Blog
What’s Your Writing Vision?
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams and live the life you imagined.” Thoreau Now that you’ve settled on a Writing Word of the Year to guide you toward becoming your best writing self in 2015, it’s time to create your writing vision. So often...
What’s Your Writing Word of the Year? How to Embody Your Writing Truth in 2015
Some years ago I ditched New Year’s resolutions, which felt more like giving up something for Lent—i.e., depriving myself of something I wanted—than evolving myself into the person I wanted to become. In place of making a resolution, I began choosing a “word of the...
Writing as an Act of Presence: “Sheer Off” into Narrative This Season
Menorahs in windows. Lights on trees. Kinaras on table tops. Pilgrimages. Winter solstice. Family. Friends. Gifts. Giving. Presents. The list of traditions we enjoy this time of year is long, varied, and lovely. No matter which holiday(s) we celebrate, at the...
Now-Self, Meet Then-Self: 5 Steps to Cultivating Your Reflective Voice
In writing memoir, the trick, it seems to me, is to establish a double perspective, that will allow the reader to participate vicariously in the experience as it was lived (the confusions and misapprehensions of the child one was, say), while conveying the...
The Infinitely Unending Art of Judith Kitchen
A review of Judith Kitchen's The Circus Train (Ovenbird Books) I am honored to have written a review of the late Judith Kitchen's The Circus Train for River Teeth: A Journal of Narrative Nonfiction. Kitchen wrote The Circus Train, a memoir composed of three...
Writing Gratitude: How to Become More Present in Your Writing
I love the week leading up to Thanksgiving, when expressions of gratitude dominate social media and I am reminded many times a day to slow down and notice the blessings in my life. The simple act of noticing requires presence. And when we are present, we see our own...
Crafting Your Narrator’s Emotional Truth: A Look at Nora Ephron’s “A Few Words About Breasts”
“What ALL do we see then, when we look at the body anew? Particularly those parts that have been fetishized and plasticized, deified and desired, such as the female breast. For the literary essayist, a breast is rarely just a breast.” Barrie Jean Borich ...
Writing as Seeing with Soul: An Interview with Marilyn
This week's article is an audio recording interview with me by Jeanne Schlesinger on her radio program "To See with Soul." After taking my course "Excavate Your Truth/Free Your Voice," Jeanne found that much of the writing we did was, indeed, soul work. In this...
So, What? The Reflective Voice in Memoir and Why It Matters
“I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means.” Dorothy Allison “So, what?” I can still hear my writing friend Jon Kerstetter asking that question about the first packet of writing I submitted to our first creative nonfiction...
How to Have The Best Vacation
The Time is Now
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Your Inner Critic: An Opportunity to Expand Your Writing
Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer. Virginia Woolf When I begin working with women in my “Transform Your Writing/Transform Your Life” mentorship program, I give them what I call a “Conscious Writing Packet.” The...
Ready For a Road Trip
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Mauris interdum dictum sollicitudin. Cras at lacus id ipsum pharetra sodales. Nullam vitae neque et elit viverra condimentum et at lectus. Pellentesque aliquam tempor augue. Curabitur nec elit quam. Maecenas fermentum et nisi lobortis pretium. Fusce egestas in diam...
Writing Memoir: The Fine Art of Listening to Your Self
Writing, like relationships, takes time and attention to develop. Indeed, both writing and relationships demand that you show up and listen—really listen—to the person you are in relationship with. Okay, then. But who, exactly, are you in relationship with when...
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Rejection Toast: 5 Ways to Strengthen Your Rejection Muscle
Not long ago, I received a group text from my writing pal Sarah Wells: “Rejection toast tonight, gals!” What’s a rejection toast, you ask? When one of the four of us—me, Sarah, Ginny, or Valerie—receives a rejection for our writing, we schedule a group...
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Welcome to Story Mini Demos Sites. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging! Cras ultricies turpis ut gravida venenatis. Vivamus laoreet est felis, in tincidunt felis molestie ac. Donec dapibus orci sit amet lorem rutrum adipiscing. Donec lectus...