To get a monthly summary of these letters instead of weekly, please click this link and your wish will be honored. Last week, my husband and I caught an advanced showing of the documentary “LORNE, which is about the creator of Saturday Night Live (a comedy show in the United States). Initially, I was skeptical of this documentary about Lorne Michaels. Yet, I ended up surprised that I absorbed useful lessons from his work life. A lot of these lessons apply to both writing and life in general....
21 days ago • 1 min read
In the Paris Review, the writer Emmanuel Carrère talked about how he drafted a book that wasn’t working out. (That's pretty normal, by the way.) To say goodbye to his project and honor the effort he put into it, he wrote a letter to himself about what he had tried to do with the book. The process of writing about his ideas led him to a breakthrough, and he was able to finish. So, why did this work? My theory is that something called our "reticular activating system" (RAS) played a role. The...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
If you're thinking about using AI to help write your book, please hang on a sec. AI promises speed, yet there's a hidden cost authors discover. Editing becomes harder after using AI. So, why is that? Well, AI text usually doesn't have a consistent voice. On the surface, it's wording can sound polished while lacking the specificity that creates a voice. To top it off, you're fighting against a style that isn't yours when you edit. This means you can spend hours rewriting paragraphs that read...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi writer friend, We drove 1,000 miles over the past ten days visiting friends, family, and the bluest lake in Michigan (Torch Lake). We also accidentally walked onto a live movie set, but I'll save that story for another time. Over dinner near the Little Traverse Bay, a friend told me that he learned to overcome self-doubt by pretending to be dead. He used to spend ages writing one poem, and he wasn't sending his work out for publication. By pretending to be dead, he's able to create more...
9 months ago • 2 min read
You’ve given so much...to your family, your career, your community. Now it’s time to turn toward something for you. What if that “something” is your story? The free Storytelling Forum is a 45-minute workshop designed for people who are ready to explore creative writing, which can mean poetry, short fiction, or personal stories. You don’t have to be a writer. You just have to be curious. Each session of the Forum is different, so whether it’s your first or your fourth, you’ll find something...
10 months ago • 1 min read
Asking the right questions is one way to improve your output as a writer and to spare yourself heartache in the process. The right questions help you gain clarity on your project, audience, purpose, and structure. Thinking about a writing project can seem overwhelming. So, I put together three question sets to help you start gaining clarity on your concept. [The following question set helps you find juicy, undiscovered angles.] What are others not saying about your topic? What have people...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
Can a method used for software development be successfully used for writing? That’s one question I hoped to answer in a recent writing process exploration. In agile software development, teams work in “sprints” to accomplish goals. Sprints are defined as “fixed length periods of work that last one month or less to create consistency and ensure short iterations for feedback.” (scrum.org) The definition sure sounded like it could apply to writing. The idea of sprints with focused goals appealed...
over 1 year ago • 2 min read
Coffee breaks have become strange. I work from home. When I can, I take a coffee to the front porch on certain afternoons. Well, the neighbor’s black cat keeps visiting my yard. Even though he was born in May, he owns the street. No one ever told him he couldn’t. So, he is the king at 16 weeks. Let me back up a minute. I said he visits “my” yard. To clarify, my yard is now his territory. I'm merely a subject in his kingdom. Ha. Over the summer, Spicy (yes, my daughter named him) would come...
over 1 year ago • 2 min read
Comedian Karen Mills had one main job as a high-level college basketball player. She was to pass the ball to the team’s center to take the shot. Despite barely taking any shots herself during games, her coach made her successfully make 250 shots at practice before letting her go home. That means, every four practices, she was making 1,000 successful shots. Mills said, “I didn’t understand why I had to stay and shoot when I didn’t hardly shoot in the game.” She soon learned why. In their...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read