If you’ve been to an art gallery, especially an art gallery showing anything remotely modern or abstract expressionist, you’ve probably heard someone say “Pssh. That looks like something I could have done.”
Maybe you’ve said it yourself: “I could have done that.”
OK, but you didn’t. Maybe that’s a hum-dinger … Read more
When we read a story, we get transported to someplace.
For this to happen, people talk about the need for the reader to have a willing suspension of disbelief.
This phrase came from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Romantic writer.
… Read more“In this idea originated the plan of the ‘Lyrical Ballads’; in
The three act structure.
The hero’s journey.
Ah, fine, whatever. Study them as part of your love of story craft because you love it.
Not because they offer the right way to tell a tale.
To write a correct story is to write a dull and lifeless story.
Correct stories … Read more
I’m a freewriting evangelist. I love writing marathons.
I have found that the notion of writing without stopping spooks some people.
They’re worried that if they do that, they might tap into something. Awaken something profound (and profoundly suppressed) within them. Like… I guess something like the puzzle box in … Read more
Before I went to grad school to get my MFA in Creative Writing, I had a love of the written word.
I loved poetry and I loved myths and folktales. Strangle little tales were gems to me. I loved proverbs and wisdom stories.
They felt to me like spaces I … Read more
Sometimes I can catch them — the whispers and mumbles that tell me I can’t do something. Or I shouldn’t.
But I want to!
Is that my “inner parent?” Is it wisdom?
I don’t often know. So I check in with myself. When I check in, I ask questions like:… Read more
At least for today, give this a shot:
Let go of all your stinkin’ bigshot goals.
Completely let go. Drop ’em.
Ah. There now. That feels better. Spacious. Now you have room to breathe. What should you do with this beautiful blank slate?
Let’s see what happens when you invite … Read more
Imagination is the Divine Body in Every Man
William Blake
When you freewrite, you wander the imagination stomping or treading lightly, each step a word.
As you step, your feet collect tiny seeds and track them from place to place. Your every action while in the realm of imagination plants … Read more
When you write, do so with mad abandon.
Give yourself full license to go wild and be as tangled and all over the place as necessary.
Because it feels invigorating. A part of you craves the untamed fire of creation. You want it.
The inner critic doesn’t know how to … Read more
“Ah, there’s too much garbage out there.”
“So much bad writing! Art these days just doesn’t make any sense.”
“That looks like something I could do.”
When I hear people say these sorts of things, I can feel that they believe what they’re saying. And I know that they are … Read more