I need this

 Writers hunker down during a writing exercise at the GWG workshop.



I had no idea how much I needed today's workshop at the Geneva Writers Group. Sitting in a room with 50+ other writers on a spring day with bird song filtering thru the open doors was a reminder and a re-dedication to my craft.


Although I was surprised, I shouldn't have been.

In the 90s, the GWG workshops were a creative lifeline for my writing. My working days at that time were spent helping engineers find the correct electrical standards while working on other organizational communication projects. I would joke as I left for work, "I'm going to make the world safe for electricity."

Although not difficult, spending so many hours not doing what I really wanted to be doing -- writing -- left me drained making conjuring up the ideas that I had had on the walk to work difficult to capture.

Each monthly GWG workshop revitalized my energy that carried me at least halfway to the next month's session.

The last few months locked me into a chemo-induced stupor. The challenge was not to get words from my brain to the computer but to find the energy to walk across the room.

Now with renewed strength I have been trying to refocus but concentration has escaped me.

Words have pounded in my head as before, but they didn't quite make the keyboard.

Yet sitting with those other writers I found myself describing, defining and directing my thoughts. It was if the energy in the room banished the idea that instead of being a writer, I was an ex-writer.

For that I am once again grateful to the GWG.