence, just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light. If our minds are crowded with word and thoughts, there is no space for us.” – Thich Nhat Hanh, author of The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching

Not writing? Don’t feel guilty. Embrace the silence.

In his excellent craft book, Burning Down the House, Charles Baxter writes that silence, “. . . is an intensifier—that it strengthens whatever stands on either side of it.”

He asserts this within the context of storytelling: the quiet before the storm, the intake of breath before a revelation, that split second quiet before a character’s world irrevocably changes.  

I think Baxter’s observation applies to the writing process as well. Sometimes we need to hit pause, need to walk away from our daily key tapping or pen gliding, need to let our imaginations unfurl in a space free of the demands of grammar, punctuation, and rules. In fact, we might even consider that taking breaks from our work is part of our process.

I firmly believe much of our writing takes place in our subconscious, that the subconscious is a puzzle-loving problem solver.

But we have to create silent spaces so that the creative brain has the room and freedom it needs to optimally birth stories.

We are living in a time of tremendous stress—elections, hurricanes, floods, wars, global instability. Writing can be a refuge from these stressors. But sometimes, we need to block it all out, spend a few days in quietude, allow our creative spirits and our basal ganglia to recharge. This requires awareness on our part: Time to step away for a few days and Time to return to the page.

Upcoming InkBlossom Offerings

Our Santa Fe Writers’ Retreat and Conference begins one week from today. We have a full house of wonderful writers. Check out our Facebook pages here and here for photos and more in the coming days.

They’re two slots open for the 2025 virtual monthly workshops. If interested, submit via email (inkblossomwriters@gmail.com) a five-page writing sample as a Microsoft Word attachment using 12-point Times New Roman font double-spaced, default margins, paginated. Deadline: October 28.

Workshop info:

• 2025 marks the eighth year of my virtual writing workshops. These workshops are not the stale, often damaging workshops of yore. They are deep tissue discussions in which the writer whose work is being discussed has full agency in the process.

• Each workshop group is limited to no more than six writers. At each monthly session, the works of two writers are explored. If a writer would rather discuss a topic or issue in lieu of turning in pages, that is encouraged.

• Participants often remark that they learn as much by discussing the work of workshop mates as they do when their work is discussed.

• Groups meet monthly for the entire year.

• Each writer’s work or topic is discussed in 45 minute to one-hour segments.

• Writers submit approximately 15 pages a week prior to their scheduled session.

• These are nurturing, vigorous discussions designed to uplift, inform, and help each writer discover solutions while improving their art and craft.

• Monthly workshop writers have perks! Application fees are waived for other InkBlossom offerings and the writers are notified about new offerings before they go public.

OTHER UPCOMING INKBLOSSOM OFFERINGS

Book Brain: Plan Your 2025 Writing Life – November 16-17, 2024

Rome Writers’ Conference – January 24-31, 2025

Whole Novel Project – Application deadline February 17, 2025

Vermont Novel Retreat – June 20-27, 2025

Blooming InkBlossoms

Rosemary Porto, a member of one of my virtual monthly workshops, just nabbed her very first publication!

Flavian Mark Lupinetti, also a virtual workshop member, is not only a novelist, he’s a poet! Here’s his latest publication.

Congratulations, Rosemary and Mark!

Please send your good news to inkblossomwriters@gmail.com so I can include it in a future newsletter.

Recommended Reading

Tony Woodlief’s debut novel is an absolute stunner. Pre-order We Shall Not All Sleep today. It’s a masterwork of voice, place, and storytelling.

In her third novel, Hotel Impala, Pat Spears explores with grace, wisdom, and an unflinching eye homelessness, mental illness, and sisterhood.

The Importance of Being Kind

Amid loneliness and exhilaration—two hallmarks of a writing life—it’s easy to forget that triumph resides in the act of creation, not in its perfection, not in the critic’s pen, not in our subjectivity.

We don’t have the same concerns. We possess different prose styles. Some folks have a finely hewn skill set and an expansive vision while others climb up that mountain just hoping to get a foothold. We should celebrate all of it, all of us.

If you don’t like a book, perhaps carry your discontent quietly. Panning a poem, story, essay, novel, or memoir on social media seems to me to be an unnecessary cruelty. Imagine if that were your story being slammed.

No one knows more than your fellow authors what courage, tenacity, and talent it takes to write. I believe we should stand in solidarity, not division. As Edith Wharton said, “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

Cool Gifts for Writers

This T-shirt sums up our lit lives as well as anything I’ve seen and you can purchase it on Etsy.

Do you have a writer in your life who needs a literary lift? Perhaps an InkBlossom workshop, conference, retreat, or private mentoring is what they need. Email me and we’ll set it up!

“Connie is the teacher that every aspiring author needs. She articulates elements of craft, guides her students to improve their content, and suggests strategies for eventual completion and publication of projects, as only someone with her track record and success can. Moreover, Connie is just plain fun to work with.” ~ Flavian Mark Lupinetti, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet