Journalling/Writing

Write Scenes From a Long Remembered Time

Take a look at these two scenes from Beverly Donofrio’s Riding in Cars with Boys: It was a Thursday night. I was doing the dishes, my father was sitting at the table doing a paint-by-num­bers, and we were humming “Theme from Exo­dus” together. My mother was wiping the stove before she left for work at Bradlee......... more »

Using the Epistolary Form Helps Us Write Meaningfully

The word epistolary comes from the Greek epistol?, which means “letter.” Writers use the letter form in writing personal essays, poems, creative nonfiction and fiction because the form provides a ready-made container to hold an exploration of events and experiences. Writing in the letter form quickly builds intim......... more »

Board Games and Activities Offer Occasions for Writing

In All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum writes about hiding in a pile of leaves in his front yard and not being found by the game’s seeker. He likens this hiding-too-well as a kid to a doctor who was dying of cancer but never told anybody because he didn’t want to make things diffic......... more »

The Physicality of Writing Scenes and Characters

Outer story, the physical world, is also its own effect, its own reaction, its own comment. Outer story shows us things, and as the outer story grows and gathers, we can begin to see the constellations of our meanings. There is no need to comment on each facet of a scene. The sunset went from yellow to purple in a mome......... more »

Openings That Make You Continue Writing

Often, we feel we can’t start writing because we are not inspired. Or we feel that we have become “flat” as writers when we look at what we have written. Here are 10 writing prompts inspired by the opening lines of novels, films and a short story. I believe that working from any of these prompts will allow you to......... more »

Openings That Make You Continue Writing

Often, we feel we can’t start writing because we are not inspired. Or we feel that we have become “flat” as writers when we look at what we have written. Here are 10 writing prompts inspired by the opening lines of novels, films and a short story. I believe that working from any of these prompts will allow you to......... more »

The Physicality of Writing Scenes and Characters

Outer story, the physical world, is also its own effect, its own reaction, its own comment. Outer story shows us things, and as the outer story grows and gathers, we can begin to see the constellations of our meanings. There is no need to comment on each facet of a scene. The sunset went from yellow to purple in a mome......... more »

WELLNESS TIPS: A Personal Year End Inventory

Many people focus on New Years’ Resolutions and end up feeling disappointed in themselves and depressed by St. Patrick’s Day (or sooner) because they have fallen short of the lofty goals they set for themselves. Instead of (or before) focusing on New Years’ Resolutions, I think it is helpful to take a look back o......... more »

Writing Short, Writing Deep

As a poet and memoirist, I study flash fiction and nonfiction for strategies to write one’s life story in accumulations of short pieces, each evoking important moments and newly learned perceptions that, when collected, present a whole. Abigail Thomas’ What Comes Next and How to Like It, Meri Lisa Johnson‘s Gi......... more »

Cognitive Therapy for Writers: Behave Your Way Into Writing

When it comes to writing, we so often undermine our efforts by thinking that we are not disciplined enough, educated enough, smart enough, skilled enough, or wise enough to call ourselves writers. We must find ways to change that thinking if we are to allow writing an important place in our lives. It matters that we w......... more »

First Readers Help You Know More Than You Thought You Knew About What You Wanted to Say

Are you writing about your life? Finding out the impact of your drafts on readers can help you be brilliant on the page when you revise. Hardly a one of us can make our best contact with the minds and hearts of others without sharing and receving response to early drafts of our work. Here's how to get the most hel......... more »

EXPLOSION

I am not sure why I walked out of that spring day’s beautiful mid-morning sunshine. It would have been so much easier to just keep walking down the 9:45 a.m. tree lined sidewalk. In fact the dirty beige concrete going beyond the doorway was becoming increasingly seductive. Not yielding to the seduction, I in fact ......... more »

Keeping a Writer’s Journal? 21 Prompts to Help You

Keeping a notebook of short descriptions, thoughts, overheard conversations, quotes and even complaints and worries will keep us in the writing mode, even when our days are filled with other activities and concerns. I have been reading a wise and inspiring book called The Journal Keeper, A Memoir, by Phyllis Theroux......... more »