Monthly Archives: December 2014
Holiday Hiatus until January 15, 2015
Posted on December 15, 2014 Leave a Comment
Dear friends, readers, blog followers, and passers-by, This has been a rollicking, crazy-making, exhausting, exhilarating, productive, and fast-paced semester. I turned in my seven binders of evidence for tenure and promotion, wrote 64 posts since I started this blog on August 4, 2014, taught 90 students, and graded 230 papers and 90 presentations. Now that […]
Know when to quit
Posted on December 12, 2014 Leave a Comment
This is the season for resolutions. So many people resolve to create unrealistic expectations for themselves that they enter the new year destined for disappointment. When it comes to our writing practice, let’s think more realistically. Know when to quit. “What?!” You bellow. “I am a writer! I will NEVER quit!” That’s good, dear reader. But hear […]
Three seats left in my Advanced Memoir workshop this January! :)
Posted on December 11, 2014 Leave a Comment
Fellow writers! You might have seen previous posts about this workshop and now it’s crunch time. I need a few more participants to fill the workshop – three seats. I suspect that at least three of you are working on a creative nonfiction project that would benefit from this intensive workshop weekend. If you are […]
Midweek Writing Prompt: Inspired by #tbt (12/10/14)
Posted on December 10, 2014 Leave a Comment
In my classrooms and workshops, I strive to create safe, welcoming writing communities where individuals feel free to explore ideas, stories, and concepts without judgment. After all, we need those spaces to get started. The judgment – of editors, professors, critical friends – will come later. But in the beginning, we need that soft, friendly […]
The terrible, inevitable subjectivity of rejection
Posted on December 8, 2014 Leave a Comment
If you are a writer, you will be rejected. Not once. Not twice or thrice. Hundreds of times over decades of writing your guts on a page. And sometimes the reason you are rejected is entirely subjective – the editor, the editorial board, the publisher, the agent – just didn’t like what you wrote. It […]
There is no such thing as writer’s block
Posted on December 5, 2014 2 Comments
That’s right. I said it. There is no such thing as writer’s block. When writers become stuck in their process, the usual suspect causes are procrastination, fear, doubt, lack of research, lack of brainstorming, lack of idea-brewing time, lack of purpose, anxiety (about the subject matter, a deadline, etc.), diminished passion for the existing work, […]
Need some editing help?
Posted on December 4, 2014 Leave a Comment
You’ve completed your masterpiece. An essay. A report. A story. A novel. A thesis. There are lots of documents that might qualify as your masterpiece. Now it’s time to revise and you feel your sternum seize up, a growing dread from your intestines to the deepest reaches of your brain. Paralysis takes over. Wait, wait, […]
Midweek Writing Prompt: My Rights (12/3/14)
Posted on December 3, 2014 Leave a Comment
In my classrooms and workshops, I strive to create safe, welcoming writing communities where individuals feel free to explore ideas, stories, and concepts without judgment. After all, we need those spaces to get started. The judgment – of editors, professors, critical friends – will come later. But in the beginning, we need that soft, friendly […]
