WordPlayNow

Writing Workshops, Retreats, and Other Services

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  • Home
  • About
    • About WordPlay’s Facilitator, Maureen
    • Contact
    • Read Maureen’s Writing
      • THE TAG, I’M IT! Daily Journal and Practice
      • How Do I Say Goodbye? and Praying You Goodbye
      • Spinning Words into Gold
      • Ten Thousand Cicadas Can’t Be Wrong
      • An essay on the pleasures of reading aloud
    • Workshops Available for Your Group or Organization
  • Offerings
    • Coastal Writing Retreats – 2025
    • Poetry Rocks! Online Course Information
    • The Seven Energies of Writing: Writing with Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit
    • Under Construction: Your Writing
    • Terms, Conditions, and Cancellation Policy
  • Read Maureen’s Writing
    • Spinning Words into Gold
    • THE TAG, I’M IT! Daily Journal and Practice
    • How Do I Say Goodbye? and Praying You Goodbye
    • Ten Thousand Cicadas Can’t Be Wrong
  • Featured WordPlay Writers
    • Featured WordPlay Memoirists/Essayists
      • Meet Melissa Ballard
      • Meet Russell Baskett
      • Meet Ann Campanella
      • Meet Mary Struble Deery
      • Meet Rebecca Gallo
      • Meet Wendy H. Gill
      • Meet Patrice Gopo
      • Meet Caroline Castle Hicks
      • Meet Justin Hunt
      • Meet Carol Injaychock
      • Meet Lova Lantz
      • Meet Richard London
      • Meet Marann Mincey
      • Meet Melissa Kotler Schwartz
      • Meet Savannah Stoner
    • Featured WordPlay Fiction/Nonfiction Writers
      • Meet Valerie Althoff
      • Meet Lloyd Edwards
      • Meet Kathryn Thorson Gruhn
      • Meet Mary Killian
      • Meet Jennifer Larson
      • Meet Barbara Linney
      • Meet Kristen Oliver
      • Meet Vidya Murlidhar
      • Meet Ben Romine
      • Meet Lisa Otter Rose
      • Meet Carol Staton
      • Meet Kim Love Stump
      • Meet Pat Veasey
    • Featured WordPlay Poets
      • Meet Cheryl Boyer
      • Meet Thelma Cooper
      • Meet Sarah Lowther Henderson
      • Meet Lyn Hopper
      • Meet Justin Hunt
      • Meet Barbara Mayer
      • Meet Edward Middleton
      • Meet Jane Pfefferkorn
      • Meet Linda Whitesitt
  • Reads & Reviews
    • WordPlay-Recommended Writing Books
    • WordPlay-Recommended Fiction
    • WordPlay-Recommended Nonfiction
    • WordPlay-Recommended Memoir
    • Writing to Heal by Vivé Griffith
  • Welcome to Floating Leaf Press!
  • The word is… “beautiful” — featuring Savannah Stoner
WordPlayNow

Read Maureen’s Writing

Books, Essays, and Poems by A Writer Who Teaches, Coaches, Consults, and Publishes…

BOOKS

Spinning Words Into Gold

Spinning Words into Gold (Writing Handbook)

 Grief Rituals

How Do I Say Goodbye? and Praying You Goodbye (Guided Journals/Companions in Grief, Healing, and Gratitude)

Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't be Wrong

Ten Thousand Cicadas Can’t Be Wrong (Poetry)

The Year-Long TAG, I'M IT!

The TAG, I’M IT! Daily Practice (inspirational; Journal)

The Three-Month TAG, I'M IT! Practice

The Three-Month TAG, I’M IT! Practice

The TAG, I'M IT! Lenten Practice

The TAG, I’M IT! Lenten Practice

ESSAYS

“Getting Used 2 Texting” in Charleston Style & Design

“Reading Aloud” for WFAE

“The Kindness of Strangers” in Strangers I Have Known

“The Gift of Wings” in Today’s Charlotte Woman

POEMS

“Desire” in Charlotte Viewpoint

“Witness” in Charlotte Viewpoint

“Nothing Is Ordinary” in Charlotte Viewpoint

Ten Thousand Cicadas Can’t Be Wrong (Poetry)

Maureen-Ryan-Griffin

Photo by Donna Foster

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WordPlay Success Story
Meet Kim Love Stump

“Maureen’s guidance is bringing my dream of being a writer to life—one assignment, one class, one submission at a time.” 

"Providence. Serendipity. Synchronicity. Whatever you prefer to call it, I experienced it when I signed up for Writing to Heal with Maureen Ryan Griffin in 2010. I chose the class, not because of the subject matter, but in spite of it. I wanted to take a writing class and the time worked best for my schedule, that was all. At least that's what I told myself.

In reality, I was carrying a constant weight of sadness from my mother's death two years earlier. Through the course and Maureen's tutelage, I experienced writing that healed my heart. The course was structured around writing about our personal pain or loss, but not just about that. Maureen encouraged me, and all of us in the class, to write about a variety of subjects and to try all kinds of writing: prose and poetry, lists and letters. By the end of the short course I felt as if the vise that had a perpetual grip on my heart had been unwound. I could breathe again.

Since that first class, I have participated in eight WordPlay "Under Construction" sessions. This has provided me with inspiration and encouragement, as well as laugh-out-loud fun and joy. It has also been very productive. I have completed a young adult fantasy novel, A Clearing in the Forest, that I have wanted to write for over a decade. Maureen's guidance is bringing my dream of being a writer to life — one assignment, one class, one submission at a time."

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