It’s the first weeks into the new year, and a perfect time to make one resolution about your writing practice. Remember, only one. Begin by thinking about your writing. How often do you come to the page? For how long? How many pieces have you …
Driving home after dark last night, I turned onto a block festooned for Christmas. With all the colored lights twinkling at me, I realized that, this year, I wanted to help writers give themselves the gift of writingfor Christmas. It’s actually an easy gift to give–and it’s …
Trusting the writing process is an ongoing practice. Once you’ve learned to trust enough to complete a draft of whatever you set out to write, you then have to practice trusting the revision process, which includes several stages. Most important here, is to remember that …
Once you’ve trusted your imagination enough to sit down and begin writing, next, you have to learn to trust the writing process. So many of the writers I’ve worked with forget—or have never known—that fine writing doesn’t happen all at once; it takes place step …
Have you ever gotten an idea for a story or an essay and dismissed it immediately? Too complicated, too ordinary, uninspired, already been done are some of the condemnations my clients toss at their ideas. “But how do you know without even starting?” I ask. …
Although I’ve led hundreds of writing workshops, I’ve never joined a writing group. The reason: I don’t care what six, or eight, or ten other writers think of what I’ve written. Over the years, I’ve learned that each writer in a workshop will find at …
This week, I offer you a guest post I wrote for the blog “livewritethrive,” which has generated much appreciation. Think Small to Avoid Writer’s Block
Most of us have the wrong idea about inspiration. Popular culture tells us that inspiration is a force that strikes out of the blue, often when we least expect it, energizing us to write, paint, think, make a plan, a decision–even a phone call. And …
Since I am spending a great deal of my time these days working toward promoting my new book, I thought I should tell other writers about my successes and failures. Promotion seems to be a topic that gets a great deal of attention, from writers …
For well over a month, each time we met, one of my clients repeated that he was almost ready to begin writing. “I’ve got just about another week or so of thinking this through, before my writing will really take off,” he kept assuring me. …