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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Feb 15

Dream your words onto the page

Writer John Gardner once described novels as “vivid, continuous dreams.”

I like it when my dreams inspire my writing. But, lately, I’ve been overly busy with our business and having more work-related dreams. This week we had website issues that I struggled with and, last night, my hubby and I were discussing the website before going to sleep.

I ended up dreaming about websites all night. I tossed and turned, my subconscious mind trying to solve the problem, and woke up with some great insights this morning–albeit a bit tired.

Other nights, I usually read before going to bed–the favorite part of my day–so often my dreams will stem from what I’ve just read. When I read The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novelby Garth Stein I kept dreaming that we bought a new puppy that wrecked our living room furniture. When I read White Oleanderby Janet Fitch one night I dreamed I was an orphan living in the wilderness. Read more

Feb 14

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Six tips for writing a love letter

No matter how much we strive to polish our writing skills, it’s not always easy to find the words we want to say, especially when the stakes are high. Finding the words though is worth it and a gift that money can’t buy.

On this Valentine’s Day, as you search for just the right words to write to your beloved, find inspiration in these words Napoleon Bonaparte wrote to his wife Josephine De Beauharnais.

“Dearest Josephine, I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart! Are you angry?  Do I see you looking sad? Are you worried? … My soul aches with sorrow, and there can be no rest for your lover; but is there still more in store for me when, yielding to the profound feelings which overwhelm me, I draw from your lips, from your heart a love which consumes me with fire? Ah! it was last night that I fully realized how false an image of you your portrait gives! You are leaving at noon; I shall see you in three hours.  Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire. –Bonaparte”

These tips might help you write your own love letter:

1. Write a draft. Think of your first words as a draft that you will adjust. This takes some of the pressure off and frees you to fling those words down on the page. Read more

Feb 13

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Don’t beat your head against the wall: Try these tips to develop a daily writing practice

A friend once told me that the best way to stop a bad habit was to replace it with a good one. At the time, she was trying to eat healthier and lose a few pounds. She said she found that trying to eliminate certain foods from her diet just made her want to eat more of them. She struggled with losing weight for years.

One day, she decided that instead of restricting her diet, she would add to it–healthy snacks and foods, including a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables. A few of her goals: drink a green smoothie in the morning, eat vegetables at every meal, eat at least one salad a day, and snack on apples between meals. Read more

Feb 12

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Rearrange your life and write your book faster

Do you feel like you don’t have enough time to do everything you need to do in a day? Who doesn’t, right?

Everyone I know struggles to have a balanced life. They eat lunch in front of their computers, check e-mail constantly, and take work with them when they go on vacation.

Tony Schwartz, a writer and business consultant, says you can actually be more productive by doing less.

In his New York Times Opinion piece, “Relax! You’ll Be More Productive,” Schwartz noted research by Florida State University Professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues that revealed people perform best by working in uninterrupted cycles of no more than 90 minutes and then taking a break to refuel. Read more

Feb 11

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What drives you to be a storyteller?

In his acceptance speech for the 2007 Moth award in New York City, author and storyteller Garrison Keillor tells how his life in storytelling began after the drowning of his older cousin. Keillor was supposed to be taking swimming lessons that summer after the drowning but, in his first act of defiance, he rode past the smells of chlorine wafting from the YMCA and continued on to the library where he immersed himself in books and storytelling.

Keillor says the purpose of storytelling is to become intimate with strangers–something he has made his life from in hosting the radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” for nearly forty years.

What is the need that drives us to become storytellers? Every writer and storyteller has an event or series of events that brought them to storytelling.

My foray into storytelling was triggered by my mother’s descent into dementia in her mid-sixties. I wanted to tell the story of her difficult life that ended with her eventually forgetting all of her life’s experiences, almost as if the forgetting was a blessing for her.

Watch the 8-minute video below of Keillor and ask yourself what motivates you to be a storyteller:

Feb 7

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Five ways to quiet your mind to create better art

In my last post, “Practice mindfulness 10 minutes a day to change your life and your art,” I wrote about the benefits of quieting the mind for a few minutes each day in order to become more creative, clear, and present in our daily life. Naturally, doing this can have a great impact on the art we create, whether we’re writers, painters, photographers, dancers, musicians, or any other artist.

But you don’t have to sit in uncomfortable positions (I never could master the lotus pose) or burn incense (I’m allergic to most scented smoke) in order to benefit from meditation.

Here are some other forms of meditation that you can experiment with:

1.  Walking meditation. Check out Meditation Oasis for how to do a walking meditation. Read more

Feb 6

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Critique your manuscript with this checklist

For me, revising a manuscript is like putting a puzzle together — making all the pieces click into the right places. But without a plan, it can be overwhelming.

You’ll find many ways to approach revisions depending on the phase you’re at in the process. Below, I’ve offered tips I’m following as I revise my current work in progress. Maybe, they’ll help you too.

First, I print out a double-spaced copy and take a pass through it, noting where I’ll go back and make detailed changes. This is what I look for:

1. Awkward sentences, phrases. Note with an “AWK” in the margin and circle the sentence or phrase.

2. Vague or wrong words. These could be places where another word would be better or I want to get more specific. Common changes here include the word “some,” non-specific descriptors, such as “beautiful,” and places where I should show instead of tell. Read more

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