Writing is like building a bird’s nest. It’s easy to get stuck with writing, to think, “I have nothing new to say.” As the oft-repeated Biblical proverb says, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Most of the time the point of writing is not to create something new, but rather to assemble the available […]
New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson wrote: Sit in a chair and write. Ignore this thing they call writer’s block. Doctor’s don’t get doctor’s block; your mechanic doesn’t get mechanic’s block. If you want to write great stories, learn to write when you don’t feel like it. You have to write it poorly before […]
Last Saturday I attended the YA Writing Conference, hosted by Changing Hands Bookstore, the best indie bookstore in the Phoenix area. It was a little different setup than other conferences I’ve attended. There were four classes available to take, and each person could sign up for three of the classes. Each class was an hour […]
Writing is like exercise. Ideally we’d all do it at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon If I wanted to run a marathon I would have to do an intense daily training regimen. But even though I’m not personally interested in running a marathon, it’ s still important […]
I first encountered what is now one of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems in a class I took on memoir writing. Here’s the short, two-stanza poem: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant — Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children […]