I’ve not said it, but I’ve thought it more than a few times recently. I have no time to write.
You know, I’ve been busy. I sold my house, packed up my belongings, moved.
And I’ve taken on some new responsibilities. I’ve started doing a few new things that I’ve always wanted to try. And I’ve not stopped doing the other things I was able to do before I had freed myself of my mortgage.
And now, I catch myself thinking that I’m too busy to write.
Do you ever feel like you’re wandering through a snowstorm in your writing? You can’t quite see your way through your plot and your vision is obscured. Or maybe you’re struggling to start writing your story? You have an idea, a vague mass of a story. Like having flour and water but you don’t know how to make bread with them. You mix them together and all you get is a sticky, wet lump.
Here are 3 tips to get your story moving: Read more
“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it people like me!”
For those of you who are fans of Saturday Night Live, you’ll probably recognize that quote from one of the many episodes of ‘Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley’ that ran on the powerhouse comedy show throughout the 1990s.
Comedian Al Franken played Stuart, who in a nutshell, was a pretty insecure dude who dedicated his life to self-help (he was in several 12-step programs but not a licensed therapist as the voice over on his cable network television show explained). Read more
Last night I did something I hadn’t done in a while. I laid out some tarot cards and gave myself a reading.
I’m not great at knowing what each card represents. I still need the companion book to decipher what the Four of Cups is trying to tell me, or why the Queen of Pentacles is upside down. After all thirteen cards were translated, I realized they all fit together and told a little story. A story of my life; the recent past and what the future might hold, and right in the middle – the present – was The Fool. Me. Read more
The immense benefits of a writing group are not always obvious from the beginning of an adventure. You may have mixed feelings as you sign up for a writing course or attend a conference or sit in on a writer’s group meeting as an observer, but I can tell you, there will be benefits you could never have imagined. Read more
Exterior: southern Ontario countryside, winter blizzard conditions… interior of a very old pick-up truck. Woman behind the wheel is not dressed for the weather. She’s wearing a dress, light jacket and high heels. Through the windshield a deserted rural airport and runway are barely visible. She appears anxious, her cell phone sits on the dashboard. The phone rings… Read more
I like the number ten. It’s a good number in terms of measurement.
It’s a decade, for one. An achievement by which we recognize milestone birthdays, for another. In the metric system, multiples and fractions of units are expressed as powers of ten of each unit. Unit conversions are always simple because they are in the ratio of ten, one hundred, one thousand and so on.
It began innocuously enough.
The setting aside of writing time for all the demands of the season.I was not to know the full repercussions of this decision until weeks later.
Way back in December, I found myself immersed in the Read more