Do You Have A Lot of Unfinished Work?
I do. I tend to work on something until it’s 85% finished and then I get distracted by something new and I wander off. The result is...
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- Feb 25
Join Me for a Micro-Memoir Workshop Starting Next Week
Do you have lots of life to record and not enough time to do it? Do you yearn to document thoughts and memories but don’t seem to get...
- Jan 14
What To Do If You Can’t Write
After I collapsed 2 large writing projects — a memoir and an essay collection — I felt so inadequate. Everyone else is able to publish...
- Nov 6, 2023
I’m Buried Under a Pile of Not Good Enough
I’ve been kind of blue for a month now. I’m embarrassed to even talk about this when people are dying and losing their homes and families...
- Oct 9, 2023
When Reality Falls Short of the Dream
Last week I read over the 31 micro-memoirs I’ve been working on for the past month and a half. A heavy feeling settled into my bones:...
- Sep 11, 2023
The Beauty of Small Goals
When I start a new project, I want to capitalize on that energy by going full force. Dream big! Sky’s the limit! You can do anything you...
- Aug 28, 2023
Writers Need to Be Their Own Managers
When we got home from our summer trip to Italy, I was at a crossroads. Not only had I abandoned the idea of writing a book-length memoir,...
- Jul 31, 2023
Write Like You’re Practicing the Piano
Have you ever thought: I write a lot but finish little? Or where is the reward for all this work? Or I just lost 3 years on this novel...
- Jun 22, 2023
Let the Microphone Write for You
If you don’t have to have time to sit down with a pen and notebook, then your writing time is limited. Or so I used to think. Now I write...
- Jun 5, 2023
To Forget Your Fears, Remember Death
Ever since the pandemic ended, I’ve been trying to figure out why I felt so alive, so prolific, and so unafraid to share my work with the...
- May 1, 2023
Can you hold back the world for a little bit?
On the day before our spring break vacation, I felt I was screwing up left and right — with our Airbnb guests, with our neighborhood...
- Apr 10, 2023
Reading is Like Finding Hidden Eggs
When I was growing up, we would wake up on Easter morning and find baskets of jelly beans and foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies sitting in...
- Jan 30, 2023
I'm Taking Time to Rest
This winter has felt like a time to calm down all my striving, and planning, and posting, and declaring, and sharing. I am paying close...
- Dec 12, 2022
Honor the Angel Inside
You hear about artists neglecting their house, their children, their hygiene while whirled in the throes of a creative project. When I...
- Nov 14, 2022
What Is the Next Brave Thing I Must Do?
Last weekend I facilitated my very first writing retreat. Pleasance Silicki and I planned a weekend swirled with healthy meals and...
- Oct 30, 2022
Make an Anteroom for Your Creative Space
Every weekday morning I walk up Wisconsin Avenue, where cars muscle to get downtown fastest, toward the school where hundreds of parents...
- Oct 3, 2022
When you leave the maze, keep a red thread
Writing a book is like solving a maze: paths that lead nowhere, sign-less intersections, circling roads that never end. It’s so...
- Sep 19, 2022
When the wind picks up, who holds you down?
My husband has been dreaming of buying an apartment in Italy for years. I resisted and resisted, until I finally gave in. In one of our...
- Aug 12, 2022
Lie Fallow and Receive
Over the past month, I have had 3 chances to stop all my planning, striving, and doing — and simply rest. Two I asked for; one I didn’t....
- Aug 1, 2022
Let It Be
Over the past two weeks, I have been convinced I had either a peptic ulcer, gallstones, Covid, stomach cancer, tropical bacteria, or a...
- Jun 27, 2022
Eccentric Artist? That’s You!
I used to lust after quirky artist routines. Maya Angelou would write in hotel rooms from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. with nothing but a dictionary,...
- Jun 13, 2022
Writing as a Spiritual Practice
A few mornings ago, as my eyelids opened and my brain came online, the usual thoughts rushed in. What do I have to do today? What didn’t...
- May 23, 2022
4 Reasons Why It’s So Hard to Create
It's a conundrum that torques every creative person: if I love doing my creative work, why is it so hard? Why do I have to assemble in...
- May 16, 2022
Make a Container for Your Sacred Emotions
Re-experiencing traumatic events through writing or making art can unleash a tidal wave of emotions. For me, this used to result in not...
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