The Six Secrets of Creative Non-Fiction

By
William Powers
on March 29th, 2011 | | No Comments

The Six Secrets of Creative Non-Fiction:

A Workshop with William Powers

Saturday, April 16, 9am-3:30pm

Location: Santa Fe, NM; Specific location to be confirmed

Participation Fee: $95 registration fee (includes lunch); $85 without lunch; $40 optional 1/2 hour personal writing consultation following workshop on Saturday or on Sunday, April 17

Contact and registration: melissa@williampowersbooks.com

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Creative nonfiction is the genre of vivid true stories, told using dialogue, beats, scenes and other techniques normally used by poets and novelists.  Whether it’s memoir, essay or narrative journalism (like travel writing), creative nonfiction gives you the power to capture real life with the intensity of cinema and the integrity of fact.

In this day-long course, William Powers uncovers the six basic elements to unleash your core creativity and publish this year.  These elements include but are not exclusive to:

Story Craft and Technique: Plot, character, dramatic momentum.  The source of all drama.  The few dramatic forces that create compelling real life stories.

The Creative Process: Overcoming doubt, fear, and panic. Techniques to overcome resistance, stop fighting yourself, and get the flow going the moment you sit down.

The Essence of Real Life Characters: What’s needed to bring characters to life in all their depth and complexity. How to make the deepest, most personal connection to your characters.

Self-Coaching and Self-Editing: Learn to stop torturing yourself when it doesn’t come out the way you wanted.  Learn to trust your own emotional radar to find that dramatic potential that’s always in your work and learn how to use it to bring your story to life on the page.

Rewriting Techniques: Turning drudgery into excitement and inspiration. Rewriting is the best part. Once you know how, rewriting becomes re-exciting.

Managing Time: Where to find it (yes, it’s there) and how to use it. Learn how to write the first draft of a novel in just minutes a day in one year, regardless of your busy schedule, and have fun doing it.

Powers has developed an effective teaching style he’s developed through a blend of Montessori, Howard Gardner, and various meditative / contemplative traditions.  The course will also include tips for marketing finished work.

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About the Instructor:

William Powers is an accomplished author and teacher of creative nonfiction.  He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Sun, and Slate, among other publications, and has appeared on

Writing workshop with Bill in Santa Fe

NPR’s Fresh Air, Newsweek, ABC and NBC TV.  He has taught and continues to teach at many writing conferences around the country.  Powers is author of Blue Clay People and Whispering in the Giant’s Ear, both from Bloomsbury-Macmillan, and the new memoir, Twelve by Twelve, a Library Journal national “Green Living” Bestseller now in its fourth printing.

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Registration:

If you are interested in joining us for an inspiring day of writing and reflection with William Powers, contact melissa@williampowersbooks.com to register.

Full payment, or a minimum deposit of $45, will hold your space in the workshop. Kindly send a check made out to William Powers to the following address:

c/o The Drapers/ 2327 Calle Halcon/ Santa Fe, NM 87505

Registration will close on April 13, 2011.

The Multiplex of War

By
William Powers
on March 27th, 2011 | | Comments (2)

“We now have wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. They call it a ‘theater’ of war but this is a multiplex.” –David Letterman

                 I just talked to my mother, who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She quipped that President Obama’s declaration that we “are not at war with Libya” is akin to a former president’s declaration that he “did not have sexual relations” with a certain woman.

                “We’re bombing the heck out of them,” my mother said. “That’s not a declaration of war?”

                True, Gadhafi’s not the nicest of guys. But why do we always have to be so trigger happy? Why does violence—deadly force against other human beings—have to be the solution to so many of the globe’s challenges?

                It’s partly because of Eisenhower’s classic warning about the military-industrial complex. We— and other so-called “advanced countries”— have all those fun, pricy war toys and gosh-darn we’re going to use them. Then we can make more.

                There’s also a dose of adventurism. This new room in the multiplex of war creates a drama, a distraction. (Where are the Libyan rebels today? Give me the play-by-play.) It keeps our mind off a radioactive Japan.

                Today I’m thinking of some of our wiser custodians of the true American Dream. Of Thoreau and Emerson, of Leopold and Ed Abbey. Simplify. Less is more. Turn the other cheek. Come into harmony with nature and ourselves.

                In the meantime, I had to chuckle over the poster my mother told me she’s making. She’s going to hold it up at a protest in front of the mall in Chapel Hill. It reads: “I’m already against the next war.”

What's coming to the multiplex next?

News from Bolivia

By
William Powers
on March 21st, 2011 | | No Comments

Saludos from Bolivia!  I’ve been down here since early January, living in a small, ecologically-balanced village at the elbow of the Andes, where it meets the Amazon.  Here, I’ve been finishing a draft of my new book —a novel, tentatively entitled, The Earth Room— when not rounding up tadpoles with my beautiful 6 year-old daughter, Amaya.

Andean villages in Bolivia

I return to the U.S. on March 23, and have a number of speaking engagements and readings scheduled, starting with a lecture at the University of New Mexico on March 25.  You can CLICK HERE to access the complete list of my upcoming events.

I’m happy to report that Twelve by Twelve rose to the Library Journal National “Green Living” Bestseller List and goes into its 4th printing later this month.  From the e-mails you’ve sent and Facebook Page conversations, I’m also delighted to see how the ideas in the book have led to concrete changes in so many people’s lives, from actions as simple as using a SunShower on the porch and driving less / biking more, to decisions to downsize and even move off-grid.  Others have written that they’ve positively integrated the more “spiritual” practices in the book —like the physician’s see-be-do concept— into their daily lifestyles.

In other news, a Hollywood producer contacted me, saying that he’s interested in making Twelve by Twelve into a feature film.  His idea is to “ping the collective unconsciousness of 500 million young people around the world,” introducing them to the joys and trials of off-grid living and ecological community.

The End of China’s Famed Work Ethic?

By
William Powers
on March 13th, 2011 | | Comment (1)

Many who have read Twelve by Twelve have told me they loved the concept of the Leisure Ethic, particularly the idea of working 24/7 (24 hours a week, 7 months a year).

However, a lot of people ask: What about China? Even if we decide to chill out and give the environment a breather by consuming less, won’t Chinese over-consumption overwhelm the planet?

More and more Chinese identify with the statement: “Don’t think about money or fame, just live a life that suits your own tastes.” And it’s related to moving from “underdevelopment” to “enough”– not to overdevelopment.

These Gallup studies shed some new light…read on!

Is China’s Famed “Work Ethic” Waning?

Cranes lit by searchlights at 3:00 a.m. as construction projects proceed around the clock. Near double-digit annual economic growth for the past two decades, with exports increasing 20% per year in the same period. A $1.3 trillion economy that now trails only the United States, Japan, and Germany as a manufacturing power.

China’s staggering economic growth has been fueled not only by the attempt to replace a socialist “command economy” with one built along market lines, but also by an extraordinary commitment to hard work among the people of the Middle Kingdom. Harvard theologian Michael Novak has argued that certain Confucian values are similar to the Protestant work ethic  (1904) — such values help explain the extraordinary performance of China’s economy following economic liberalization. 

What do the Chinese themselves say about their personal values and philosophies? Since 1994, Gallup has asked the people of China which of these six statements comes closest to describing their basic attitude toward life:

  • Work hard and get rich.
  • Study hard and make a name for yourself.
  • Don’t think about money or fame, just live a life that suits your own tastes.
  • Live each day as it comes, cheerfully and without worrying.
  • Resist all evils in the world and live a pure and just life.
  • Never think of yourself, give everything in service to society.

Not surprisingly, the credo “work hard and get rich” is by far the most popular choice, selected by 53% of respondents. About one in four Chinese (26%) opt for “don’t think about money or fame, just lead a life that suits your own tastes,” while less than a tenth of Chinese identify with all the other responses. Perhaps most telling: Only 2% of Chinese choose the collectivist exhortation to “never think of yourself, give everything in service to society.” 

In short, it would appear that the country’s commitment to material self-betterment through hard work is firmly rooted and unchallenged.

Importance of Self-Expression and Leisure Has Increased

However, as material conditions have improved for much of the country’s population in recent years, so has the level of importance attached to non-material self-expression. Since Gallup first started asking this question 10 years ago, the percentage of respondents answering with “work hard and get rich” has declined, from 68% in 1994 to 53% today. Conversely, the percentage describing their personal philosophy as “don’t think about money or fame, just live a life that suits your own tastes” has more than doubled, from 11% in 1994 to 26% this year. Although this shift appears to have halted for the time being — the relative proportions currently advocating these two philosophies are statistically unchanged from Gallup’s 1999 survey — the change across the past decade as a whole has been significant.

There is also a significant division between rich and poor on the issue of personal philosophy, which strongly suggests that the more one’s basic material needs are secured, the more emphasis one is likely to place on the importance of “living a life that suits your own tastes.” 

Among those at the top end of the country’s income distribution — earning annual household incomes greater than 30,000 RMB ($3,625) — only a third say “work hard and get rich” is their personal credo. Even more dramatic is the finding that among all residents of the booming cities of Beijing and Shanghai, no more than a quarter say their primary objective in life is to work hard and get rich, while nearly half (50% and 45%, respectively) aim to lead a life that suits their own tastes.

Conversely, among those in China with annual household incomes below 3,000 RMB ($362), 71% say “work hard and get rich” best describes their view toward life. But it is worth noting that being “rich” is a relative concept. Among the very poorest Chinese, “work hard and get rich” may well equate to “work hard if you wish to feed, clothe, house, and educate your family properly.” 

Similarly, in the far less affluent rural sector, the “work hard and get rich” response overwhelms all other options, with 65% of rural respondents selecting this phrase and only 19% choosing “don’t think about money or fame, just live a life that suits your own tastes.”

Bottom Line

With greater levels of affluence, the importance of the capitalist work ethic begins to erode, and the end becomes self-expression rather than simply the pursuit of money. Given that affluence is increasing dramatically — particularly in urban China — this trend will no doubt take hold more firmly in the China of the future.

© by Richard Burkholder and Raksha Arora, re-posted from gallup.com

Climate Art: The Longitudinal Installation

By
William Powers
on March 8th, 2011 | | No Comments

After mixing paint with soil samples from the Dry Valleys in Antarctica -a region among the most susceptible to climate change- artist Xavier Cortada walked around his installation, which consisted of 24 painted shoes.  While doing so, he recited the words of people from 24 different time zones: “We used to be able to grow everything we want but that has all change,” are the words of Matsapi Nyathi in Zimbabwe; “More than 90 percent of our wetlands have completely dried up,” are those of Alamdar Alamdari of Iran; “I am very frightened.  One thing goes wrong, and the entire system follows,” are the fears of Jair Souto in Brazil (CLICK HERE for full story and all 24 quotes)

Xavier Cortada, "Longitudinal Installation," South Pole, 2007

Mr. Cortada is an artist based in Miami, whose work has been exhibited all around the world.  “My work aims to challenge us to find deeper meaning in our present lives,” he says, “by exploring the paths of those who came before us and our relationship to the natural world.”  Among his array of pieces is “The 150,000-year Journey,” which is also based in the South Pole, Antarctica.  He used moving ice sheet to mark time in order to signify the relationship between nature’s time frame and human time frame, and to demonstrate how “we are simply custodians of the planet who should learn to live in harmony with nature.”

CLICK for more info on Xavier Cortada

The Climate for Renewable Energy

By
William Powers
on March 2nd, 2011 | | No Comments

Invitation for the event

The government of Navarra (a Spanish province) and NYU’s Center for Global Affairs recently co-sponsored an event called, “The Climate for Renewable Energy.”  According to a blog written by Bill Hewitt (CLICK to read the full post), not only does Spain foster over 10% of the world’s installed capacity of wind power, but 100% of Navarra’s energy will be sourced by renewables in 2011!  Locals have even been publicizing their wind farm initiatives in order to galvanize community support.

The event also featured speeches from major energy companies, including NYC-based Con Edison.  Its representative expressed hope for exploring ecological options in New York, such as solar power.  Another speaker discussed China’s efforts towards increased sustainability, while specifying the practical gains that come from using clean technology: more jobs and greater development being several examples.

Twelve by Twelve

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