Posted in Personal Essays, Polish and Publish on Jan 22nd, 2011
Leave a comment about what interferes with your writing. Add your email address (which I won’t share) to win a free download of Polish and Publish: The Indispensable Toolkit for Creative Writers. No, not my home office furniture. That would keep me from writing, but my dear friend Ava just gave me her husband’s ergonomic [...]
Posted in Creative Writing Tips, Personal Essays, Polish and Publish on Jan 14th, 2011
If a publisher’s ever rejected your writing, you’re probably familiar with the doubt and self-questioning such a rejection can create. Since publishers seldom give their reasons for rejecting our work, we writers have made an (unpaid) industry out of trying to discover the reasons for ourselves. In my post, Rejected Writing, I shared a piece [...]
Posted in Creative Writing Tips, Personal Essays on Jan 14th, 2011
My sister, a longtime professor of literature at an elite college, once asked me, “What writing subject do you claim as your own?” Without hesitating, I answered, “Work.” Many people find that their writing tends to explore a single topic from a variety of angles. What subject draws you to it? It might be rearing [...]
Posted in Essays, Higher Education, Memoir Writing, Personal Essays on Dec 8th, 2010
Is the mere fact of having reported to eleven bosses in eleven years at a single institution adequate grounds for leaving a very good job? For a long time, my husband didn’t think so. But, then, he didn’t have to weather all those transitions—nor deal with two of my bosses, whom I’ll generously call “difficult.” [...]
Posted in Personal Essays, Polish and Publish on Nov 29th, 2010
Here’s an article I wrote about senior citizens writing—successfully. I hope you’ll enjoy it, especially those of you who thought it was too late! “Seniors Catch the Writing Bug”
Posted in Memoir Writing, My Mother's Money, Personal Essays on Nov 8th, 2010
I’ve put aside work on the memoir, My Mother’s Money, that I’ve written several posts about. The opening chapters could do with some revisions, and I don’t have many creative thoughts about them right now. I still feel the story is a gripping one, but I need to take a break from it for a [...]
Posted in Creative Writing Tips, Personal Essays, Polish and Publish on Oct 19th, 2010
Most writing fails to get published because of one main reason: The quality of the writing is weak. It’s flat, predictable, and uninteresting. It lacks depth and vitality. It doesn’t grab the reader’s attention quickly. Or it might be that the story, characters, language, or settings don’t show originality; everybody’s writing on that topic, and [...]
Posted in Personal Essays, Polish and Publish on Oct 15th, 2010
It was only when I was working on a press release about my book, Polish and Publish, last week that I realized why I so thoroughly enjoy teaching boomers and seniors creative writing. The main reason is that their lives and perspectives are so incredibly rich and valuable. You can’t imagine all I’ve learned about [...]
Posted in My Mother's Money, Personal Essays on Oct 12th, 2010
Now that I’ve sent off those first chapters of My Mother’s Money to the interested agent (at least she was interested before she saw the manuscript), I wonder if I could have made it better, stronger, more lyrical and compelling. Probably. But writing, revising, rewriting, editing, proofing, and reviewing—even with the help of my saintly [...]
Posted in My Mother's Money, Personal Essays on Oct 12th, 2010
A dying woman wanting her daughter to find money she’s hidden in her house. Three people in mid life finding out that their mother has left them money, but who have little idea where it is? And before they can get some of the money they know is waiting to be claimed by them, it [...]
