Tag Archives: Arts

FiveTips For Writing — And Living — Our Best Chapter

It’s Friday, writer’s workshop day, and today I’ll be talking about the five ways that living our best chapter will help us to write our best chapter – and vice versa. We don’t have to be miserable to write well. … Continue reading

Posted in Writers, Writing, Your Best Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

All We Can Do Is Go Around Telling The Truth

Literary biographer Virginia Spencer Carr died today. She’s author of one of my favorite biographies, The Lonely Hunter, about Carson McCullers, who was one of my favorite writers. Carr’s book about McCullers was so compassionate and empathetic that McCullers’ widowed … Continue reading

Posted in Acceptance, Writing, Your Best Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Start From Somewhere. Somewhere is So Much Better Than Nowhere.

  My husband, Jonny, and I were running this morning along the Mediterranean Sea. We passed a woman huffing along, waddling slowly up the road. She was overweight and struggling. “At least she’s trying,” Jonny said. “You have to start … Continue reading

Posted in How to Change Your Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Life is Not A Test: You will Not Be Graded. You Will Always Be Applauded. (If You At Least Try.)

“Good writing…explodes in the reader’s face,” Joy Williams said. “Whenever the writer writes, it’s always three or four or five o’clock in the morning in his head.” When we write, we have to stumble forward recklessly, passionately, and willy-nilly, using only … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Writing In Appreciation Of Our Own Lives

I’m happy to announce the winners of last week’s writing contest in which I asked you to set a timer and give yourself five minutes to write down everything you love about your life right at this moment, right now. … Continue reading

Posted in Gratitude, places and things | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Why It’s Important To Write, Write, Write And Write Some More

I was reading Steve Almond’s essay in The New York Times about why writing workshops are so successful. Instead of going to talk therapy – where people talk their stories – they are going to writing classes where they write … Continue reading

Posted in Gratitude, Your Best Chapter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments