This morning as we finished breakfast, my dad spotted a bear nosing around a fresh pile of top soil by the front deck. Mom, Sabastian, and I ran to the porch window. A small bear, in his second summer, looked around the property.  He shuffled into the bush by the outhouse. Then the bear popped out in the long weeds, at the edge of the small sandy bay in front of the cottage.  

Dad went out on the deck to get a picture. We watched the bear wade into the water. At the shoreline, he moved in half circles, on all fours through the water. Left, then right. Right, then left he swerved. 

He swam out to the second ring of weeds, where the water is about a metre deep.  The bear plunged his head under the water. When he came up there was something in his mouth. Dad grabbed the binoculars and reported that a ten pound channel catfish was in the bear’s mouth. The fish didn’t move.

As I fumbled with the camera, the bear galloped into the bush with his catch.  What an incredible sight to see the circle of life in action!

I took McKee’s Story Seminar in 2004.  Thirty hours of instruction in three days.  I left the course feeling exhilarated.  His teachings filter through my writing and his voice often rises to the surface in the classes I teach.  Today while I was surfing I found this inspiring quote. Just reading it filled me up with a renewed sense of purpose for my creative projects.  I consider Robert McKee to be one of my most influential writing teachers.

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.”–Robert McKee

Who are your writing teachers?

Are you looking for lesson plans and creative teaching ideas?  Sorry, they’ve been moved. I’m in the process of transferring them over to The English Tree: Resources for English Teachers.  I apologize for any inconvenience. 

I believe it’s important for educators to share resources. I created the new site to share some lessons and activities that have worked in my English classroom. It is my twelfth year teaching. I have taught Grade 9-12 English, 9-12 Dramatic Arts, and 9-12 Vocal Music. You’ll see my love of the arts flowing through these resources. I hope the site is helpful to you.

The English Tree: Resources for English Teachers

Today I had the pleasure, honour, and thrill of speaking at the Spirit of the Hills writers’ breakfast in Grafton.  It was humbling to be among such accomplished writers. I thought that I should be the one learning from them. 

I spoke about how to adapt a novel into a screenplay. My talk centered on the teachings of Robert McKee, Syd Field, and Christopher Keane.  We looked at the common elements among the forms (novel, play, and screenplay) and then the elements that differentiate the forms.  We had a lively discussion about adaptations that worked well (i.e., The English Patient, Harry Potter, Bridget Jones’ Diary). I hope to dig deeper into this topic over the upcoming months to create a new scriptwriting workshop on adaptations for winter 2011.

Thank-you for inspiring me Spirit of the Hills!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

10 am to 4 pm

Instructor: Jessica Outram

Location: TBA (Durham Region)

$85 ($75 for WCDR Members)

Minimum 6 participants

A “must-attend” workshop for writers of all levels and interests!   Use the bones of playwriting to strengthen your fiction and screenplays. Blending heaps of information, writing exercises, and improvisation, this workshop is highly beneficial for all story writers.

www.sunshineinajar.com

Contact: sunshineinajar@ymail.com

As the return to work creeps closer with each sunrise, I think about time. I’ve always been a time management junkie, reading Stephen Covey for strategies, reading Wayne Dyer for balance, experimenting along the way.  I bought a Blackberry mostly for its calendar!

I long for the feeling of time I had as a child, when the days seemed to stretch across continents.  William Wordsworth writes: “Sweet childish days, that were as long, As twenty days are now.” 

The spirit of sunshine in a jar is to honour our time with meaning and joy. 

Last week, I turned off the Internet and the television to write.  I went for walks. I read. I went on retreat. This is the third summer I go on retreat. Four writers and I rent a space in the Madawaska area and we write and share and give feedback.  It’s like spending a week in a literary wonderland.

Now that I am home, I wonder how to hold onto my writing routine, how to resist the television and facebook and twitter and online news, how to be present in my writerly mind and in my relationships.

Alexander Graham Bell says: “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

My plan is to focus on two major writing projects:

• Anthology of Cottage Stories
• Sunshine in a Jar: A Life History

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.  ~Agatha Christie

How do you decide where to focus your creative energies?

This morning I went online and googled my name.  I browsed through different links marked with Outram. I found schools in Hong Kong, a British General named Sir James Outram (1803-63) who entered the Bombay Army and fought in the first Afghan War.  Sir James Outram is buried in West Minster Abbey. I found Mount Outram in the Canadian Rockies (like, omg, an actual mountain!), named after a climber and British Clergyman named James Outram in 1901.

I found an Ontario sleigh company called Outram Cutter, a suburb of New Zealand called Outram, a poet named Richard Outram, Outram Fuels from Lindsay, Outram Road Prison in Japan.

 I found The Outram Hotel at 32 Outram Street in West Perth, Australia, with a special called The Outram.   I came across a play in Singapore called “I Left My Heart at Outram Park.” And, Outram Park is indeed a place in Singapore. I found the Outram Family Crest.

I found 36,400 results for an  Outram Road Map.  I found an English soprano named Rebecca Outram, John Outram a British architect, a photographer named Steve Outram, and a riverfront trip in Outram, Ghat, Calcutta.

With each click I found new connections to my name. I found a site called Outram Institute which is a ministry funded pre-university school in Singapore. I found an African Hunter who became Captain George Outram and served with the 25th Bn. Royal Fusiliers in East Africa.

In less than an hour, my name stretched across the globe and through time.

What’s in your name?

This past winter I took a graduate class in Expressive Writing at the University of Toronto. The course pushed me to write nearly every day while balancing a full-time job. I learned about story structure, sentence building, and most of all, I learned about myself. I wrote about my work as a teacher, my family, and our cottage. As you may know, my two plays “Once Upon a Rocking Chair” and “Hunt Week” were set at the cottage too. I noticed I write about the things I treasure. I’m inspired by people and place. Landscape, childhood, history, family, weather, animals, relationship, secrets, tradition, and interconnectedness weave through my cottage experience. Canadian cottage country is rich with story.

I want to capture the spirit of cottage life, outdoor life, and/or camping life in an anthology of fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. I want to celebrate the Canadian landscape, our families and friends, and provocative, interesting, tragic, hilarious memories. And, I think there is a market for our stories. When I am up north I crave local art and stories. The art is easy to find, but the collections of stories and poems are few.

I’d be thrilled if you’d join me in this project. Please send your submissions via email for consideration. Click here for more details.

Kevin Craig has been selected to write a masterpiece in 25 hours, a one act play. I am honoured and thrilled to direct his creation. I hope you can come out and support this outstanding event. Check for more information next month.

The “25-Hour Masterpiece” will showcase seven different performing art forms: a one-act play, short story, poem, dance, song, video and improv. Each performance will be the culmination of 25 hours of creative energy. At 6 PM Friday September 24 each creator will be given a specific instruction: it may be a phrase, item or theme. They will have 25 hours to create their masterpiece, built around the assigned theme.

These masterpieces will be premiered as part of the Gala Event the following evening, Saturday September 25th, at the Uxbridge Music Hall. Click here for more information.

On Tuesday, November 9 I will present at the Ontario School Counsellors’ Association (OSCA) Conference, Navigating Tomorrow. Please see page 28 of the conference descriptions. I hope to see you there!

E – 11 Using Drama for Social Change

This workshop will focus on using techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed to ignite social change in schools. The activities can be used to encourage students to work through challenges in regards to diversity, conflict, bullying, and various character development themes. This is a hands-on workshop. Participants will also be given resources to begin working with groups in schools on fostering communities of respect. By using Drama, students can work towards personal success and learn about themselves and difficult topics from the inside-out. Theatre of the Oppressed has been recognized by UNESCO as a tool for social change.