Writing Tips
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Write on the Back Burner
A Meditation for When You Feel Stuck in Your Writing I grew up surrounded by my mother’s big family in the northeastern reaches of Appalachia. Mother and her eight siblings were products of the Depression — hard-shelled, thrifty people who remembered what it was like to go hungry and live without warm clothing and well-fitting… Continue reading
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Please Don’t Grab Me with Your Hooks
A quick Google search for websites that offer advice to writers reveals a popular adage. Writers must “grab” a reader’s interest with their writing. And they should do so by including a “hook” that captures and holds their reader’s attention. I propose that these concepts of grabbing and hooking are detrimental to the relationship that… Continue reading
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What Anne Lamott Said to Me (Sort of)
One of the advantages of living near Ann Arbor, Michigan, is the opportunity to be part of the thriving literary community that revolves around the University of Michigan’s prestigious Zell Writers’ Program. When I moved here twelve years ago, I declared that I had landed in Writer Heaven. One of Ann Arbor’s gems (in the… Continue reading
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Writing Prompts, Revisited
In my previous post, “Wondering What to Write About? Try These Prompts,” I listed ten writing prompts that I have offered my creative nonfiction writing students to help them overcome their anxiety as they approach a blank page. Sometimes writers need a nudge from outside of their own minds to get them started. A prompt… Continue reading
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Wondering What to Write About? Try These Prompts
We are writers. We are committed to writing regularly. Some of us face a blank page every day. Writing is generally a solitary exercise. The topics about which we write arise from the deluge of our thoughts, from the minutiae of our impulses and emotions. Sometimes, though, our minds may feel blank. What will we… Continue reading
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Put the Person on the Page with a Collage Essay
Try this. Consider that subject about which you have had trouble writing. A difficult experience, a problematic person in your life, an emotionally challenging circumstance. That subject that you want to write about, but when you try, the writing turns out dull, awkward, or lifeless. Yes, you know the subject. Rather than trying to write… Continue reading
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.
Person on the Page 