Writers Workshop Blues

I'll be blunt. Some days, I need a swift kick in the rear.

I've really not been able to write for quite some time. Oh, I'm getting editing done, sure, but that's nowhere near as fulfilling as finishing a chapter of new content, fresh off the press of my imagination.

Nope, since at least December, it has been all editing work. Maybe a page here and there, but my brain has hit an Ayers Rock, a block in the middle of nowhere; or perhaps I should compare it to Auyantepui, the Devil's Mountain, where, ironically enough, Angel Falls tempts adventurers with a piss-shower from heaven... or hell? Whether I imagine my writers block as a sea cliff, a monolith, or the Great Trango, my metaphors fail to correct the problem of somehow surmounting this impasse.

And of course, I suck at rock climbing.

I thought sitting in with a writer's group would help. I don't know many writers around here, besides a few I've befriended during Nanowrimo. My lack of literary companions leaves me wishing I had made it to more write-ins. (Note to self: get over my social anxiety by next November.)

I was part of the White Knights Writers, but they disbanded before we really got a chance to get started. I'm far too shy to simply sit in with a group I don't know. I never feel "good enough" to be in the presence of such people. It's all about talking, and I communicate via keyboard, not vocalizations. If I could speak that eloquently, I would have gotten into radio.

Workshops can be outrageously brutal to the pocketbook. Tin House Summer Writers Workshop at Reed College costs $1,100 in tuition, meals & lodging $575, plus mentorship is $750-$1,000. A cheaper one is the Write to Publish Workshop at PSU, which is a mere $120 all day, or $35 for each workshop. What's a starving artist to do?

I can't recall my last writing workshop, it's been that long. This is not the longest writer's block I've had, but considering I haven't even been able to write anything more than one short poem and some snarky forum posts, it's perhaps the most complete writer's block.

At least I can read through old stuff, but grammar checks are the tofu to my smorgasbord of creativity. I need a kick in the pants, a stick of dynamite to blast this stupid rock so I can plow through without worrying about carabiners and climbing harnesses.

The best I can do at the moment is blog. That's...pathetic. But at least it's something.

So...anyone know a good writing group in the Portland (preferably Tigard/Tualatin area) with free meetings?