I realized when we were making Angie’s short film that there is something wonderful, in life if not in story, about low stakes. For me, film is like my dog, while writing is like my children. I love my dog—way more than I thought I would when we got him “for the kids.” But I […]
I am writing this in my bedroom where I am keeping the dog quiet while Angie shoots a short film in our living room. Since I can’t at this moment be in the action—later I’ll play a small role—I am finding myself inspired to write my newsletter/ blog post! Yesterday, our friend who is playing
Creativity Begets Creativity Read More »
“I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free.” – Michelangelo “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. “ Michelangelo “If people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful
Key Steps for Finding Story and Structure in Memoir (or Fiction) Read More »
“It may be that some brains could benefit from a little less order.” — Michale Pollan reporting in The New Yorker on Robin Carhart-Harris’s scientific ideas and work. I am deep in the tremendous learning process that is writing. One of the reasons I believe that bright, successful adults take on the project of writing—of being
Blasting Through to Creativity Read More »
Reading. Let’s face it, that’s what got most of us into this writing business. And it’s what keeps most of us going, at the end of the day. Am I right? At present, I am reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Miranda July’s collection of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than
Joan Didion, Miranda July, and the Permission to Write Read More »
If you are coming here from my newsletter, scroll down to the last, bold paragraph . . . Writing happens first in the unconscious mind. In From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction, Robert Olen Butler says to write first thing, before you encounter language in any of its analytical or “useful” or logical modes.
My Wild, Secret Discovery Read More »
There is the myth of the isolated artist, working alone. “We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone,” a dear friend moaned to me once when we were younger and had time to worry about such things. “Wait a minute,” I said. “We certainly are not born alone.” Seriously, how much less alone
Barn Raising Your Book: Frame, Story, and Community Read More »
At the moment I feel I HAVE what I want and have wanted most for a long time AND what I need to be living my writing life: Someone who is waiting in the wings for my efforts (agent) and The ability to focus on writing when the time presents itself. My week has been
Time, Space and Writing: Having It All, A Guest Blog by Christine O’Brien Read More »
I am working on a non-fiction proposal (something that is, perhaps ironically, a bit more involved than a marriage proposal). What is the first thing I do when I want to write a book? I begin to devour other books. There’s an amazing organization in our town that will funnel them to me, a kind
What We are Reading: a Survival Guide for Writers Read More »
Interiority is what is going on in the minds of your characters: thoughts, memories, ideas, daydreams. Interiority is what is “inside” versus what is external or exteriority: action, gesture, setting, description. Writing interiority is at first pass, for some of us, easier and more pleasurable than recording imagined or remembered scenes. Is that true for you? Interiority is that
Balance: Interiority and Exteriority in Writing and the Writing Life Read More »
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