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Tag Archives: advice
Making Art in the Age of Trump
Writing takes spaciousness. It requires managing time and psychic space. It requires holding part of yourself away from things: reality, jobs, bills, money, even marriage and partnership and family. It requires keeping a large part of your heart and mind … Continue reading
Posted in Book tour, comfort, Community; Genorosity, Completing a novel, creativity, Day by day, Decisions, depression, economics, emotion, Energy, failure, fiction, Grief, Listening, marketing, privacy, Process, Public appearances, Publishing, research, silence, Society, spaciousness, Starting a new work, Stillness, Story, Strength, survival, Uncategorized, Visibilty, what artists need
Tagged advice, character, creative life, fear, giving up, life of a writer, priorities, process, productivity, promotion, public, renewal, research, spaciousness, Starting a new work, working, writing life
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Soothing the Reader
There is something important to remember and that is that the reader wants you to succeed. The reader of a novel wants nothing more than to forget she is reading. She wants to fall into your fictional world so deeply … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, comfort, Completing a novel, creativity, critique, Decisions, Drafts, emotion, failure, fiction, Uncategorized
Tagged advice, character, details, priorities, process, reader's trance, storytelling
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Free Advice
When you’re a writer, you receive a lot of free advice. A good deal of it (most, I’d say) comes from people who do not write. I’ve been told I have to learn Latin (which I have nothing against, but … Continue reading
Posted in Advice, Community; Genorosity, creativity, Day by day, Decisions, Elitism, Energy, fiction, happiness, Magic, Play, Process, spirit, success, survival, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Wildness
Tagged advice, character, creative life, fantasy, fear, giving up, life of a writer, process, Starting a new work
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The Conversation
This is a conversation I have had quite often: “How do I get to do what you do?” I am asked. “What exactly do you mean?” How do I get a book published? How do I get paid to teach … Continue reading
Resisting the Bullshit
When they say upgrade, go outside and chop some wood. When they say new and improved, tell them you like the old ways better. When they say get fit and fabulous, tell them you’re misfit and fabulous. When they say … Continue reading
Posted in Comparison, Competition, Consumerism, Decisions, economics, failure, Society, the world, Uncategorized, Wildness
Tagged advice, art and profits, creative life, priorities, public, self-worth
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Defining Self
Because I had difficulty absorbing the information given in school, and because I failed tests, I believed that I was stupid. Because I believed that I was stupid, I believed that I was inferior. Because I believed I was inferior, … Continue reading
Posted in Community; Genorosity, Comparison, Competition, creativity, economics, education, Elitism, emotion, Energy, failure, fiction, Gratitude, home, intuition, Philosophy, research, Self-worth, success, survival, The market, Uncategorized
Tagged advice, education, intuition, life of a writer, literary world, research, self esteem, self-worth, success, survival
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On Writing and Balance
This is from a talk I gave at the Franklin County Arts Council Writers’ Guild Spring Retreat on balancing a creative life with a work life. The problem is never time. It’s urgency. How much urgency do you feel? How … Continue reading
Posted in comfort, Comparison, Competition, Completing a novel, creativity, Day by day, depression, emotion, Energy, fiction, fun with what we do, Grief, Process, silence, spaciousness, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writing career
Tagged advice, character, creative life, fear, giving up, life of a writer, not writing, process, productivity, spaciousness, storytelling, writing life
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Writers and Editors
Editors work with energy. Writers also work with energy. But the energy is different. For a writer it’s deeper, it’s more personal, it’s intimate. This is not to say that what editors do is unimportant, only that writers have relationships … Continue reading
Posted in Completing a novel, editors, emotion, Energy, fiction, Philosophy, Process, Publishing, research, Revision, Story, Uncategorized
Tagged advice, character, creative life, life of a writer, literary world, process, storytelling, writing life
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Proof of Seriousness?
For years I wrote while holding down some sort of job that had nothing to do with writing. The jobs were not glamorous. House cleaning, bartending, carpentry, costumer, clerk in a grocery store, cocktail waitress, house cleaner again, and again, … Continue reading
