Category: How To and Tips
Facing The Blank Canvas: Have the Self Confidence to Tell Your Story
Facing The Blank Canvas: Have the Self Confidence to Tell Your Story In Henry James’ short story “The Madonna of the Future,” an older artist shows his visitor a blank canvas where the painting he has envisioned will one day materialize. “The elements are all here,” the artist says, pointing to his head. His excuse […]
Compassionate Caregiving and Writing By Suzanne Marriott
Compassionate Caregiving and Writing By Suzanne Marriott Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries, without them humanity cannot survive. Dalai Lama XIV I remember the moment I realized I was going to be my husband’s caregiver forever. I knew Michael had multiple sclerosis, and I knew this would be a progressive disease. Yet, knowing something […]
How Self-Kindness Set My Creativity Free
How Self-Kindness Set My Creativity Free by Martha Engber I never knew the crippling burden of being unkind to myself until two years ago when I was 56. I’d just completed my forthcoming memoir, Bliss Road, about being the non-autistic daughter of an undiagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder dad. I’d spent the previous eight years wading […]
My Pathway to Self-Publishing by Marisa Jones
My Pathway to Self-Publishing by Marisa Jones It’s hard to believe I’m a published author. This week, my debut historical novel, A Dangerous Land, has been released to the world. What a surreal feeling. Something I never thought would come to pass. It certainly wasn’t an easy road to get here. For two years I […]
How Place Shapes Story
How Place Shapes Story Eudora Welty said, “One place comprehended can make us understand other places better.” She was onto something: where we live, the environments we navigate, inform who we are and how we understand the world. When writers create a fictional place, they create a force that likewise shapes their characters, whether it’s […]
Storytelling in the Round: A Family Lawyer’s Perspective
Storytelling in the Round: A Family Lawyer’s Perspective I practice family law, which means I’ve spent many hours and days in courtrooms listening, closely, to people tell different versions of the same events. Sometimes someone is objectively lying: no, Dad did not take the kid to the doctor’s, because the medical records show that Mom […]
Keep Writing Until They Are Forced to Say Yes
Keep Writing Until They Are Forced to Say Yes I got a late start as a writer. I was an avid reader, sure, but write a book? Never crossed my mind until I was in my 50s and had a story to tell. I’d never so much as taken a writing class, but one frozen […]
Generational Dynamics: Story DNA
Generational Dynamics: Story DNA There have been stretches in my creative life when family and career commitments demanded most of my available time and attention. At those moments I imagined my writing life as a river, sometimes ebbing and sometimes swelling, swirling around other demands and obligations—personal, professional, familial. But also like a river, always […]
A Writing Life: Ronna Wineberg
A Writing Life I’m a fiction writer and sometimes I’m asked about my writing life. The question has caused me to think about my writing process and what a writing life entails. My writing life consists of different parts: writing, submitting work, creating books, publicizing a new book, giving readings, building community, and reading literature. […]
Writing Likeable, but Difficult, Characters
Writing Likeable, but Difficult, Characters Emma Barry We’ve all seen the reviews that say, “The protagonist wasn’t likeable. Two stars.” But what does it mean for a character to be likeable? For me, it’s rooted in relatability. If a character is too perfect, they will likely feel aspirational. I might want to be them, but […]
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