Posts tagged as:

writing

Are You Treating the Problem or the Symptoms?

June 3, 2010
Thumbnail image for Are You Treating the Problem or the Symptoms?

My Facebook friends know all about my recent computer woes. They started when my computer started acting funny. Applications kept crashing. Restarting took several minutes, not seconds – an eternity by Mac standards. My keyboard sporadically stopped working. At my wit’s end, I tried to wipe my hard drive and start afresh. (This was after [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Coping with Curveballs

June 1, 2010
Thumbnail image for Coping with Curveballs

“Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” Apparently, John Lennon was one of the many great minds credited with voicing this fact, which has been replaying in my mind for the past three weeks – minus the one week I spent at Folly Beach near Charleston, S.C.

Share
Read the full article →

Refilling the Well

May 9, 2010
Thumbnail image for Refilling the Well

Earlier this year, I was having a superproductive writing period. Writing most days, cranking out a high word count. Things were going well. Until they weren’t. Somehow I found myself more than 100,000 words in my novel, with no end in sight. What went wrong, and how could I fix it, short of scrapping my [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Should I Wear a Cape?

May 4, 2010
Thumbnail image for Should I Wear a Cape?

Much of the writing process seems to be about putting yourself in a writing state of mind. Several of the entries on this blog cover different ways I lure my writing self to the page: fountain pens, pretty journals, cupcakes, overpriced headphones. What about a writing uniform? I’ve bought NaNoWriMo gear to remind me of [...]

Share
Read the full article →

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

May 1, 2010
Thumbnail image for One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Yesterday, after meeting a friend for breakfast, a creative lightning bolt struck me on Sixth Avenue. I was thinking about our conversation, and it triggered an exciting possibility for my novel. This one element could help me tie up several loose ends, propel the story forward and shrink the bloated piece down to a manageable [...]

Share
Read the full article →

A Little Help from My Friends

April 26, 2010
Thumbnail image for A Little Help from My Friends

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 [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Discipline Meets Creativity

April 23, 2010
Thumbnail image for Discipline Meets Creativity

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 [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Literal (and Literary) Marathons

April 12, 2010
Thumbnail image for Literal (and Literary) Marathons

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 [...]

Share
Read the full article →

Just Do It

April 8, 2010
Thumbnail image for Just Do It

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 [...]

Share
Read the full article →

An Amazing Jolt

April 5, 2010
Thumbnail image for An Amazing Jolt

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 [...]

Share
Read the full article →