When my friend, the brilliant writer and performer Elaine Blanchard, invited me to participate in “The Next Big Thing” blog roll project, I was delighted. I met Elaine at a writing conference back in the mid 2000s. We share a background of being clergy who have experienced challenge in the church. We also share a...Read More
My 9th grade English teacher taught me to listen to and love the sound of words. She loved the way these words rolled off her tongue: “garage” and “gasoline.” Her favorite words conjured up memories of Saturday mornings at the gas station with my grandfather. I loved the free Sugar Daddy caramel pops they gave to...Read More
My children like to verbalize our dogs’ thoughts. As we ride in the car, they each give voice to one of the dogs, carrying on long conversations. Try it: Imagine what the animals in your novel have to say to each other. If your novel has no animals, imagine what your own animals are saying...Read More
Have you heard of, “saidism?” No, I did not misspell sadism. Saidism most commonly refers to the conceptions of Professor Edward Said. But lately, some bloggers have used the term saidism to refer to either the overuse of the word “said” or the overuse of fancy dialogue tags like “exclaimed” or “announced.” Here’s an exercise...Read More
Last summer, when our family visited Shelburne Museum in Vermont, we took in Elizabeth Berdann’s exhibit Deep End. In her miniature portraits, she portrayed “humans as mythological sea creatures.” We were captivated by both the portraits and the stories. As our family talked about these traditional water myths, my son kept asking, “Really?” As in, could...Read More
Last summer, I had the opportunity to teach writing at the Milwaukee Art Museum. As we worked with students in developing characters, we asked them to choose a character from a painting and then create a Facebook profile for that person. Try it. Take a character from your novel and craft a Facebook profile for...Read More
I struggle to be present. When I’m exercising, I plan my writing time. When I’m writing, I worry about what’s lurking in my email. When I check email, I’m trying to figure out how I can answer 80 messages and find time to blog. Ugh! Writing haiku helps me to connect to the present moment....Read More
I keep a journal filled with ideas for my blog and novel writing. Usually I jot down ideas as they hit me throughout the week—sometimes in the journal, often on the notes app on my mobile phone. Once in awhile, I think it would be fun to go on an idea hunt. You know—set aside...Read More
Just as the year was ending, I saw this on Facebook: “This January, why not start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about the good things that happen. Then on New Year’s Eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.” (https://www.facebook.com/patronofthearts) The prompt captured my imagination. I’m...Read More
I met Dara Lurie on Twitter and was thrilled to discover her amazing site, Transformative Writing. I am delighted to welcome her to the blog today with this amazing writing prompt on mapping vulnerability. She’s also generously offered to give away a copy of her book, Great Space of Desire, to one of our readers....Read More
