Category: Contemporary Women Writers
Why Writers Feel Guilty and How to Overcome It
Why should we feel guilty for taking time to write? After all, it’s a passion for many of us, and for some, a way to make a living. We don’t feel like things are “right” in our worlds if we’re not writing, so why on Earth would we ever feel guilty for doing something that’s […]
The Cosmic Grin
The Cosmic Grin The circumstance was familiar. I sat at the altar, eyes closed, asking for guidance. Show me the way, I implored. You see, I was writing a book. A book about Shakti, the divine feminine. And I had no idea where this impulse to write a book came from. And of all things, about […]
Drop Your Drawers
I started writing in third grade. I went to Public School 173 in Flushing, New York. Flushing is a horrible name for what was a pleasant neighborhood of brick homes with small backyards. The street on which I grew up had just two ethnic groups: Orthodox Jews and Conservative Jews. The important thing about P.S. […]
Writing About Spirituality
When I started on a spiritual path almost thirty years ago, I voraciously read every account of spiritual awakening that I could find. Mind you, there wasn’t an Amazon.com, and I had to go to an actual bookstore to find books in this genre. Mostly I read books about the saints – but then Shirley […]
The Adventures of a Closet Writer
Whenever I mentioned that writing was my hobby, it was usually met with a raised eyebrow. As if somehow I was a little bit odd. That was fine, I’d never had time to take it seriously. I was a mother of three who worked part-time. How was I supposed to find time to write? Any […]
Exclamation Evolution
I love the exclamation mark. I’ve used it, and fairly regularly, for as long as I can remember. I like how it can signal glee, surprise, bemusement; how it can turn a blunt-sounding sentence (in a text, say) into something softer, something more playful. And I confess I use it in part because I know […]
The Unexpected Pleasures Of Writing A Book
I am in the middle of my third novel. And frankly, I can’t think of the first pleasure of writing, let alone any unexpected ones. Because right now, I just want to run naked out into my field, amongst the cows, coyotes and raccoons, screaming “these characters are making me crazy! Aaaggghhhhh!!!” But alas, the […]
Five Ways to Increase Micro-Tension
How do we keep readers invested in what will happen next? As writers, we want readers on the edge of their seat, even in scenes that don’t justify heart-pounding action. Micro-tension, a term I first encountered in Donald Maass’ The Fire in Fiction, offers a solution. Recently I’ve been working on micro-tension in my own […]
Zombies Ate My Cookbook: How The Undead Inspired Me to Write
“You’re a food nerd and a zombie nerd. You should write a cookbook for the zombie apocalypse.” It was those words, from my dear friend Paul and the best idea man I know, that sparked the inspiration for my first book The Art of Eating Through the Zombie Apocalypse. This was in 2008, and at […]
5 Ways Storytelling Can Improve Healthcare
By Esther Choy, Author of Let the Story Do the Work (published by AMACOM), is now available on major online retail platforms such as Amazon. Humans have a long tradition of literature exploring health. After all, if you own and operate a human body, you’re involved in healthcare. Whether it’s dealing with our own health issues or those of […]
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