Category: On Writing
Music To Write By
I am a toe tapper. I hum, whistle, and sing along. I have even been known to conduct the radio, although I would not recommend doing so while driving a manual transition. When I began writing Magic Flute, I wrote the last scene first (something else I would advise against). At that moment, my desire […]
Psychotherapy and Memoir: The Talking Cure and the Writing Cure
Without wishing to sound freakish or weird, I liken my vocation—writer and psychotherapist—to conjoined twins. Born in my midlife, they developed from the same fertilized egg, gestated in the same amniotic fluid, were nourished by the same placenta. They share the same interests, the same reading lists, and, dare I say, the same soul. […]
Perpetually Baffled Author Seeks Clarity For Long-Term Writing Happiness. GSOH Essential.
‘Are you all right, madam?’ asks the shop assistant, eyeing me with concern. ‘You look a little lost.’ I offer her the practised smile of a woman who is asked this question on a regular basis. ‘I’m fine,’ I confide with a reassuring laugh. ‘I always look like this.’ She laughs too but there is […]
Writing Syria
Those of us who write are always more than just writers. We are parents, children, workers, volunteers, gardeners, tree huggers, high-flyers, low-flyers, all types of flyers. I am a writer who (sometimes) combines writing with social activism. In 2013 I became a volunteer activist for Syria Solidarity UK. We work with refugee and other activist […]
Writing Past the “Happily Ever After”
There’s an image I remember from a movie I watched as a child, of a princess looking across the sea at a castle on a mountain, her soon-to-be home with the prince of her dreams. With that scene, the movie ended, but my contemplating had just begun. What happens now, I wondered. How do the […]
Writing Well, Thanks to Mom
There was always a distance between my mother and my writing. For the longest time, she rarely read what I wrote. It bothered me a lot. And I often drowned in bitterness about it. When on Friday, May 30, 2014, I was invited to do one of my biggest literary readings in NYC at KGB […]
Motivating Factors in My Life
Martha Lemasters spent almost ten years working as a PR writer at Cape Kennedy as a member of IBM’s team on NASA’s Apollo Program. Those years saw remarkable success in seven Apollo launches and six moon landings. Lemasters worked her way up the ladder from secretary to a respected writer and managed to find her […]
Chasing the Muse
Writers are often asked where they find their inspiration. ‘How on earth did you come up with that idea? I wouldn’t know where to start!’ For me, the ideas don’t flow until I begin writing, one thought then leading to another. I don’t know everything before I start, how could I? And would I still […]
Embrace Criticism, But Be True To Yourself
From our very first creative class, writers are conditioned to embrace honest – sometimes brutal – feedback, as a means of refining our art and making us into better authors. That said, it is human nature to feel cut to the bone when somebody lambasts our metaphorical baby – usually the result of months (or […]
Sending the Elevator Back Down
Several years ago, I heard an author say that when a writer “makes it,” it becomes his or her job to send the elevator back down for those waiting their turn. It was a great way to encourage authors who’ve made it to the other side—who got the publishing deal or who’ve seen their book […]
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