From the monthly archives:

April 2010

A Little Help from My Friends

April 26, 2010
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The writing life requires a certain amount of self-starting. After all, unless we’re writing for class or a client, who cares whether we finish writing that poem, novel, script, or whatever? Our friends and loved ones do. Because they care about us. And they know that our writing matters to us – even when we’re [...]

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Productivity or Procrastination?

April 24, 2010
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One of my greatest struggles lies in tearing myself away from my practical responsibilities to spend time on my writing. Work and family can eat up every spare second. How can I carve out enough time for my personal passions? This quest has led me to read a number of books designed to help me [...]

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Discipline Meets Creativity

April 23, 2010
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Writing is a creative process, a form of artistic expression. Granted, some endeavors are more so than others, but you get the picture. The whole creativity thing sometimes stymies my writing because I feel like brilliant words should flow from my pen in an inspired stream. They don’t. Just yesterday, in fact, I was telling [...]

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Literal (and Literary) Marathons

April 12, 2010
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I recently registered to run the 2010 New York City Marathon on November 7. My reasons for wanting to run the marathon are complex, and 2010 will be the year, despite the fact that I’ve been deferring my entry for longer than I care to admit. To help me with my training, I ordered two [...]

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Just Do It

April 8, 2010
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Some years ago, I picked up The Write-Brain Workbook. Most likely, I had forgotten to return a reply card to the Writer’s Digest Book Club, but I was happy with this purchase nonetheless. Bonnie Neubauer’s colorful workbook offers 366 short exercises “to liberate your writing.” Bold images combine with intriguing story starters to fire up [...]

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An Amazing Jolt

April 5, 2010
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Today was the day. Out of the blue, my husband re-entered our home, announcing that I had a package from Akashic books: advance copies of the anthology with my short fiction debut. It was an amazing feeling. In fact, I haven’t been able to focus since, and he brought the package in maybe three hours [...]

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