And it was a new day.

Our July workshop may be over but it is not forgotten.

Saturday :
1. Jon and I led an experiment in writing perspective, in which we took on the same subjects from two opposing viewpoints - introspective and what Jon calls ‘extraspective’. Some preferred the inward take, some the outward, but everyone had a favorite, and there were plenty of surprises.
2. Deniz Perin ran a section on Characterization, where we let the magic of Ocean Beach’s scene give us characters that we brought to life.
3. Jon tied into Deniz’s exercise with an experiment in audience consideration. He believes in writing for one person, and challenged us to narrow our own focus when writing to appeal strongly to a singular interest, rather than trying to please everyone.
4. Deniz led us on an archaeological expedition into OB where we unearthed modern relics and fictionalized their history. How did it get here, and why, and who brought it?
5. I led the final exercise of the day, in which we faced our worst fears and turned them into fictionalized absurdities.

On Sunday we were joined by guest writer Jenny Minniti-Shippey.

Sunday :
1. “Thieves in the Grass” was Jenny’s first exercise. We took lines from poems that we love and melded them with our own to form new poems.
2. Deniz challenged us to “draw the landscape.” Many of us were inspired by the ocean, the pier or the sand. I personally described the palm tree we were under - “…the bark of the tree does not have the initials of couples in love etched into it. It might, but not today.”
3. Jenny’s second challenge was to create a “how to” list, explaining how to do simple things : eating potato chips, doing a push up, lifeguarding the beach.
4. Jenny showed us how to utilize the strong voice from the Biblical chapter of Genesis to create our own authoritative pieces - And it was good.
5. Jon led an editing exercise that he called “Pass the Rock”, in which we took suggestions made by our fellow writers and dove into the process of editing our favorite piece from the weekend.

Our participating writers had good things to say!

Steve said, “Thank you for a great weekend workshop! Very inspiring!”

Nicole said, “As an inexperienced writer, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the workshop. I was pleasantly surprised. I found it to be fun, interesting and challenging.”

Amen.

We are currently planning our August weekend which will be held the weekend of August 23rd and 24th. Please, take the next step in your writing career and join us!

The second-ever Creative Cusp workshop is this weekend, July 19th and 20th. There is still time to sign yourself (and your friends) up for two days of free-writing exercises led by experienced writers and publishers :

Abbie Berry

Jon Oropeza

Deniz Perin

Jenny Minniti-Shippey

Ocean Beach is ready for us. The grass, the blankets, chairs and towels, our little selves spewing words and ideas. I’m excited!

Jon and I are looking forward to meeting everyone. Deniz will be back from her time abroad and Jenny has been excited about joining us for quite some time. It’s a win/win.

So bring your journal and be ready to write. We’ll use the heat, the people, the setting and our hearts to come up with new ideas and new characters.

Are you ready?

- Abbie is a co-founder of The Creative Cusp and believes that words are the answer to sanity. So write people! Write!

I get you to lunch and pitch you with my next big idea.

“Dude,” I say, “I’ve got this great idea for a cafe. It’ll be just like a Starbucks. We’ll serve all the same drinks. Lots of milk and sugar bombs, high caff. Skimp a little on the coffee, cause who cares, right? Well-lit. Jazz on in the background. Cute little tables and couches. Modern look. And I’m going to open right next to a Starbucks, too! Only it won’t be Starbucks, it’ll be Jonbucks. I even drew my own green mermaid. Only it looks more like a manatee. What do you think?”

You’re a friend of mine. What are you going to tell me? Good luck? Or are you going to try to talk me out of it? I mean, it sounds pretty preposterous, right? A fake Starbucks, right next to the real thing? Who’s going to go there?

If you were a good friend you’d slap me silly and tell me not to quit my day job.

What I want to know is this : Why aren’t we good friends to our fellow writers?

Why do we encourage our friends to write the next Great American Memoir? Why don’t we tell them to write it to a focused audience? Why do we tell them, hey, finish it, print out a dozen copies and send it to all the big houses? Because you never know! Maybe your Starbucks will be even more Starbucksy than the real Starbucks!

Yeah right.

I’m writing this from Caffe Calabria. There’s a Bucks just down Uni and another just up 30th. And yet Calabria is packed. Could it be because Calabria, instead of trying to be Starbucks, has made a hard choice on who its target audience is? And, having defined who it wants and needs to be, it’s able to focus on being the best possible coffee house for that audience?

It’s an idea…

- Jon O

Jon Oropeza is a local writer, an enthusiast of San Diego fiction and a contributor to the Creative Cusp project.