Memoirs often are quite sad, quite serious, because life is often that way. It's wonderful to be able to express grief, sadness, disappointment, abandonment, and other difficult and heart-wrenching emotions, because it is human to live through these things and come out the other side with the stories and lessons learned.
But many of the best…
Today is the second day of a rare government shutdown in conjunction with a historic implementation of controversial health care reform. Only time will tell how history will tell the story of this time (including whether it'll be remembered at all). I'm not going to dive into the politics of this moment, but I did…
Patricia, Molly J, and Carol Mason
I've been an Artist in Residence at MD Anderson Cancer Center for a while now, and my most recent workshop there was so incredibly fun. We had a live model, Molly, and her human, Carole. Molly is a therapy dog who visits patients at MD Anderson and lifts their spirits…
Around this time of year, as we ease back into our autumn routines, stepping away from the excitement and busyness of summertime, switching gears can be a little difficult. For a lot of people, this is the time when we need to gather our thoughts, take care of our bodies, and clear our minds. This…
It seems like the word "blessed" is thrown around very loosely these days. Not only are you "blessed" with a satisfying occupation or a beautiful family, but it seems like people tack that word on just about any situation that makes them feel good: "My souffle didn't collapse, I'm blessed!" or "You're so blessed with…
Humans are naturally terrible multitaskers. It's true. Even those of us who purport to being able to juggle many things at one time, distractions of any sort cause quality degradation in any and all of your tasks at hand. For many people, myself included, to avoid the doing-a-million-things-at-once-but-badly trap, invoking the imagery of sprinting is…
My friend Carl, who is an awesome poet, posted this quote by Robert Frost:
I think writing life stories is that way, too, even though we know the outcome of the particular moment we’re describing.
Sometimes, I start off with a clear goal in mind, and then something else takes over, and I go off on tangents,…
Great news on the software editing front
Many of you have heard me talk about the various editing software programs I use to improve my writing, and I have great news about one of my favorite programs: MyWordCount. The makers of MyWordCount recently released a new edition that has many new features and will now run…
In case you haven’t heard, our friends at Growing Bolder—Marc Middleton, Bill Shafer and the GB team—have conquered the small screen with their larger-than-life stories of “ordinary people in pursuit of extraordinary lives.”
I recently appeared as a guest on the Growing Bolder television show where Bill Shafer and I talked about the importance of writing…
In the spring nine-week class, our theme was journeys, and each week the assignment was given to write a story about a particular type of journey—physical, intellectual, emotional, and so forth.
In response to the prompt to write about a writing journey, class member Pat Guttery, gives us the following life-story-writing recipe in his story, “The…