Person on the Page

  • 25,000 Words by April 1?

    25,000 Words by April 1?

    I’m fired up! I just finished reading Jami Attenberg’s new book 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. Reading her book led me to explore #1000wordsofsummer, a popular movement in which people commit part of their summer to writing a thousand words a day.  Attenberg advises, “Write 1000 Read more

  • Writing about Abusive Parents: What’s in a Title?

    Writing about Abusive Parents: What’s in a Title?

    When I first saw Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died among my Amazon book recommendations, I decided not to read it. First, I don’t usually read memoirs by celebrities. I prefer to read memoirs by writers. McCurdy earned some recognition as a Nickelodeon child star, so she is among the many celebrities who Read more

  • Blog Post, Interrupted

    Blog Post, Interrupted

    Several weeks ago at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, I presented a paper titled “Othering the Self: The Potential Benefits of Assigning College Students to Write Personal Narratives from a Second Person Point of View.” I intended to blog about my presentation immediately after the conference. But when I returned  Read more

  • Should We Set Writing Goals?

    Should We Set Writing Goals?

    I am writing this on New Year’s Eve, in the midst of the resolution-setting season. As I’m sitting here, I imagine that writers out there in the world are considering whether or not to set writing goals for the upcoming year. A born plan-maker and strategy-formulator myself, I have posed writing challenges for myself in Read more

  • The Letter “A” Is Yellow

    The Letter “A” Is Yellow

    This semester I assigned my creative writing students to write a concrete poem—one in which words are placed on the page so that they create an image that helps to convey the poet’s message. One student wrote her poem in the form of a square. When we workshopped it in class, I suggested that the Read more

  • Surfing the Web’s Great Creative Nonfiction

    Surfing the Web’s Great Creative Nonfiction

    I am always looking for great creative nonfiction that is easily accessible on the Web.  Here are some essays that I have found recently. I hope you will check them out and enjoy them. .  Hannah Howard Grilled Cheese and Grief: How I Cooked My Way through Postpartum Depression I’m a fan of Hannah Howard’s books Read more

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Do you write about yourself and your experiences? Do you write about traumatic events in your life? Or, do you struggle to find time and motivation to write?

If so, this blog is for you.

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