I was in a place last week where there was much talk of getting loved up. Which means, in case you hadn't guessed, beaming love onto a person so that they feel wonderful, amazing and fantastic. And this got me thinking about loving up our writing. Because much of the time we don't. […]
Keep calm and carry on. The saying is a cliche of the highest order by now, its initial message as positive propaganda during World War II long since co-opted for commercial purposes. But for some reason it popped into my head a few days ago and wouldn't leave. Maybe because my life has been anything […]
Consistency. Yawn. The word is much like the word discipline in that it elicits yawns and boredom from us. I mean, who ever got excited about the word consistency? And yet, consistency is how writing gets done. When you have a consistent writing practice, books get written. Blog posts get written. Essays get written. I […]
I'm reading two books about writing at the moment, and together they are making my head explode. In a good way. It's exploding with ideas. The first one is called Wonderbook, and it is by Jeff Vandermeer. I'm only at the very beginning of this baby, having just gotten hold of it last week. This […]
Ah, our old friend writer's block. It can take so many shapes and sizes, just like fear, which it is, of course, based on. And just as writer's block can take a gazillion different forms, so, too, can its cure. Which is why you should try a variety of strategies if you are hit with […]
What, exactly are the essential conditions for writing success you ask? Here's a hint: only you can figure them out for yourself. Let me explain a bit about the type of conditions I'm talking about here. Last month (I guess it's actually last year now) I took an afternoon workshop from a fabulous woman named […]
We've made it to the eve of another Christmas. Not only that, we've sailed through what some feared would be the end of the world and many others felt would be the dawning of a new world, with a different consciousness. There's been quite a bit of darkness along the way. Recent shootings here in […]
We are writers. And writers write. No matter what, we write. No matter if the world seems like it is going crazy or if we're going nuts within, our job is to write. To pour it all out on the page. To be chroniclers and bear witness. And yet. Sometimes this writing, this flinging words […]
Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. It's a day when we pause from our normal routines to eat a lot of turkey and be grateful. Accordingly, the Internet is inundated this week with posts about gratitude. It is not in the least coincidental that my spiritual community has just begun a 21 day gratitude […]
What does it take for you, the writer, to be happy? This is a question much on my mind lately. What does it take for me to be happy? Does having my novel about to be published make me happy? Yes, very. Does not having time to work on my next novel as I finish […]
