Tag: inspiration
The Unnoticed Writer
Over the last couple of days there’s been fair amount of buzz around the fiction writer Edith Pearlman. Her “break-out” story collection, Honeydew, is forthcoming from Little, Brown & Company. Pearlman is 78, and has published a number of story collections with small presses. In 2011, her collection Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories earned […]
We Can Not Be Defeated
There are writers who are joyful when they write. I have moments like that, sure, but in general I am terrified. I am more plotter than pantser, but there are things, usually the most integral, that are beyond preparation. I believe that you have to prove yourself, you have to earn it, before the story […]
What I Learned from my Writing Retreat
Facing my empty nest and a ticking clock, I finally decided to plunge into the writing life. Writing more seemed too obvious so I searched for conferences or classes. I came across a “retreat” offered by the author of a bestselling memoir I’d recently read. Though I hadn’t done anything like this before, I was […]
Which Writing Self is me?
Do you know what’s propelling you forward and what’s holding you back in your writing and in your life? I do, thanks to a self awareness exercise** I do periodically. It’s helped me realise why it’s taken me over a year (and counting) to write the dreaded second novel while the first only took about […]
Art From the Heart – Getting Out of the Way of Your Own Writing
There is a persistent idea in the West of the artist (not just we writers but artists of all types) as tortured creatures, pulling art out of ourselves in the way hara-kiri warriors once ripped out their own entrails. The unbearable weight of dragging art out in this way inevitably takes its toll and thus […]
Coming Back to Writing
When I was a little girl I made a choice. At least I thought I did. I was nine years old. Mousey and a bit serious. I only cared about two things – reading teenage horror novels and Westlife. My Aunt was allaying herself of some furniture – she had a beautiful house – and […]
How Writing and Gardening Overlaps
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” -Margaret Atwood This spring, when the first grape hyacinths were pushing their way through the snow, I made a decision to abandon something I love for something I love even more. Although I grew up in a family of avid gardeners, […]
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