Is it just me, or is the New Year’s resolution a peculiarly fearsome ideal? We are graced with yet another year of this mysterious thing we call life, and we decide to celebrate by controlling the living daylights out of it. This year, we promise ourselves, we will constrict or … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, December 26th: The Art of Disappointment
Every now and then, I’ll have what feels like a terrifically successful day of writing – so good that I have trouble falling asleep that night, my mind busy with what will happen next and to whom and how. But then, curiously, I often find myself painfully and suddenly blocked … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, December 19th: The Art of the Gift
There’s no denying the pleasures of giving the right gift, especially in the dark of winter. Giving to someone else, particularly when the gift is unexpected and thoughtful, can be more enriching than anything we might receive. But this time of year – the week before Christmas – … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, December 12th: How’s Your Reception?
Every year around this time, one or more of my children comes home from school with the following old chestnut: “It’s not what you get, Mom, it’s what you give.” And while I absolutely appreciate how this represents a heroic effort, in our consumer culture, to encourage children … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, December 5th: First Flight
Whoever thinks it’s only the mother birds who have to push their children out of the nest in order to get them to fly has never met a ten-year-old boy with a mild cold and school anxiety issues. Mine was pulling all the stops out this morning trying to convince me that … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, November 28th: Voice Lessons
You can’t throw a stone in a writing workshop without hitting a discussion about voice. We’re constantly told how important it is, how we’re supposed to use ours, or maybe find it. Yet most of us sit there silently wondering, what the heck is voice, anyway? I know I came across … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, November 14th: Definitions
As writers, it’s impossible for us to work without definitions. Our very medium requires us to understand how every unit – every word -- of our craft contains and is limited by its meaning. But, I wonder, are we also particularly susceptible to limiting definitions of … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, November 7th: Prompts!
Just this morning, I was describing to my friend Lisa the Parental Law of Averages. It's a little known but fundamental law of maternal physics, but suffice it to say that it boils down to the fact that the one hour you choose not to check your phone is almost always … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, October, 31st: Late Bloomers
I’ve never fully understood the concept of late bloomers. Superficially, I know it refers to those who seem to achieve glory after the ripe old age of twenty-three, but it’s one of those ideas that smack you over the head coming in and then hit you on the bottom going out: a … [Read more...]
Writer’s Log, October 24th: The Linear Trap
I spent most of this month in a holding period on my latest novel: wanting to write, unsure yet of what needed to be written. And while I know that books need to cook every now and then, I wasn’t exactly able to back off gracefully. Instead, my lovely inner martinet showed up … [Read more...]
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