A couple of days ago, I wrote a post titled, Where Do You Get Bogged Down? I wrote about how there are several potential landmines on the way to getting words onto the page. Bursting with excitement for writing, you schedule a session, but somehow it never gets done. Because one of several things might […]
The space between wanting to write and actually writing can feel like a yawning chasm, or a huge abyss. We all carry stories within us and for some it becomes an urgent need to get those stories out. Gregg Levoy, the author of the book, Callings, told a story at a conference years ago that […]
Today marks the start of what I hope will be a regular feature–the guest post. I’m thrilled that my first guest poster is none other than Roy Burkhead himself. I have Roy to thank for my career in teaching, since he hired me originally to teach at the Loft. He’s a damn fine writer himself, […]
I spent all yesterday without the internet. This is like making Scarlett O’Hara live without Tara or my pug live without food or a gambler live without Las Vegas. Not only that, we were without television and the land-line, too. Now, nobody ever answers the land-line, I have a cell phone, and I rarely watch […]
It has happened again, this time in my own backyard. You’d think after the brouhaha that surrounded the James Frey case a couple years ago that both authors and publishers would be extra careful about what they put into a book called a memoir. I mean, c’mon people, when you call it a memoir we […]
I wrote about my new gig as co-director of the Writer’s Loft in Tennessee on Friday, and I thought it would be good to post a bit more about it. For the record, its a great writing program, and has proven to fill a need. Say you are a busy professional who’s always had the […]
I have my wonderful friend Candace White to thank for this. (All you writers, artists and self-employed folks who have been frustrated in the past about getting insurance ought to call Candace. She’ll call you “y’all” and offer you vodka and make you tortilla soup and coconut cake and when all the important stuff is […]
Well, the meeting about the ghostwriting may have been a terrible debacle but I did get some excellent news yesterday. The writing certificate program I teach at in Nashville (actually it is part of the Continuing Education Department at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro) has, of late, been….how shall I say this delicately….well, it […]
I’ve written about critiquing before. (I know, I know, the good blogging thing to do would be to look back and find all the links–because it was a multi-part series–but getting a post up is all I’m good for after the day I’ve had. Update: I caved. See the end of this post for links. […]
I’ve been a bit stuck on my novel recently. I’m still not very far into it, only within the first 50 pages and so I’m at that point where getting stuck could have dire consequences, ie, the whole damn thing could fall apart. When one gets stuck in the early stages of writing a novel […]
