Imagination INK with Rosanne Bane - Author of Around the Writers Block

Please download Java(tm).

I thought you'd want to know how to register for FREE writing classes at Hennipen and Scott county libraries -- taught by yours truly and other Loft Teaching Artists.

And I hope you'll vote in my blog poll on a replacement for "Brain Factoids."

In this issue of Imagination InkLinks:

Please Vote!

idea guy with pen My upcoming book, Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance, will include sections that show how relevant and useful it is for writers to understand the brain and neuroscience research. The information in these sections is tailored for readers who are writers like you, not scientists.

I had originally titled these sections "Brain Factoids" because I wanted them to sound light and accessible (not too academic). But my editor said that, to her, "factoid" implied optional reading and that's definitely not what these sections are.

So I need a replacement for "Brain Factoid" and I'd appreciate your perspective. Please visit my blog to vote!

Free Writing Classes!

writers working together

With funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, the Loft Literary Center and Hennepin County Libraries have collaborated to create a series of

free "First Pages" writing workshops

taught by Loft Teaching Artists.

You can take any of several different one-hour classes with talented teaching artists by signing up through the library's website.

Go here, select "Books and Writing," click on "Find It," then scroll through the results for the First Pages classes. You can register online or by calling the library branch hosting the class.

I'll be teaching First Pages: Taking Your Great Idea From Brainstorm to Page on November 3 from 6:30-7:30 pm at the Maple Grove Library (612-543-6450) OR November 10 from 6:30-7:30 at the Rogers Library (612-543-6050). Do you have a great idea for a book? Learn tips for getting that idea down on paper. You also will discover resources to keep you focused and motivated.

Other First Pages classes include:

(Re)Work It - Editing Basics
Creative Writing for Book Lovers
Once Upon a Time, There Was a Writer
Capturing Life - Changing Experiences
No Fear, No Rhyme Poetry - Write Your First Poem.

More Free Writing Classes!

If you've wondered what the heck is going on in your brain when you want to write and can't or don't, you're going to love this!

I'm teaching a two-hour class called "Why Is It So Hard To Write Even When I Want To?" Absolutely free!

This and two other classes I'm teaching at Scott County libraries are part of their new "Inkslingers: Writers in the Libraries" series of free writing classes and author visits in October and November made possible with funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Funding.

You have your choice of six different two-hour classes:

Writing Life for Teens taught by Kate St. Vincent Vogl
Beginning Memoir: Finding Your Story taught by Angela Foster
Making It Real taught by Kate St. Vincent Vogl
The Creative Process taught by Rosanne Bane
Getting Started taught by Rosanne Bane
Why Is It So Hard to Write Even When I Want To? taught by Rosanne Bane

Read more about the classes I'm teaching in the InkSlingers series...

Writing Classes Worth Paying For

With all those free writing classes to choose from at the libraries, why pay for a class?

Because multi-week Loft classes give you what the free ones can't: consistency, continuity and more content.

My Writing Habit class, for example, gives you a chance to experiment and fine-tune the Process, Self-care and Product Time habits that will sustain your writing, not just in the 6 weeks we have together, but long afterward.

Read more... including info on Loft discounts and scholarships.

Adventures in Publishing: What's New with AWB

October 2011: I asked all the coaching clients and students whose Success Stories add so much to my book for final approval of the way they're quoted. Their replies, updates, good wishes and wonderful notes remind me how lucky I am to work with such talented writers and artists.

September 2011: I completed the revision and sent Draft 3 to Gaby on my target date, August 31. I feel satisfied, grateful I have an editor who has the time and inclination to really edit my book and help me make it the best it can be, tired, and if I'm completely honest, a little sad.

I see now that those extra things I fantasized I'd get around to putting in the book aren't going to happen. I'm letting go of fantasy and embracing reality -- it's a good reality, a really wonderful reality actually, but it's not as sparkly, star-studded, and popping with fireworks as the fantasy.

August, 2011: After a brief squall of resistance, I see how Gaby's suggestions will make the book much stronger. I get past the initial inertia and into to the flow. I remember what I love about revising.

July, 2011: Gaby and I discuss revisions and select a new subtitle, Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writing Resistance* with this sub-subtitle: *Including Writer's Block, Procrastination, Paralysis, Perfectionism, Postponing, Distractions, Self-Sabotage, Excessive Criticism, Overscheduling and Endlessly Delaying Your Writing.