January 2025 Newsletter
Hello Writers!
Happy New Year and welcome to the first newsletter of 2025!
Are you thinking about setting some writing goals for 2025? Writer’s Digest tells us, “it can be helpful to journal and reflect on how the previous year went and what you’d like to see happen in the year to come.” Here are some of their journaling prompts:
What was your biggest writing accomplishment in 2024? How does it make you feel to think about it?
What was the biggest challenge you came up against in 2024? What did you learn from it?
How do you feel about your writing heading into 2025? What are you most excited about? What makes you apprehensive?
What’s one way you can set yourself up for success this year?
Read on to find more motivation, news from the guild, your monthly writing prompt, and guild events!
Motivation
Want better writing habits? Try applying one or two of the principles from Atomic Habits by James Clear. The book is a fairly quick read and can help you break monumental habits (the kind you think you can do, but can rarely follow through on for more than a couple of times) into bite-size pieces. For example, instead of assigning yourself an hour of writing every day, assign yourself three sentences. Audio, digital and hard copy are available through the Winding Rivers Library System.
Send your motivational memes, tips, tricks, and resources to mvwguild@gmail.com
Victory! News from the Guild
David and Phyllis Beckman from the Tuesday Edition critique group have had a number of poems published in Franciscan Spirituality Center’s Reflections from the Center. Phyllis has been submitting since May 2015 and has had 40 poems posted. David has been submitting since December 2022 and has had 8 poems posted. Read them at https://atthecenterreflections.blogspot.com/.
ReWrites member Tracy Schuldt Helixon joined the 12x12 Picture Book Challenge and met the goal of writing twelve picture book manuscripts in 2024. Next up? Time to revise and submit!
Have a victory you want to share? Let us know!
Writing Prompt
Inspired by the annual Wisconsin Sijo Poetry Writing Competition, or WiSiJo (위시조), try your hand at writing some Sijo! Sijo is a traditional Korean poetic form that is both easy to learn and fun to write—think haiku, but with subtleties that are more easily translated into English:
1st line: theme
2nd line: elaboration
3rd line: a counter-theme and conclusion.
Sijo traditionally explores cosmological, metaphysical, or pastoral themes and consists of 14-16 syllables per line:
So they say there was a gale and frosty snow fell last night?
And the spreading pines were all broken and overthrown?
In that case how about the flowers, what chance have they to bloom?
–Yu Eung-bu (d. 1456)
Submit your Sijo to the competition by January 20th. Find more information at https://sejongculturalsociety.org/wisijo/.
Guild Events
Winter Write-In
When: Saturday, January 11, 1-4 p.m.
Where: Viterbo University, Reinhart Center Room 134
What: We will intersperse writing time with helpful tips and tricks for jumpstarting a project and moving it along. Vision boards, character sheets and writing sprints are all on the menu. This event is free to MVWG members and only $15 for non-members. This event is a BYOBS (beverage and snack). We'll provide the space and agenda, all you need to do is show up with your writing supplies.
Register at: https://forms.gle/9bubtG8Vg1Jkz2WC7
Help us plan more events by completing the member survey!
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