In the past few years I’ve begun to tune in to the wavelengths of the world — like a radio receiver — and now strangers tell me their lives. I don’t know who they are until I’ve let them use me to narrate. I think it began with my discovery of the unsolved murder in [...]
Archive for the ‘Writing process and tips’ Category
Writing Tip by Felice Picano
Posted in autobiography, creative non fiction, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on May 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Writing Prompt by Steven Reigns
Posted in Los Angeles County Artist-in-Residence, Poetry, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing prompts on May 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I love how poetry (and most types of writing) can illuminate actions, items, and feelings that we might not normally explore or question. For the past five years I’ve solely taught autobiographical poetry workshops. The work generated from these workshops is the perfect mixture of poetry, my lifelong love, and my inherent fascination with others. [...]
Writing Tip by Sholeh Wolpe
Posted in Poetry, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on May 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Five nails to hammer into your writing desk: –A poem is a sauce you simmer and simmer until your reach its potent and aromatic essence. This you do with editing. Learn to edit your work. It’s an art. It’s a skill. –Use metaphors to render the most ordinary into extraordinary. –Jack Gilbert in his poem, [...]
Writing Tip by Sarah Maclay
Posted in writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on April 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
That Hemingway Thing “Just write one true thing . . .” I can’t tell you how many times this has gotten me out of a jam. And that’s “true” with a small t. Try a Big T truth and this will have the opposite effect: it’ll shut you down. Plus it will probably be abstract, [...]
Writing Tip by Janet Sternburg
Posted in creative non fiction, memoir, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on March 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is about the old chestnut: “Do you write every day?” And if you answer, “yes,” then chances are you’ll hear another old chestnut: “What discipline you must have!” Nope. It’s not discipline. I always think of discipline as beating yourself on the shoulders with a stick. It’s actually a writer’s “trick.” Let yourself fall [...]
Writing Tip by Lisa Teasley
Posted in Fiction, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on March 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Take Notes When it comes to fiction, my primary discipline, I’m brought to the page by character: his or her peculiarities, vulnerabilities, self-perceived shortcomings, and conflicts with others. If I’m stuck in any way with narrative flow, I’ll take notes on the character’s history, whims, scuffles, crises, and then come back to the page fresh [...]
Writing Tip by Ching-In Chen
Posted in writers, Writers at Work Recommends, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on March 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Write Against Yourself I’m attracted to routine — the daily act of sitting down with my cup of tea and my attempt at cultivating a daily writing practice. But I easily revert back to writing poems that feel like a familiar place where I might be turning around in a circle over and over again [...]
Writing Tip by Eric Gutierrez
Posted in creative non fiction, Fiction, Writers at Work Recommends, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on March 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
That throbbing cursor at the top of an empty computer screen at the beginning of a new tale is the Medusa that can often turn imagination into stone. To get past not getting started I still use that old trick of writing the last sentence first, regardless of whether I’m writing fiction or non-fiction. If [...]
Writing Tip by Kelly Hayes-Raitt
Posted in Blogger, creative non fiction, travel writing, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Discover your assets! With no income and possessing only a desire to complete a book about my work with Iraqi refugees, I realized my greatest albatross is really my greatest asset: my house. I decided to take a year and rent out my home while I travel, live elsewhere for free – and write. I [...]
Writing Tip by Catherine Daly
Posted in Blogger, creative non fiction, Poetry, writers, Writing process and tips, Writing Tip on February 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Stress: A Revision Exercise for Prose or Poetry Don’t really SCAN. Mark the stresses in your piece, or, if it is long, start with the first paragraph. You might work through each character’s dialogue separately. Even if this is a poem composed in meter, ignore scansion and merely looking at stresses. Marking stresses may [...]
