Tips and Tools of the Trade: Notes from the Writer’s Workshop (Part 2) (Please see yesterday’s blog for an explanation and introduction.) From the presentation “Creative Nonfiction” Prior to working as an editor, I was briefly a staff writer for our publishing house – churning 3000 word features on everything from road maintenance safety to heavy […]
Read more "Getting Creative With The Truth"Tips and Tools of the Trade: Notes from a Writer’s Workshop (Part 1) Sadly, the economic downturn killed one of the most valuable programs offered by my hometown’s continuing education program – a mini writer’s workshop. The workshop – designed as a one day distillation of the larger, week-long writer’s conference hosted by the city […]
Read more "Telling Tales and Spilling Secrets"Getting Lucky Are you getting some? If not, why not? There are no rules. Get it where you can. “Don’t make it fancy. Do it on the kitchen table… flash like Jessica Lange’s white panties in The Postman Always Rings Twice. Do it in the back of a pew at church. Do it outside […]
Read more "You know what you need…get some!"Sketching and Jotting Your Way to Victory When you’re trying to write everyday – and especially when you’ve created a blog called the Daily Creative Writer – sometimes it can be hard to come up with material…especially creative material. I tend to do some of my best ad hoc writing when I’m stuck somewhere, like […]
Read more "Be humble. Be brave. Get it on the page."Turn On the Lights After law school I was a bit of a lost soul. I knew I didn’t want to be a lawyer – a realization not as unusual as you would think, even after you’ve dumped $100k on a legal education that now seems unsuitable and uncomfortable. I was working as a student […]
Read more "Mold It, Mend It, Change It…Just Make Sure to Write It"Tilling and Sowing the Acre of Characterization We are all main characters in our own stories, even if we sometimes wonder why it feels like we’re always getting second billing. And because we’re living out on own stories, sometimes it can be difficult to suspend our consciousness – or self consciousness – in order to […]
Read more "Developing the “character” of your character."“Even the smallest amount of self-nurturance will have an immediate and beneficial impact on our writing,” advises Julia Cameron in The Right to Write.
Read more "Date nights and the creative pause."