DAMN GOOD WRITING TIPS

Do you know people who let perfectionism run their lives? Are you one of them? If you’re like many a creative soul, you’re probably all too aware of the fear and anxiety that courses through the perfectionist’s veins, the self doubt that paralyzes her creativity and the critical inner “judge” that finds fault in the [...]

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It happens to all of us. We hit the wall–the dreaded thing called writer’s block. All of a sudden, we can’t write. Not a phrase, not a sentence, not one word worth a darn thing. Frustrated, we work harder. We’ll break the wall down, we’ll keep writing, even if it kills us. We fuel up [...]

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Fiction or non-fiction, your writing has to provoke a curiosity to know more. Readers ask questions from the moment they enter a book: Where and when does the story take place? Who is the main character? What is the conflict? What is the goal of the piece? The idea is to tease out the questions [...]

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Annie Dillard is one of my love-to-hate authors. Her writing’s so good it makes the hair on my head rise–really! It’s as if I get caught in an electrical storm of sheer linguistic power. Wham, bam, sizzle. Take the following,from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Today a gibbous moon marked the eastern sky like a smudge [...]

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Tuesday night is my writing group night. It’s my time to get feedback and support for my work. Last night, my reading was followed by a pause. More accurately, a very long pause. Then Lee spoke up, “I didn’t get interested until here.” I watched her finger slide down the page, then another page, until [...]

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This wild and playful writing prompt comes from Ellery Akers, a fabulous poet I took a class from a few years ago. Here’s what she suggests: Think of a major event in your life. Now think of an animal you’re attracted to or repelled by and write about the event, including the animal. Make the [...]

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Can you relate to this? I know I can. “…sometimes we find ourselves shifting from one idea to the next in an endless series of discoveries. These discoveries change the piece in significant ways. Unfortunately, they don’t lead to progressive development. They lead to our starting over in an endless chain of new beginnings.” Jeff [...]

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One of the great joys of being a writer came to me when I read an essay of mine called, “Meltdown” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. Famous for the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and the Beat Poets, City Lights looks and feels like a punk rocker at a prom–a little dangerous [...]

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“…With the approach of evening long, blue, spiky-edged shadows creep out over the snowfields, while a rosy glow, at first scarce discernible, gradually deepens, suffusing every peak and flushing the glaciers and the harsh crags above them. This is the alpenglow, the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God. At the touch of [...]

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