Timing Can Be Everything

December 6, 2009

On my Facebook status, I mentioned that I loved timed writings and my stainless steel timer. Several people responded to the update and by email. Here are some timing ideas, starting with more about writing: “How long do you set the time for?” someone asked me. “One hour,” I said. And I set it again […]

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What Do You Expect?

November 30, 2009

So here’s my question: When you go to a book reading, what do you expect? And when you’re the one giving the reading, what do you expect of yourself? I hosted an event on Sunday for Michele Murdock and had fun helping her prepare for her first-ever reading. Here’s what she expected of herself. She […]

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Sunday Morning Snapshot

November 22, 2009

My husband usually gets out of bed before I do on Sunday mornings. I hear the slam of the screen door as he walks out to the driveway to fetch The New York Times. He shuffles around in the kitchen, and says, “Okay, okay,” to our two cats, who are getting underfoot and meowing at […]

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Breaking Up The Old Patterns

November 7, 2009

After a workshop the other day, a woman approached me. We had made a list of 5 things we’re grateful for as part of the session’s closing–I like this as a send-off. The woman told me she keeps a gratitude journal by her bed. Every night before she goes to sleep, she records 5 things […]

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Note from the Week

October 30, 2009

Here’s a prompt from workshops this week that brought out all sorts of truths and odd anecdotes and revelations: “Rules I Live By” Try it and see where you go.

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Are You Writing?

October 23, 2009

Today’s Writer’s Almanac tells us that Augusten Burroughs, Running With Scissors, was born today. He stated the obvious, the truth some writers–count me in–have to hear over and over again: “The secret to being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan […]

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It’s On: the Countdown

October 17, 2009

I am going to finish a draft of a book this November. Here’s how. Note: NaNoWriMo can work for NONFICTION writers too.

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Back to School List

September 21, 2009

Prompt: Make a list of supplies you needed for school. Lists can evoke a lot, in so few words. List: A new pen, yellow number 2 pencils, and a clean pink eraser. A new sealed bag of 100 sheets of ruled white paper. A new small metal pencil sharpener if I’d lost last year’s. New […]

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It was a first

August 25, 2009

Writing Prompt: The first time I . . . For the first time in my life, I have looked at a puppy and said, “No, I won’t take it home with me.” Here is a picture of the puppy, a papillon I visited in a pet store in Narragansett, Rhode Island. She is a 14-week-old […]

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The last of summer

August 16, 2009

The last book? The last meal? The last ocean swim? Write about the last _________ of summer. We aren’t there yet, but autumn is advancing –in the breeze and the smells and the light.

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