creative writing – My Life in Paragraphs

PAUSE. BREATHE. Don’t Respond.

“PAUSE. BREATHE. Don’t Respond.”

This is a sticky note I have pasted to the top of my computer screen. I try to focus on it when I’m on zoom calls or when I read something on social media and feel the irrational urge to SCREAM AT PEOPLE (or cry).

AI and Me (and You)

You may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve refrained from commenting or posting or engaging in discussion of AI. Initially, I just thanked my lucky stars that my kids are already grown and out of school, but secretly I really hoped this was a fad and it would go away.

It hasn’t.

Something Different – A Murder Mystery!

I don’t think I’m unique in my writerly tendency to find stories just about anywhere. I think it’s a human tendency. Although this one was a little different from the stories I normally tell (there were no dogs involved). It would involve police and investigators and maybe a murder mystery!

It all started on an average Sunday in which Nick and I found ourselves spending the entire day taking care of things at our two rental houses.

Why the Five Paragraph Essay is Dead

I was a whiz at the five-paragraph essay in my day. It made so much sense.

Paragraph one: tell them what you’re going to tell them

Paragraphs two thru four: tell them

Paragraph five: tell them what you told them

At least that’s how it was explained to us by Mr. Mountain, the honors English teacher who let us play Trivial Pursuit on Fridays.

I could knock out an A+ five-paragraph essay after 48 hours with no sleep and WAY too much alcohol (I proved that fact in college composition class more often than I’d care to admit).

But here’s the thing about five-paragraph essays: That’s not how to write fiction, or anything anymore (unless you’re in fourth grade and taking a standardized test).

The Ten Percent Rule

Whenever I have the chance to teach creative writing I teach the 10% rule.

Let me try it right now:

Writing or Wasting Time?

Are you wasting all your time with all these words? #areyoustillwriting #amwriting #writerswrite

I have gotten out of the habit of writing.

And serious writing depends on just that—habit. Not waiting for inspiration or time or a good night’s sleep or a better outline or the dog to shut up or until you take some class/webinar/retreat.

Writing requires that you sit down and do it. No matter what. As often as possible, every day if you can. You start where you are and spill your jumbled thoughts, wandering storylines, and vast emotions on the page. Your fingers tap along as your heart and mind try to make sense of it. (or maybe that’s just how it works for me.)

If you keep going, pressing past the doubt and frustration and discouragement and that little nagging bird fluttering all around you chirping that you’re wasting so much time, if you wave her away and type on, I promise something will come of it.

What Happened When I Stopped Running

This past year has felt a bit surreal. As if the world was unplugged and we are collectively holding our breath, waiting for it to be plugged back in and spring to life like my laptop after a hard shut down.

Some writers I know have been absolutely unable to write. Their worlds disrupted understandably.

I was not one of those writers.

Finding the Focus to Write

Finding the time to write isn’t always as hard as finding the focus to write.

My house is full of distractions—animals, chores, deliveries, laundry, phone calls, the list goes on and on especially since this has become as much our bunker as our home.

And then there’s the other inhabitants who are currently working from here instead of where they have always worked for most of my writing career. I am never alone at my house. And even if these people are on a different floor, doing their own thing, not paying a lick of attention to me, their presence stifles my writing.

And yes, I know that makes no sense.

Finding the Gumption to Start

The hardest part of writing is the first line—it’s just summoning up the gumption to start.

start Some days I sit for minutes that drag on and on, finger poised over the keyboard, unmoving. When nothing comes to me, I distract myself with e-mail or Instagram, talk to the dogs, or scroll through Facebook, anything to delay those first words.

According to popular writing advice, those first sentences are critical. Publishing blogs quote agents who advise writers to Continue reading “Finding the Gumption to Start”

Anybody Can Write

As a writer, I hear from would-be writers all the time. They used to write, hope to write someday, had a teacher who told them they should be a writer, and a few who have been working on a novel for years.

The thing about writing is that anybody can do it.

I’m not just saying that. It’s true.

Anybody can write.

What they write, the quality of it, the success of it, well, that’s another story, but that’s not the point.

I believe Continue reading “Anybody Can Write”