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Welcome. My name is Barbara Kidd Lawing and I live just
north of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is my great privilege to be a
writer and work with writers: individual
editing/revision assistance, classes, performance poetry events, and weekend writing retreats. Details on pages at
left.
 I am often at the microphone or onstage
sharing my poetry. Find my book, 117 Poems, at the online
bookstore: www.mainstreetrag.com. Also
available, a 2005 publication called Tuesday’s Children with
work by 8 NC writers. I edited that book. My portion of it tells what
life was like on Jim and Nettie Kidd’s farm in the 1950s in
northern Mecklenburg County. (My grandparents.)
 I lead freewrite sessions for all ages, plus weekend retreats in a
summer paradise and oceanfront, and a variety of classes from Creative
Writing to Fiction to Storytelling. By computer I work as freelance editor
with people in many states who are preparing their work for
publication.
For Central Piedmont Community College
I instruct Creative Writing for the Contd. Ed. Dept. For Charlotte’s
Levine Jewish Community Center and The Pines at Davidson
I lead writing groups for senior adults. For three performance poetry
groups in Mecklenburg County I am founder/organizer. I often judge
writing contests.
Find here a suggested assignment, samples of my poetry, and the
schedule for classes, retreats and poetry events. If you find the
schedule in need of an update, just contact me.
Also, I’d appreciate your help:
Inform me of opportunities to promote my book and to lead workshops or
seminars. And inform me (locally) of venues where my performance groups
can do guest appearances. We enjoy doing shows for civic clubs and
business organizations. Thanks in advance for your help.
See quotes from editing clients at right.
Please note that the relationship between editor and client is
confidential. I don’t tell until you do. The most recent public
commendation for my editing is a paragraph at the beginning of a
textbook called Child Welfare: Social Work, from Allyn and Bacon
Publishers, Boston. Phillip Popple, with UNC-Charlotte, and Francine
Vecchiolla, with Springfield College in Massachusetts, headed that
project and hired me to do the final edit. I had expected my first
“big” recognition for my editing skills to come when a fiction client
achieved a top-selling book. Was a surprise to find it in a textbook.
My thanks to Phil and Francine.
I love editing fiction best of all. But…most fiction writers aren’t writing
fiction, I’ve discovered. And those who are generally are not willing
to do the number of revisions necessary to get the text ready for
publishing. Please understand that if you are writing your story in
third person and calling it fiction, it is not fiction. Fiction by
definition is “made-up.” (Which isn’t to say that your experience won’t
show up in the fiction. It will.) I suggest that you read Robert Olen
Butler’s From Where You Dream.
Fiction requires a fictional character, a
compelling narrative voice, and much more. A fiction writer lets the
characters tell the story. A fiction writer discovers – is surprised
by! – the story’s details.
(My play – yet to be titled – has me speaking in four fictional
voices. I often write in their voices at freewrite sessions.)
If you want to write your story, go for
memoir. It uses the scene-building and intrigue of narrative voice that
makes good fiction, but it’s your story. Your key to success? The
truth. Step onto the stage (page) with your courage in hand and
tell your truth.
Is poetry what you like to write? Even that I can help with. I can help you
see your strengths and weaknesses in whatever kind of writing you’re
doing. Hope you’ll be in touch. Hope you’ll come to North Carolina for
one of my weekend retreats, or invite me to your writing community to
do a reading. Hope you’ll decide to purchase my 117 Poems. The
book is available at bookstores. If your store does not have it, tell
them to check with their distributors.
I’ll have a CD of readings from my book ready for
market soon.
Thanks for visiting the site. I look forward to hearing
from you. 704-875-6112, bklawing@earthlink.net
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