Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Will I Ever Write Again? Surviving My Worst Fears As A Writer
Will I ever write again? Surviving my worst fears as a writer It was the morning of Thursday, September 20. I was in the train, headed back home to NYC from Maryland, after doing the introduction and in-author conversation at a friend’s book launch the night before. My heart was full for my friend; she had […]
The Case for Mentorship or Who’s Teaching Whom?
This year I have the great privilege of mentoring an intern from my high school alma mater – a talented student who is applying to college programs and developing her writing portfolio alongside her role as co-President of the high school’s Writing Club. We check in regularly to discuss writing – both the craft and […]
You Shall Not Pass! Writer’s Block And How To Un-Stick It
It’s a bit like ‘Macbeth’ for an actor – say ‘writer’s block’ to a novelist and they’re liable to go pale and break out in a cold sweat. And as for actually uttering those dreaded words yourself, well, that’s pretty much guaranteed to jinx anything you’re currently working on. But is writer’s block really a […]
Fiction is a Lie That Reveals the Truth
Why do we care about fiction? Isn’t the actual, physical world interesting enough? I was forced to think about this recently when I participated in an author panel with astrophysicist Adam Frank (Light of the Stars) and journalist Peter Lovenheim (The Attachment Effect). Given the company I was keeping, it suddenly seemed prudent to ask, […]
Writing Indescribable
How do I begin to write the story of my childhood sexual abuse, how do I find the words to explain the indescribable situation my eight-year-old self-adapted to and compartmentalised at such a young age? Why was I compelled to write the ugliness of what happened to me? Shouldn’t I have left it silently awake […]
Do Sales Equal Success?
What does success look like? Sometimes, I think as authors, one of the main ways we calculate our success is based on the sales of our books. It’s instant validation. Who doesn’t want that? But is that the best way to define what success is as an author? I don’t think so. See the problem […]
Becoming Good Friends with Fear
Fear and I have been acquaintances for some time, but I only recently decided to become good friends with fear. In 2014 I was laid off from my day job. After much reflection, I decided to pursue a path that was both new and frightening to me. I gave away most of my material goods […]
Faith in fiction
Every year around Thanksgiving, well-meaning articles suddenly appear warning folks not to discuss politics or religion at the table if they want to keep the holiday meal friendly. Is the same true when writing fiction? If we want our stories to have wide appeal, perhaps we’re better off staying away from these contentious subjects as […]
When You Don’t Have Time To Write
“I don’t have time to write” is my least favorite mantra, one that I’ve so often heard from lapsed and would-be writers. I used to chant it a lot to myself, and the more I repeated it the more I believed it. It became an immutable fact of life – until an unlikely situation shifted […]
Writing For Transformation And Bliss
In late 2017, my book, Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life was published, and the response to it has been excellent. As a result, I decided to create a companion journal and this was just released on January 1st, 2019. Developed for the seasoned storyteller as well […]
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