Persistence
A Room Of Your Own
I hear myself say this is such a busy school year and I have to laugh at the joke. It’s always a busy school year. Life is unexpected and social ... Read more
Permission to write something fun.
A Room Of Your Own
Last night, I wrote a story just for fun. I had assigned myself the story and I had to have it written by the time the bell rang for my ... Read more
Temps will be in the eighties all week
Teaching
The first full week of school and temps will be in the eighties all week. The fast pace of the year has started and I find myself keeping up and ... Read more
Starting the year right: On teaching and writing
On writing
Today is my fourteenth Professional Day. Wait—thirteenth. The year I started teaching I was hired six weeks into the school year. This is the day before school starts, kids gathering ... Read more
What I learned from binging…
On writing
When I read I almost always pick up something longer. I subscribe to magazines and journals but rarely read them. I have read plenty of short stories and essays, but ... Read more
First draft reminder.
A Room Of Your Own, Uncategorized
There are some things I should have learned by now. This isn’t my first first draft. This morning, approaching twenty thousand words, in the zone of the scene I was ... Read more
You are not alone.
On writing
Natalie Whipple writes here about the struggle with confidence that I have heard every writer I know struggle with at some point. Her assessment rings pretty true to me and ... Read more
Valuable critique
Critique
At first Ms. Puglisi’s ideas here at The Bookshelf Muse seemed brilliant. I had already pulled out a pad of paper to start making my list, when this voice in ... Read more
When writing isn’t it’s own reward…
A Room Of Your Own
Here’s someone who agrees with me that just about anything you can imagine will work so long as it works for you. Walks and yoga are rewards for me, but I’ll ... Read more
Beginning, again.
On writing, Uncategorized
One has to be comfortable with beginning again to stick with writing. I am beginning summer again, that time when hours of time for writing open, which, paradoxically, can slow ... Read more