Have you ever wondered whether writer’s block is really real, whether it is a true psychological problem that many writers, including myself, often claim thwarts their attempts to freely write their hearts out on the page? I have. What does writer’s block feel like? It feels like a wall, some say, that blocks their path on the writing road, prevents them from moving around it to the other side where they’ve traveled before when they wrote. They say “We want … Read More »

Looking to add some fun to your writing life? You may enjoy this playful exercise of combining words that don’t really go together, then making sense of them to start a story or poem. It’s a type of puzzle based on a fun task I experienced in a poetry workshop years ago in Tampa, Florida, in a program called “The Writer’s Voice.” It helped us warm up our creative juices and generate new ideas—sort of a wordsmith arts and crafts … Read More »

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world. This is our 24th year of praising poetry in April. The poet and physician William Carlos Williams (1883 – 1963) expressed poetry’s value this way: “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there.” … Read More »

In the writing game, sentences are our baseballs. Although not every sentence is a home run, isn’t our goal to hit at least one out of the park? Moving sentences like that requires aim and power. “The sentence is where we must start if we hope to understand why some writing captivates us and other writing leaves us unmoved.” This sound advice is from University of Iowa Professor Dr. Brooks Landon. Just as home runs move fans to stand up … Read More »

Are you writing a memoir? An autobiography? Do you know the difference between the two forms? In 2009, while my husband and I were on an overseas trip, I received a lesson in an outdoor classroom about the difference between autobiography and memoir. My teacher? A small brown snail. The snail lived in Indonesia, where, on the island of Bali, I met him when we stayed for two months in a traditional Balinese hotel in the town of Ubud. My husband was … Read More »

Here we are in mid-January, 2020—holiday celebrations are behind us and another year, another decade is open before us! If you are feeling any after-holiday blues, my message is, “Cheer up.” We are writers. We know a secret to ridding ourselves of the blues. What is it? Start writing. Write what you really feel, smell, see, hear, and touch. No one is watching. You’re free to lose yourself in some messy sentences, brainstorm new characters, or experiment with adjectives you … Read More »