Here’s a strong cup of hot coffee—a writing prompt to get you writing in the morning, or any time of day. It’s a modified version of an exercise I was assigned in a college class on Human Potentials, a field of study made popular in the 1970s by American author Jean Houston. We explored many capacities that we human beings have, including the ability to observe, in a flash, what we see in front of us. As writers, we know … Read More »

Whether or not you are a member of a writing group, consider having a WHAT group once in a while to augment your writing life. I came up with the acronym—Writing Here Alone Together—but the concept is not new. All it means is that I invited a group of writer friends to my house to sit and write. I’ve held only a few WHAT sessions at my home, but already they’ve given me a nudge to keep writing. Here’s how … Read More »

Diction is being picky about words. Picky, picky, picky — my mother’s lament when I whined about my meal. I wanted borders on my plate. I cringed at green beans crossing over mashed potatoes or meatloaf touching corn. “It all goes to the same place,” she’d say. Still, I persisted in moving food apart. Why? Taste matters. Our writing all goes to the same place, too: to a reader’s mind. But we don’t just heap word upon word like mashed … Read More »

I admit it. I’m hooked on mysteries. It started when I was a kid—lying on the couch with my grandmother’s quilt pulled up to my chin—reading Nancy Drew stories. Not much has changed over the years. Like every Agatha Christie junkie, I love deciphering a whodunit, especially mysteries I watch on the MHz network. Reader alert: if you don’t like following sub-titles in most of the shows, skip this channel. One of my favorite MHz series is Edderkoppen, Danish for … Read More »

“Great ideas fly through the universe all the time. Stand still long enough and one of them will hit you.” That was Isaac Asimov’s answer to the question of where he got his fantastic story ideas. At least that is what fellow science fiction writer Ben Bova said of Asimov, scientist and famed author of nearly 500 books, many in the genre of science fiction. Of course, the universe is rife with great ideas! But to catch a great idea, … Read More »

Remember the song “Tighten Up” by the R&B group Archie Bell & the Drells, a 1968 #1 hit? Those of us “of a certain age” do. Fast forward to a recent day when I woke up thinking about that song and its connection to writing. What connection? A major challenge to our imaginations referred to as cutting out lazy writing. What can we tighten up and cut? Let’s start with clichés. Cut Clichés Tighten up writing by banishing clichés—those overused … Read More »