Author Lauren B. Davis in her Princeton home library. (Photo by Joe Emanski.)

When it comes to writing fiction, Lauren B. Davis has been through it – the triumph of publishing, the confidence alternating with self-doubt, the endless revising and the agony of trying to publish again.

In her Sharpening the Quill writing workshops, held monthly at Camillo’s Cafe in the Princeton Shopping Center, she imparts the experience that comes with publishing four books, including novels The Radiant City and The Stubborn Season, to aspiring writers of all skill levels.

Davis doesn’t like to talk about her latest project – “I find if you talk about what you’re working on, on you won’t write it,” she said – but she writes regularly in her home office in Princeton, surrounded by books and sustained by a wealth of life experience that includes living in France and overcoming alcoholism.

The Montreal native worked full time until she and her husband Ron moved to France for his job. They lived there 10 years, including five in Paris, and in that time she was able to devote time to her writing – and getting sober.

“Really, the last couple of my years drinking I did very little writing, and certainly nothing that was very good,” Davis said. “There’s a saying: ‘Alcohol first gave me wings, then it took away the sky.’ When I could no longer use alcohol, I had to see if I could do it [sober].”

When the Davises were living in Annecy, near the Swiss border, she attended a workshop called the Geneva Writers Group, which she said is similar to her Sharpening the Quill sessions. She looks back on it as a turning point, where she went from someone who hoped of someday being a writer to someone who was being taken seriously as a writer.

“It’s not merely, ‘You will learn to be a better writer’ here,” Davis said of the workshops she leads. “This is a community where you will find support. Writing has certain psychological dangers. You’re working deep, with your own subconscious. It can be dark down there. In those circumstances, the only person who understands you is another writer.”

Workshops start at 10 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. Each morning session consists of a topical lecture by Davis, and each afternoon is spent writing something inspired by the subject matter of the lecture. Lunch (included in the $85-per-session fee) breaks the day into three parts.

Around 30 writers have participated in the workshops since they began in July, and Davis said about 20 attend any given workshop. The group includes writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and memoirs.

“They’re a very diverse group, in terms of age, background and also the sort of things they’re working on,” Davis said.
Regular attendee Vicki Wheeler, a Stockton resident, said Davis has a rare ability to communicate to students exactly what message she wants them to receive.

“I’ve gotten the humor of writing and the love of words she has – the love of making a sentence, of pulling a reader into our writing – hopefully,” Wheeler said.

Davis also teachers creative writing to inmates at the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Facility in Bordentown. She said she finds teaching also has the benefit of making her a better writer.

“It constantly makes me think about craft, constantly makes me go over the same sorts of things I teach my students,” she said. “My students in the Wagner facility, they always think they’re not as good as [other writers], and they are. They think their frustrations are unique to them, but I tell them, ‘Your frustrations are exactly the same as I’m feeling.’”

Sharpening the Quill Writing Workshops are usually held the last Saturday of each month at Camillo’s Cafe, 301 N. Harrison St., No. 10. The next one is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 30; because of Thanksgiving, the November session will be held Dec. 4, and the next session after that is scheduled for January 2011. Participants should bring “something to write with, something to write on, a sense of humor,” Davis said.

On the Web: www.laurenbdavis.com.