Category: on writing

Receiving Writing Feedback

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment
Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

Driving home from the rink recently, my son begrudgingly shared—and I thank the heavens daily he feels safe to share with me—how during practice, a team member made a viscous comment about a mistake he made on the ice. Doing my best not to slam on the brakes and one-eighty-it to drive over the little bastard, I forced myself to reflect on the resilience it will build in my son to take this hard knock and learn from it.

Heaven knows, it sure isn’t easy.

As a writer in the query trenches, rejections are a constant reality. After I pick myself up, and dust myself off, the next step is to search out advice to improve my writing. I, as well, have had to develop a thicker skin and tune into my inner voice to further understand what advice is best to listen to. Read more

Embracing Autumn

Tracey Richardson Leave a comment

There’s something comforting about autumn.

Perhaps it’s the bounty of all the months spent growing food, and we all know that food is comfort. It’s also comforting to know that it’s that season of warm sweaters, flannel sheets and fireplaces. Doesn’t that visual want to make you curl up with a book in your favourite chair, wrapped in a warm throw blanket in front of the fire?

While it is common to think about cozy scarves and autumnal fruit pies, the symbolic meanings of autumn are more profound than you might think. Ancient cultures, science, and astrology have associated many aspects of this beautiful season to human life. These symbolic associations are powerful reminders that Mother Nature has an incredible influence on our lives. Read more

Scary Stories

Seana Moorhead Leave a comment
Halloween 1976

When I was a kid, I loved ghost stories.  I was the proud owner of an Alfred Hitchcock’s vinyl record, “Ghost Stories for Young People” featuring him introducing his own short stories. I played that record over and over again on my red and yellow toy player.  The lights would be turned off and I’d make a cave with my blankets and pillows. Armed with a flashlight, I’d place the needle on the record and listen to his stories. I always played it around Hallowe’en—one of my favourite holidays back then and not just for the candy, but because I believed in ghosts and witches and monsters. 

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Mixing Solitude with the Camaraderie

Lori Twining 6 Comments
Lori Twining ~ Coffee at Sunrise
Lori Twining ~ Coffee at Sunrise, Elmhirst’s Resort

What writer wouldn’t love to disappear from their life and spend an entire week hidden away at a remote location? With no other obligations other than to put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper and tell a story. Maybe, a story no one will ever read? That’s a possibility. But hey, if you are a writer, you will have a strong desire to write that story whether someone reads it or not, right? 

Disappearing to a remote location sounds fantastic, especially after the tough year or two we have experienced. My doctor said I was becoming a workaholic, even though I’m working from home now, and I should take a mental health break. She said something like, “Take a vacation.”

In my mind, I watched her scribble a prescription on her pad for me:

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Grab Hold Of Life

Kelly Babcock Leave a comment

I'm all in for adventure
Life is an adventure, right down to swimming in Georgian Bay on Thanksgiving Monday.

I love to refer to myself as gainfully unemployed. It is both true, and untrue.

I work as an IT person for a local online news outlet, the owensoundhub.org, but I’m contracted to them. I end up spending less then ten hours a month at that. But I interact with the organization and I learn lots of things about my community.

I also still do the odd job for friends that need help with their renovations or their Read more

Writing Descriptively

Bernice Connell Leave a comment

Seeing interesting or impactful images makes me immediately think about how to describe them. 

Not long ago, I struggled to describe a sky full of different types of clouds. What I wrote was ‘A variety of clouds filled the sky to the horizon in every direction, tumbling like a slow-motion kaleidoscope’.  Despite the time and effort spent, my description fell short of capturing the image.

Believing the clouds were noteworthy was an emotional reaction to a beautiful scene. As I was not writing about storm chasers or pilots, the clouds had nothing to do with the story. What I have learned is that there are times when good descriptions are critical but I often add many unnecessarily in my writing. It is easy to be too elaborate or flowery when enamoured of an image. Likewise, being overly detailed if focusing on facts and general information can be boring.

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Low in Writing Inspiration? Hit a Meeting (or a Horse Movie)

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment
Photo by Lucie Hošová on Unsplash

I was a horse nut as a child.

No doubt about it. I ate, slept and dreamt horses. I remember a junior school teacher asking me once if I might consider broadening my topics to complete a book report, story or project on anything other than the horse. I thought he was crazy. At the time, I took his comment as a personal slight, but looking back, he was probably just bored.

Do you remember those Participation videos; the ones with Hal Johnson and Joanne Macleod, sweating it up in their tights, encouraging us couch potato television viewers to get up and get going? As a little girl, my dream, my goal for participation, was to be able to catch my own pony and saddle it up all by myself and the day I achieved this feat brought me immense pride. Read more