Writing Prompt: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

Photo credit: Inspirational Daily

By Marilyn Friedman

Yesterday was  Valentine's Day and love was in the air. Balloons, flower, chocolate, and sticky sweet sentiments permeated the streets. While St. Valentine is best known for watching over lovers, he's also the patron saint of beekeepers, epilepsy, plague, fainting, and traveling, so even if you're single, we hope that you found something to celebrate on V Day. 

Today we are back to regularly scheduled affections and the most masochistic love of all – writing. Fortunately, Writing Pad is here to help take self-torture out of the process, and this week we have some of WP's finest offerings. Saturday, February 16th is bestselling memoirist Brett Paesel's ("Mommies Who Drink", More, Self) one day memoir class True Tales: Writing a Compelling Past. The evening of Sunday the 17th, the ever-popular Taffy Brodesser-Akner is doing You in 1200 Words: Writing the Personal Essay. Taffy has helped an astonishing 25 students get published – and you could be next after this one night class! Also, the five week Fiction Bootcamp with award-winning author Amelia Gray ("AM/PM", "Museum of the Weird", "THREATS", Tin House, McSweeney’s, Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize) is starting on February 27th.

Keep moving full steam ahead on your 2013 writing practice by looking through the fabulous class options below and then scrolling to the bottom of this blog post for your free writing prompt! See you soon.

Note: classes with an asterix (*) will be held at our new, posh Westside location in Westwood!

Classes Starting Feb. 16 - Feb. 24
•True Tales: Writing A Compelling Past* 

•You In 1200 Words: Writing The Personal Essay (1 DAY)*
•Fiction Bootcamp: Mastering The Art of the Tale Tale*

OTHER 2013 CLASSES:

Children's and YA Writing
•From District 12 to Middle Earth: Creating Fictional Worlds For YA Novels*
•YA Character Collage: Crafting Your Story From The Outside In*  

Creative Writing and Multi Genre
•Mini Writing Pad Bootcamp*

Fiction, Memoir, and Romance
•Memorable Memoir Bootcamp: Make Your True Tales Thrilling
•Short and Sweet: The Art of The Short Story*
•She's Got Character: Developing Characters That Work For Fiction, Film, and TV*
•The Spine of Crime: Structure and the Crime Story*
•Storytelling At Light Speed: The Art Of Flash Fiction

 Journalism, Personal Essay and Web Writing

•Personal Essay Clinic*

•You in 1200 Words: Writing and Publishing The Personal Essay (5 WK)*

•Hook Ups, Break Ups, And Missed Connections: Writing The Relationship Essay
•What Do You Think? Writing the Op-Ed or Cultural Essay*
•Getting to "Like": Crafting A Compelling Blog
•Query Letter Clinic: Writing The Pitch That Sells Your Story

Playwriting and Writing for Actors
•Get Into Character: A Character Monologue Workshop  
•The You Show: A Solo Performance Intensive
•Storytelling Bootcamp: A Spoken Workout

Screenwriting
•Punch It Up: Polishing Your TV Pilot (or Spec Script)
•Dr. Ed's Development Bootcamp: Crafting Your Webisode Calling Card (1 DAY)*
•Dr. Ed's Development Bootcamp: The Ten Page Workout*

I'm going to write about someone tall, dark, and handsome.
You don't know anyone that fits that description, do you? Wink, wink, Mr. Writing Pad.

Writing Prompt:

Make a list of five favorite appealing characteristics that your significant has or the one that got away had (or an imaginary significant other). What does he or she look like, smell like, sound like (e.g. his hands are warm like a steamed washcloth, he has big, flat feet like my father did)? Add one specific thing that person says or does that makes you weak between the knees – maybe it's the way he tucks the loose hair behind your ear or the cutesy nickname she gave you and says with a Southern drawl. Now add something annoying that this person does to the mix (e.g. picks his scabs, refuses to put his laptop in a case).

Now choose this character's favorite restaurant or place to escape and write a scene where you include as many of these following as you can in 10 minutes: a few of the appealing characteristics, the "weak in the knees" saying or behavior, and the annoying characteristic.

Perhaps a boyfriend's inability to stop picking his scabs ruins a romantic dinner at a special restaurant where they blindfolded you during the meal. Maybe the way that she absent-mindlessly hums when she chews lentils is so endearing that your character gets busy in the forest with a woman he met at a silent Vipassana meditation retreat. Have fun with it! When you are done with your ten minute write, post the results in the comments of this blog! 

For 10 minutes: write how a celebration of the perfect love goes wrong or how imperfect goes right. Share the results of your ten minute write in the comments of this blog to be entered in the contest for a free class!

Crafting The Page-turner With Bestselling Author Janelle Brown

Are you ready to finally finish that novel you've been dreaming about? We think it's finally time to bring that story to life, and you can put yourself in the trusted hands of Janelle Brown to help you do so.

Brown's debut novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, was a national bestseller and Library Journal named it one of the best books of 2008. Slate called her 2010 follow-up, "Enthralling... Brown is at her best when she is exploring the neurosis of the ambitious artist, and many who are struggling to make a life in a creative profession will find This Is Where We Live to be almost uncomfortably familiar." 

A novelist, essayist and journalist, Brown's writing appears regularly in The New York Times, Vogue, Elle, Wired, Self, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. Previously, she spent five years as a senior writer at Salon, covering everything from the war on drugs and public policy issues to the digital music movement. She began her career as a staff writer at Wired during the heydey of the dotcom boom. 

We recently had a chance to catch up with Janelle and ask her all our burning questions.

As an accomplished journalist and essayist, what was the biggest adjustment when you made your foray into novel writing?

Definitely trying to finding the dividing line between writing too much and not enough. As a journalist, you are limited by both the truth and the kind of information that you gather in your reporting -- generally, if it's a good bit of information, a nice detail, a fun piece of dialogue, it makes it into the final article. 

As a novelist, your limit is simply your own imagination: it seems like there's an endlessly infinite amount of material you could put into your book. The key for me was learning how to edit down, to decide what helped my story and what was just "filler" that didn't do much for the bigger picture. I threw away a lot of material that I loved but that just wasn't necessary.

What was your inspiration for your first novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything?

Oddly enough, it was a passage in a book called Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media by Elaine Showalter. She wrote about chronic fatigue syndrome, and mentioned a family in which a mother and her three daughters all came down with the syndrome and never left the house for months at a time. I loved the hothouse feeling of this: all these women stuck in a house together over a summer, with only each other and their own issues for company. The mother and daughter relationship in extremis. And although I quickly lost the chronic fatigue idea, I gave my characters different issues and then shoved them inside that house in Santa Rita and shut the door. 

Your novels, This Is Where We Live and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything are page-turners. Do you have a technique for generating exciting story arcs?

I often think of a chapter as a "turn" -- I tend to write long chapters that take place over a short period of time, focused around one specific turn of events or plot twist. I always ask myself: Where is the character beginning this chapter, and where is he ending it (both emotionally and in the greater narrative arc of the plot)? My belief is that it should always be in a slightly different place. So as I'm embarking on a new chapter, I make sure that there is a significant enough "turn" to change the direction of that character and the greater course of the book.

It can be a very small turn (a decision to get a job, a realization that a character really wants to save their marriage) or a big turn (a decision to kiss an ex-girlfriend, to tear up a $200,000 check). But it should always register a change in emotion and intention. That's how a book keeps moving forward. 

How did your writing process change from the first to second novel?

I got a lot faster! I knew what I wanted more clearly, and understood more how structure works. Generally, though, the process was the same: A lot of experimentation at the beginning, a lot of tinkering with characters and plot, and a lot of material that ended up in the garbage before the characters started "talking" to me and telling me where to go with the story. 

What tricks of the trade do you use when you're stuck for ideas?

I do a few things, consistently:

1. Read other books. I can't emphasize this enough. Great books often make me think about ideas and themes, which in turn helps me riff in new directions.
2. Read the news. If anything, there's a GLUT of ideas that you can get just off your daily twitter feed.
3. Talk to people. This is the most important. When I start talking out my ideas to people (friends, fellow writers, whoever will listen to me) I often end up brainstorming with them, and typically walk away having unearthed a whole raft of thoughts I didn't know I had buried inside me.

We recently reviewed the daily routines of famous writers. Tell us about yours.

• Get up, spend three hours groggily drinking coffee, feeding two children and one husband, and attempting to get everyone dressed and off to school and work.
• Go to my office and spend an hour or two procrastinating by reading the news, my favorite design blogs, Facebook, occasionally idly thinking about my book, etc.
• Panic and realize that I only have four hours left in the day to get anything done before I have to pick up my daughter from school.
• Read the previous day's writing. Do a little bit of editing. Hopefully feel inspired to continue on from this point.
• Write frantically for as many hours as remain.
• Spend the remaining part of the day again dealing with feeding and entertaining two small humans before collapsing into bed with whatever novel I'm reading.
 

Thanks, Janelle! That was inspiring! Join us as Writing Pad hosts A Novel Approach: Tackling the Long Format Writing Project with Janelle Brown this Sunday, February 10th and March 3rd where she'll share more of her secret techniques for crafting novels that are impossible to put down and for finishing the dreaded book length project. She'll even give you feedback on your own work! Click the link above to sign up before it's full.

Daily Writing Practices To Die For: Famous Writers Share Their Methods

In honor of the recently released Kurt Vonnegut: Letters, Brain Pickings did a feature on the daily routines of famous writers. With excerpts of wisdom from  Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, and many others, it's clear that brilliance manifests itself in a myriad of ways. 

It was hard to pick our favorites, but Joan Didion's daily writing practice seems to be very effective. Joan said,

"I need an hour alone before dinner, with a drink, to go over what I’ve done that day. I can’t do it late in the afternoon because I’m too close to it. Also, the drink helps. It removes me from the pages. So I spend this hour taking things out and putting other things in. Then I start the next day by redoing all of what I did the day before, following these evening notes. When I’m really working I don’t like to go out or have anybody to dinner, because then I lose the hour. If I don’t have the hour, and start the next day with just some bad pages and nowhere to go, I’m in low spirits."

Did you know that Ernest Hemingway wrote while standing? In a Paris Review interview, George Plimpton wrote Hemingway "stands in a pair of his oversized loafers on the worn skin of a lesser kudu—the typewriter and the reading board chest-high opposite him."

And it seems that Founding Father Benjamin Franklin may have had the nation's first case of OCD:

Writing Pad student Courtney Kocak has an adrenaline-based writing practice similar to Susan Sontag. Susan said,

"I write in spurts. I write when I have to because the pressure builds up and I feel enough confidence that something has matured in my head and I can write it down. But once something is really under way, I don’t want to do anything else. I don’t go out, much of the time I forget to eat, I sleep very little. It’s a very undisciplined way of working and makes me not very prolific. But I’m too interested in many other things."

So what about you, how do you achieve peak performance? Do you write during the quiet hours of the morning or do you respond better to the darkness of the night? Are you regular as clockwork or are you the type to let your ideas marinate until they're nice and juicy?

Carefully consider your own writing process. In a perfect world, what are your most ideal writing circumstances? Tell us in the comments below about your writing practice and what helps and/or hinders your creative flow.

So I Married A Screenwriter: Robbie Fox Talks About Staying Committed To The Craft

By Courtney Kocak

If you want to study screenwriting, study with someone who knows. And if anybody knows, it's Robbie Fox. Not only is he funny and well-connected, but his resume speaks for itself. He's sold over 60 pitches and scripts to the major studios and has written over 12 produced films with credits such as So I Married An Axe-Murderer, In The Army Now, and the recent worldwide release Playing For Keeps starring Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel. Robbie also has done uncredited rewrites on My Girl, Little Giants, Revenge of the Bridesmaids, and the Disney animated Mickey Mouse short Runaway Brain.

Constantly reinventing himself, he wrote (and is directing) the upcoming Lost In Coachella for MPCA and Still Life, to be directed by Bruce Beresford. In hopes of gleaning the method behind his brilliance and staying power, I recently caught up with Robbie for some tricks of the trade. 

What makes a screenplay great?    

Easy to read. You know, fun, entertaining, not a homework assignment. Something original with a unique voice that doesn't look like a money grab. Something that makes the reader say, "This person knows and cares what they're writing about" – then they will care. A page turner would be great, and the shorter the better. People hate to read in Hollywood, worse than they did in high school because they don’t read for fun, they read to buy, and more often, they really just read to cover themselves, so if it sells elsewhere they can say they were on it. 

I read Moby Dick a few years ago. It took forever, so I carried it with me for whenever I had some time to kill. Every time someone from the business saw my copy they would undoubtedly ask, “Are you doing an adaptation of that, or––?” Reading for fun would be otherwise inconceivable.

Did you write So I Married an Axe-Murderer with Mike Myers in mind?

So I Married an Axe-­‐Murderer in my head was always "Annie Hall, but what if Annie just might be a murderer". Before I went off to write it (I sold it on a pitch), the studio executive at Columbia Rob Fried told me to write for Woody Allen, not that we would ever get him, but at the time, all the actor we envisioned for this movie were playing some form of that. (Billy Crystal, Garry Shandling, John Candy, Danny DeVito, and Chevy Chase were all interested at one point.) 

Then out of the blue, Woody Allen's manager called and said Woody wanted to do it – no kidding. I was so excited, I had our first lunch together 16 times in my head, "No, please you're embarrassing me, Wood-man, you really liked it?" Of course, that lunch never came to be. As it was told to me, he asked for 7 million dollars, Columbia offered him 5. They had a Mexican standoff for about 2 weeks. Then he did Scenes from a Mall instead. (For 5, apparently.)

Writer's block can be career-crippling. Tell us how you've been able to break out of a rut.

Like anyone else, I have trouble concentrating sometimes. But I can't afford writer's block. Mastercard and your children's private school will not buy the "writer's block" excuse. My suggestion is: accept bad dialogue and bad ideas as part of the process. You're not having writer's block, you're just sifting through all the ideas on your way to the right ideas. Some writers sit around and wait for inspiration and then write, but the pros that I know go to their computer – just like a plumber goes to the sink – and begin working.

Set specific hours. And don't take phone calls and don't look up old girlfriends on Facebook and don't check sports scores. Imagine if you were a lawyer on trial. Would you start looking up adult sites during the duller witnesses? It's a real profession. Treat and respect it as such.

But sometimes you do need to take a break, to let the well fill up. True story: The summer I was turning 30 I had gone in and out of a bunch of relationships and I was feeling very unsettled. I decided the answer was in Aix En Provence. I don't know why – I liked the name and that book "A Year in Provence" had just come out. I didn't read it, but it just sounded right.

I checked into this awesome hotel that no one knew about yet and I stayed there for 6 weeks. While I was there, I wrote in my journal every day. I was bored at one point and I sent a fax to a friend of mine who was the president of Disney at the time. He returned my pre-Internet fax with a fax of his own saying, "Hey I'm coming to France, I'll visit you."

Me and the studio president drove for a week around Europe and thenwhen we got to Germany, he said he was meeting friends in Greece, would I please join. I said, "Dude, I'd love to, but I'm over budget on my trip by at least triple and I have to get the hell out of here." He really didn't want to journey all the way to Greece alone, so much so that he said, "If you come with me, I'll guarantee you the Pauly Shore Army movie we're going to film in February." So then I had this dumb awkward moment where I'm thinking "Pauly Shore? Mikanos? The Parthenon? Army movies?" 

Anyway, I told him I couldn't and headed back to Los Angeles that night. But when I got home, there was a script sitting at my door saying, "This is the first draft of the Army movie, it needs a rewrite, if you want it its yours."

The lesson is: It's a relationship business, treasure and protect your relationships. And, even if you're in France, take the time to drop your pal a note.

That's a great lesson! Any more where that came from?

You'll hear a lot more in my class, but here's one to tide you over. I had a meeting a few months ago at a production/management company. This was one of the manager's offices – 

If this pile tips over, you could be the first person ever to be killed by 3,000 unsold scripts. I guess one of the most important lessons you can teach anyone is to show them this picture and tell them, "Once you're in this pile, it's time to make more copies." That's the whole goal, create relationships, so that you can make your script sound interesting enough – and then write your script so that it actually delivers on that – all with the intention of keeping it out of this pile.

Writing Pad is pleased to host two classes with Robbie Fox, Business Time: A Screenwriter's Survival Skills Workshop on February 5th and the multi-week Dream It, Write It, Pitch It: Screenwriting Bootcamp starting on February 11th where an A-list producer and former studio president will assist in the choosing of your idea, and in return be the first person to read your script once it's finished with an eye towards producing it. The Bootcamp also includes the option of having Robbie read your entire script and meet with you to give you feedback on it once the class is over. Click the links above to sign up before they are full! 

A 99 Day Writing Experiment with Courtney Kocak

Writing Pad student Courtney Kocak is nearing the end of her 15 article series for xoJane, and we caught up with her to get a glimpse of how the process is going. 

How did you come up with the idea for your article series and how did you get it published?

Well, I didn't have much in terms of writing credits going into this, but I'd gotten the idea for "99 Days at the 99¢ Store" over a year ago. I live across the street from a 99¢ Store and I always think that they sell so many different kinds of items that you could almost live exclusively off those purchases. Every time I was hurting for money, I would think, "Damn, that's such a good idea." 

I tried to find a home for the project a couple different times, but I was looking in places that weren't true to my voice as a writer. I wound up taking Margaret Wappler's one-night query letter class at Writing Pad to really give it another shot. I went in with a really solid draft of the letter and Margaret was able to give me a couple notes to convey the goal of the experiment in the clearest way. She said it sounded like an xoJane piece and boy was she right! I pitched it as a weekly series and that's what they took – 15 weeks worth.

How soon after the class did you get the gig?

So fast! I sent out the revised pitch letter the morning after the class and I heard back the next day. A week later the paperwork was all finished and I was all set to start the experiment. 

What have you learned so far?

The most valuable lesson has been about making myself the center of the experiment. Since I'm the guinea pig, I've committed to making a HUGE change in my life for 99 days, which I'm learning is a pretty lengthy period of time. The readers are great, but they also keep you honest and accountable – I think about them literally every time I make a purchase. I've been having a blast and am eternally grateful for such a cool opportunity as I'm just kickstarting my freelance career, but next time I might think twice about putting my spending habits and finances on full display.

We wish Courtney the best of luck in surviving the remaining 31 days of her 99 Days at the 99¢ Store experiment. We're really enjoying all of her wonderfully written articles! Check them out here.

If you have a passion project that you'd like Margaret Wappler (Editor of Dame Magazine, Freelance Journalist for LA Times, Rolling Stone, etc.) to help you find a home for, or if you just need a refresher on how best to approach editors with story ideas, Writing Pad is hosting three upcoming classes with Margaret to set you on your way: Getting to "Like": Crafting a Compelling Blog on February 5th, Query Letter Clinic: Writing The Pitch That Sells Your Story on February 11th, and Hook Ups, Break Ups, And Missed Connections: Writing The Relationship Essay on Tuesday nights starting March 5th.

Writing Prompt: Live Your Dream in 2013

My preferred workout: lounging.

By Marilyn Friedman

It's January and gyms are packed to the gills. My favorite cafe is crowded with writers tapping on their iPads. The reason? It's New Year's resolution time, and I refuse to be left behind. My alarm is set to ring an hour earlier than usual so I'm forced to write a little bit before I leave the house for an early morning exercise class. To be honest, I'd rather just sleep in till 10 a.m. or spend the day lounging around, snacking on tasty food like I did when on vacation in Vietnam last month (see picture on the left--hey, I have my sneakers on!), but I've got some serious writing goals I'm itching to reach this year, like finish my memoir and get a travel piece published.

Luckily I have Writing Pad to help me reach my goals (which is why I started the school almost nine years ago--for my own writing development). I've signed up for our Memoir Bootcamp and Travel Writing classes to help me get my writing projects done with mentoring from uber successful writers. I invite you to join me in one of these two classes or one of our other wonderful Creative Writing, Children's Writing, Fiction, Journalism, Writing for Performance, Publishing or Screenwriting classes to help you fulfill your 2013 New Year's resolutions.

Has "write a travel piece on my trip to Thailand that focuses on diet and longevity" been on your wish list for the past 4 years? Want to hold your head high at your high school reunion this year, bragging about the coveted TV writing job you landed or script option you sold? Or maybe all of your friends have been bugging you launch a riveting blog about your snarky musings on "Dance Moms" but you'd like to find out how to turn that blog into a book deal or freelance writing career? Come to Writing Pad, and we'll help you reach all of your goals this year by giving you the tiny push you need. We want to help, really.

Get started on your 2013 writing practice by looking through the fabulous class options below and then scrolling to the bottom of this blog post for your free writing prompt! See you soon.

Note: classes with an asterix (*) will be held at our new, posh Westside location in Westwood!

Classes Starting Feb. 2 - Feb. 6
•From Cheng Du to Timbuktu: Writing The Road Less Traveled
•Short and Sweet: The Art of The Short Story
•Getting to "Like": Crafting A Compelling Blog
•From Spec to Staff: A Ticket To The Writer's Room*
•Business Time: A Screenwriter's Survival Skills Workshop*
•Memorable Memoir Bootcamp: Make Your True Tales Thrilling

OTHER 2013 CLASSES:

Children's and YA Writing
•It's Playtime: Writing for Kids
•YA Character Collage: Crafting Your Story From The Outside In*  

Creative Writing and Multi Genre
•So You Want To Be A Writer
•Finishing School
•Literary Games: Crafting the Conceptual Story*

Fiction, Memoir, and Romance
•Your Name In Print: Get Your Story Published*

•A Novel Approach: Tackling The Long Format Writing Project 

•Structure, Structure, Structure: Building The Foundation For A Killer Book or Movie* 

•True Tales: Writing A Compelling Past*

•Fiction Bootcamp: Mastering The Art of the Tale Tale*

 Journalism, Personal Essay and Web Writing
•You In 1200 Words: Writing The Personal Essay (1 DAY)*
•Personal Essay Clinic*
•Query Letter Clinic: Writing The Pitch That Sells Your Story

•You in 1200 Words: Writing and Publishing The Personal Essay (5 WK)*
•Hook Ups, Break Ups, And Missed Connections: Writing The Relationship Essay

Playwriting and Writing for Actors
•Story Time: A Performed Essay Workshop
•Get Into Character: A Character Monologue Workshop   

Screenwriting
•Dream It, Write It, Pitch It: Screenwriting Bootcamp*
•Structure, Structure, Structure: Building The Foundation For A Killer Book or Movie*
•Punch It Up: Polishing Your TV Pilot (or Spec Script)
•Dr. Ed's Development Bootcamp: Crafting Your Webisode Calling Card (1 DAY)*
•Dr. Ed's Development Bootcamp: The Ten Page Workout*

Out with the old routine of eating chips on the couch, in with the new!

Pictured above: Writing Padder and Pilates Instructor Extraodinaire Kit Rich whose essay (written in Taffy Brodesser Akner's class) was just published in Self Magazine! Congrats, Kit!


Writing Prompt:
Make a list of 3 personal, professional, or emotional changes you vowed to make in the past (or a fictional character vowed to make). In what areas did you (or your character) improve? Where did you (or your character) make empty promises? What happened? Look at the list you wrote and choose your favorite change you did or didn't make. Brainstorm two specific ways that affected your day-to-day – maybe you were able to better taste the smoky chile spice of your favorite Enchilada sauce once you quit smoking cigarettes or a new jogging routine made your morning commute all the more vivid with bright yellows and reds and sweet honeysuckle aromas from the plants on your route.

For ten minutes, write a scene where a character based on you makes a big shift. Explore the consequences that shift has on his or her life.

I am going to write about how my 2012 commitment to go to three to five trampoline classes per week allowed me to slim down, fit back into my jeans, and helped me stop walking around the world with a cloud of stress and resentment over my head. To be honest, I totally fell off the wagon over the last two weeks and haven't exercised at all, but I'm about to resume my trampoline regime tonight. What are you going to write about?

For ten minutes: write about how a character fulfilled or didn't fulfill a a New Year's resolution. Share the results of your ten minute write in the comments of this blog to be entered in the contest for a free class!

Winter Break Free Writing Prompt

Reuinification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City

By Antonia Crane and Marilyn Friedman

Relieved the holidays are over? Not so fast. Where did you go for your winter break and why? More Americans than ever drove their cars instead of flying this year and Antonia followed suit. At the last minute, she decided to cancel her flight. She took a 12 hour road trip with the boyfriend up the coast to northern California through pouring rain, enchanting wine country and then a winding, dark wet forest towards the beckoning waves of Samoa Beach. Antonia spent the holiday season hanging out with her family,  devouring crab in a boatyard where her Step dad restores ships, and playing blackjack at an Indian Casino.

Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat

Marilyn and Jeff went to Vietnam of all places (a 15 hour flight away from LA that was well worth the pain). They leapfrogged all over this vibrant country and even spent two days in Siem Riep, Cambodia to visit one of the seven wonders of the world, Angkor, a complex of 200 stone Khmer temples made well known to Americans by Angelina Jolie's "Tomb Raider" (the Ta Prohm temple was used as a location for that movie).

When she wasn't scaling stone temples in her flip flops or visiting palaces with computer rooms that reminded her of the "Wonder Woman" TV show, Marilyn walked through a sea of whirring mopeds to reach street restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hoi An, Phu Quoc island, and Dalat, Vietnam. She didn't get run over, but she was terrified every time she had to cross the street for a meal and had to hold onto Jeff (Mr. Writing Pad) and stare at the ground so she wouldn't be alarmed by all the mopeds zipping around her like bees swarming a beehive. Now that's foodie dedication! Marilyn says that it was worth risking her life because she feasted on the best pork bun, Banh Mi sandwiches, and grilled meatballs that she has ever tasted and usually only spent a $1.00 on lunch!

Best Banh Mi Stand in Hoi An

Glorious pork buns in Hanoi

It seemed like every square inch of Vietnam sidewalk was used for moped parking and impromptu restaurants with short, plastic furniture (see below). It was challenging to find any sidewalk to walk on, and Marilyn had to get used to mopeds and taxis careening by her as she walked in the street. But Vietnamese drivers are cautious and went around her so it was actually safe. Marilyn highly recommends that you consider going to Vietnam on your next vacation. It's a wonderful, delicious place!

Impromptu restaurants and moped parking in Hanoi

Now that we all have returned from our holiday time off (sigh), it's time to roll up your sleeves and get back into writing projects or kick start your writing practice for 2013! Lucky for you, we have a ton of classes to help you do that, and Marilyn will be partaking of several of them along with you.

This coming weekend, you won't want to miss DAME editor and former LA Times blog editor Margaret Wappler's "Getting to "Like": Crafting A Compelling Blog" to help you take your blog to the next level or start a blog that will stand out in cyberspace. Also, we are very excited about "YA Character Collage" with multi award-winning author Sherri L. Smith for your aspiring young adult writers, The Art of The Short Story with award-winning fiction writer Merrill Feitell, and Ideas Clinic For Magazines and Newspapers with successful journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner who has helped 24 students get published and sell their essays so far!

Note: classes with an asterix (*) will be held at our new, posh Westside location in Westwood!

Classes Starting Week of Jan. 12 - Jan. 20
•How To Hook An Agent*
•Getting to "Like": Crafting A Compelling Blog
•YA Character Collage: Crafting Your Story From The Outside In*  
•Short and Sweet: The Art of The Short Story

•Stories That Sell: Ideas Clinic For Magazines and Newspapers*

Children's and YA Writing
•It's Playtime: Writing for Kids (5 Week)

Creative Writing and Multi Genre
•So You Want To Be A Writer
•Finishing School*
•Literary Games: Crafting the Conceptual Story*

Fiction, Memoir, and Romance
•Memorable Memoir Bootcamp: Make Your True Tales Thrilling 
•Cabinet of Curiosities: A Surreal Fiction Workshop
•A Novel Approach: Tackling The Long Format Writing Project
•Writing In Series: Crafting Stories That Keep On Telling
•Structure, Structure, Structure: Building The Foundation For A Killer Book or Movie*
•Literary Games: Crafting the Conceptual Story*
•I Love You Silly: Crafting The Perfect Romance
•Fiction Bootcamp: Mastering The Art of the Tale Tale*

Journalism, Personal Essay and Web Writing
•You've Been Featured: Writing For Magazines or Newspapers* 

•From Cheng Du to Timbuktu: Writing The Road Less Traveled (3 Day Intensive)
•So You Want To Be A Freelancer*
•Hook Ups, Break Ups, And Missed Connections: Writing The Relationship Essay
•Query Letter Clinic: Writing The Pitch That Sells Your Story
•You in 1200 Words: Writing and Publishing The Personal Essay*

Playwriting and Writing for Actors
•From The Page To The Stage: A One-Person Show Workshop*
•Say It Isn't So: A Storytelling Class*
•Story Time: A Performed Essay Workshop

Screenwriting
•Dr. Ed's Development Bootcamp: The Ten Page Workout*
•Business Time: A Screenwriter's Survival Skills Workshop
•Dream It, Write It, Pitch It: Screenwriting Bootcamp*
•Structure, Structure, Structure: Building The Foundation For A Killer Book or Movie*
•Punch It Up: Polishing Your TV Pilot (or Spec Script)
•Dr. Ed's Development Bootcamp: A Script Doctor Workshop*

Dragon Boat, Halong Bay, Vietnam

Writing Prompt: Where did you land this Christmas and New Year's? Did you go home or avoid home at all costs? Did you go on a fabulous overseas vacation or thrilling road trip? If this year was a bust, make a list of 3 memorable Christmas/New Year vacations. Pick one. Write down three specific details of the trip that you will always remember (e.g. For Marilyn it was: pork buns, sea of mopeds, computer rooms that looked like scenes from "Wonder Woman").

Write for 10 min. about this memorable vacation, including the specific details. Then post your ten minute write in the comments of this blog to get entered into the contest for a free class!

What did you do this winter vacation? Write about it in the comments of this blog to be entered in the contest for a free class!