Have you ever talked about a story so much that you then could never write it? I have. When I was a newer writer, this happened to me several times. Sometimes it was in one-on-one conversation, but mostly it happened in a critique group I attended. I loved that critique group, adored the people in […]
Yesterday, based on a workshop I'm going to be presenting next week in Nashville, I wrote a post on The Benefits of Writing. So today's topic is the opposite–the benefits of not writing every day. Here's the deal: there are none. Kidding! Well, sort of. Everyone is different and needs to find a process that […]
I've been working, the last few days, on writing the workshop I'll be giving in Nashville next weekend. I base this workshop on my Writing Abundance: Seven Practices of the Prolific and Prosperous Writer system. Each one I do focuses on several different practices, so I always end up going back over the whole thing. […]
As we start off this wonderful new year (I'm optimistic, aren't I?) I would like to find out more about what you like and dislike about this blog. I'm curious to know why you read it and what you get out of it, as well as a bit about how your read it. So, I've […]
I recently found a pillow I made ten years ago, when I attended Creativity Camp led by Julia Cameron, author of the Artist's Way (as if you didn't know that). The camp was great, life-changing, really, particularly in that I met a couple of people who I remain friends with to this day. The way […]
This morning I was making soup to take to a celebration (which turned into a wake) to watch the Ducks play in the Rose Bowl, and I thought, Maybe I'll become a cook." You know, it's a new year, why not go for a whole new career? I could totally do it, especially if I turned […]
Yesterday, in Part Three* of my series on journaling, I wrote about four types of journal writing that I find useful. There are an infinite number of techniques you can use for effective journaling, and I may well write about others in the future. But for now, I've chosen to discuss the ones I […]
If the title of this post sounds familiar, its because it is….I wrote a post called The Writing Life: It's Raining in Nashville back in September when last I was here. It rained hard then, and it is raining hard once again today. (Above: View of labyrinth from my room at Scarrritt-Bennett) Personally, I […]
The task of a novelist is to tell a story so riveting that it will hold a reader’s attention for hundreds of pages. To do this, the author must first know the story intimately herself—which is the reason we write rough drafts (also known as “discovery drafts” or, my favorite, from the beloved Anne Lamott, […]
