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A project that terrifies me
For the past month I’ve been working on a project that terrifies me. Which means, of course, I haven’t really started it. It’s an idea I’ve had for two – or maybe it’s three…
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On Rituals: My Magic Writing Shawl
This morning I pulled my (as I once called it) ‘magic writing shawl’ out of the closet. It’s from a time when I would sit on the floor to write, snuggled in the corner,…
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Really Very Wicked
“Once there lived a King, whose wife was dead, but who had a most beautiful daughter—so beautiful that every one thought she must be good as well, instead of which the Princess was really…
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Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-I-can’t-hear-you
For weeks I’ve been struggling with the point of view of my current short story. For a Story is a State of Mind exercise, I chose a first person central point of view, but that exercise…
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Excuses, Excuses
I’ve been reading Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer as part of my weekly craft reading. In his introduction to the text, John Gardner writes that the problems facing new writers haven’t changed much from 1934 (when…
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A metaphor for the writing life
I saw this time lapse video by Jean-Michel, Timelapse: une araignée tisse sa toile, via BrainPickings several weeks ago and have been meaning to post about it ever since. It seemed, when I watched it, such…
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The Hardest Part
Today marks my second weekly intensive writing day since all of The Maple Leaves madness started a few months ago. You could say that I had my share of intensive writing days as I…
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(Over)Planning
I just finished The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I’ve been reading it since late December. It started as a way of trying to go back to basics and establish a more positive routine.…
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On Failure and Forgiveness
I’ve been editing. This is the hardest part of the process for me. Through Story is a State of Mind, I’ve been cultivating a judgement-free space for my freewriting, for my first drafts. It…