The streets baking with unrelenting heat. No joyful splashing sounds or cute kids in wet bathing suits following like ducklings after their parents. My neighborhood pool used to be a beauty—it had greenery […]. Techniques to get creatively unstuck when you know you want to write but are struggling with motivation and follow-through. Mary McBeth, editor of Memoir Magazine, […]. But there is another phenomena underneath the losses, moments of reflection about priorities, clarity around values.
In my life this takes […]. Lessons from writing therapy notes that can strengthen creative non-fiction writing, including how to communicate with editors. Using writing X-ray vision when rewriting to figure out exactly what is important to you about a story and how to foreground it.
This is a story about earrings, but it is also a story about the exquisite yearning to recapture the past. The day I got engaged I bought a pair of abalone earrings at the FallingWater gift shop. I wanted to remember my engagement—the joy and excitement we shared, the trepidation even.
The watery beauty of […]. As the evening wore on, I felt incredibly blessed to be in such good company so close to the ocean. I suck at plot. I suck at pacing. A couple of weeks ago, on my way to work to co-facilitate a group, while I was walking to the El and talking on the phone, a little fruit fly circumvented the shield provided by my glasses and flew straight into my eye. I was feeling a bit emotional before the fly thing happened. As […]. This approach allows your wisdom and expertise in the topic of you to shine […].
In periods of difficulty, when I achieve a little distance from that difficulty, I start thinking in more hopeful terms. I start thinking about joy and humor and hope, and how they are magnificent stars that can keep me oriented towards the things I wish for in life. About violence and fear. About grief and […]. I went to a bridal shower this afternoon and one of the bits of wisdom shared was that marriage is heartbreaking work.
