While I’m in France, teaching writing, sitting by the Mediterranean, eating good cheese and bread, and drinking lots of wine, I’m offering either a collection of writing prompts, story starters, or exercises each week. This week, I have something a little different—a journaling technique you might find useful. Enjoy! So here goes. My current favorite […]
I'm an off-and-on journaler. I've had periods in my life–long stretches, like ten years–when I got up every day and wrote in a journal first thing. (And to prove it, I've got three huge tubs of them.) I've also had journaling droughts, where I don't actively write in a diary. Article after article suggests that […]
I mentioned process writing recently in another post but I want to look at it more in depth today. Why? I'll tell you why. Because I've realized that nearly all of my product writing has its origins in process writing. As in, blog posts, articles, and notes for scenes flowing from my pen. As in, […]
I often talk about the benefits of being present, quiet and mindful–not only as a way to focus on your writing, but when you're out and about in the world, so that you can observe things in order to write about them. (Brief aside: I'm typing with one of my fingers bandaged after slicing it […]
It's December, I'm in a holiday mood (my Christmas tree is already up and I'm in the process of finishing the decorating) so I've decided to give things away. Not just once, but four times. Here's how its going to work: on Monday, I'll announce the prize and ask a question related to writing. You […]
At the beginning of this week, I wrote about fear. As I've progressed through the week, feeling much better about life, I've also been reading SARK's latest book, Glad No Matter What. She writes about a process for clearing out fear and other nasty emotions that plague us. First you write a Mad page (or […]
Yesterday, I wrote about attending a private performance by Shawn Mullins. I wrote about how, at every concert that means anything to me, at some point early on I get a thrill through the very core of me that means I'm connecting to the music in a profound way. That thrill is the same impulse […]
First there was the story I read online about how the Northwest, including Portland, could expect a major earthquake of the sort that just decimated Chile sometime in the next 50 years. I hate earthquakes. I expect the earth beneath my feet to stay steady, thank you very much. Then I watched a little bit […]
I'm reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. In case you haven't heard of him, he's the marketing genius who built his father's liquor business from four million in sales to fifty million in sales in just eight years. How did he do it? Mainly through video blogging, with his show, Wine Library TV, and the […]
Yesterday I had jury duty. I resisted, mightily. Perhaps it is because I'm called to serve on jury duty more than anybody else on this planet. This was my third time, and I've gotten excused from service several times before, when my children were little. I know people who have never gotten a summons, ever. […]
