Waiting, again.

by | Feb 7, 2012 | Living in Place

Writers write. Then we submit and wait  – and worry. We wonder what’s wrong that editors take so long to decide our fate. This waiting reminds me of when I was single, living in New York City, wondering how I was ever going to marry if I couldn’t even get a...

Post Script to Cross Training

by | Jan 24, 2012 | Living in Place

Several readers have asked for the title of the book I’m using for my poetry exercises. Poetry Writing: Theme and Variation by David Starkey was published in 1999. While it’s still available in paperback, it costs $25. I’m using it because a...

Cross Training

by | Jan 24, 2012 | Living in Place

I’m a prose-writer. I write essays and novels and the occasional short story. I have strong prose muscles, muscles that allow me to think in sentences that are often long and complex, sentences that use repetition and subordination, sentences that mimic the thoughts...

Bird by Bird

by | Jan 10, 2012 | Living in Place

Ten days into the new year and I’ve already broken the resolutions I didn’t make, missing a day of exercise, eating a dessert I’d sworn off, and skipping a day at my desk. Back in the years when I made resolutions, these deviations from perfection would send me into a...

A Tool for Setting & Meeting Goals

by | Dec 28, 2011 | Living in Place

I long ago gave up making New Year’s resolutions, but ever since discovering Bylines: The Essential Weekly Planner for Writers, I’ve been setting clear, measurable, and achievable goals every day, week, month and year. Bylines is a Writer’s Desk Calendar with 53...