Feedback This month I’ve been taking a class in creative non-fiction over at The Porch. A dozen or so women sit around a big plank table each week, and we talk about delicious classics like “You Blow My Mind! Hey,…
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Anatomy of a Schism on ClearStory Podcast
The 29th Annual Southern Festival of Books charmed me in ways I did not expect. I met amazing people and had some great conversations. Before I got away, River Jordan interviewed me about Anatomy of a Schism for ClearStory Radio.…
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Clyde Edgerton: 8 Practices for Writing
Southern Festival of Books This weekend I met Clyde Edgerton and got to ask him about his practices for writing. Our interaction was one of many joys I found at the 29th Annual Southern Festival of Books (2017)! On Sunday…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ P
Planning One of the harder tasks in the world of writing is the planning required. Yet, planning helps spread out all the other tasks, and makes getting started one step. Otherwise, all the overwhelming steps come at you at once. Even writers long…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ R
How to Plan Your Writing Retreat Have you ever wished for an uninterrupted time of focused writing or editing? Yet you don’t want to sink back into binge writing that drains your life and energy, making you want to abandon…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ E
Eagle’s Eye View When I began my dissertation some moons ago, I attended a workshop where I learned a few strategies and approaches that I still use today when I write. The workshop facilitator, Dr. Cynthia Ganote, a sociologist and life coach, is…
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Ordinary Time: Wild with Words
The Body Remembers The grass was warm and dry under my bare feet. The labyrinth brought back the familiar feeling of rushing to the center, and long pausing at the middle, and dragging my feet with a desire to stretch…
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Wednesday Words for Writers – G
Go! Go! Gooooo! Sometimes the main thing holding us back from getting our writing done is simple inaction. We just need to go! Sit down. Open the document and go! We know what needs doing and simply need to do it.…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ D
Desk A clean desk invites fresh writing. And it can be a ritual or signal that it is the right time and place to write. Recently I visited a man who has started numerous Montessori schools. If he said to me…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ C
Confidence Crisis This is part of the occasional series Wednesday Words for Writers. Check out previous posts on the letter A and the letter B. This post comes from a recent response I made to one of the academic writers that I…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ B
Blocks What usually comes to mind when you think of “writer’s block”? Is it the blank page or flashing cursor on the screen? The stories and words that won’t be fully formed in your mind? Or is it that elusive idea that…
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Wednesday Words for Writers ~ A
ASK Writing is often a solitary enterprise. Yet all kinds of connections are needed for writing to begin, to improve, to be published, and of course to be read. In the early stages of writing one of the best things a writer can do…
Read MoreLent XXVIII
Lenten Lights BB ~ Writing Inspiration Today was a full day of writing … little bits on several different projects. Much of my schedule day to day is filled with writing. So I’ve opened a new page on my site…
Read MoreEpiphany I
Laugh, Cry, Do a Happy Dance Almost exactly six years ago, I decided to make the final push to finish my dissertation – after three years of writing fits and starts and many life pauses, including the birth of my…
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Breather For three weeks I’ve worked at a sprinter’s pace, with the urgency of a spiritual quest, and supported by friends, family and colleagues, on completing my book. This push comes at the end of several years of steady work,…
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Paid Writing Tonight I turned in my Upper Room Disciplines meditations for 2015. Working on them for two months, just a little each day, led to an on-time finished project. I wish all my writing could go that smoothly. Cultivating better habits…
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Writing Lessons | Part III Today’s book-writing goal was lost to oversleeping. However, a few things on my helpful writing lessons list don’t actually happen in an obvious way, or while I’m writing at all. 7. Running. Running is a spiritual practice for…
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Writing Lessons | Part II Yesterday I shared three ideas that help me with writing. Here are three more, each supported by the research of Robert Boice. They are less intuitive, and yet extremely useful in establishing a writing habit. 4.…
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