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Chances are when we settle down to edit what we’ve written, we are extremely familiar with it. We know what’s coming, and it’s this intimate knowledge that creates editing issues for us. Missing word? No problem. Our mind understands what we meant. The problem is, the reader may not be so clever. One key to editing…

Patricia speaking at Monterey County, California Library Everyone has a story to tell. What’s yours? Learn ways to recount the tale only you can tell in this fun and lively workshop with PatriciaCharpentier, multi-award winning author of Eating an Elephant: Write Your Life One Bite at a Time. Discover ways to put your experiences on…

The books of William Zinsser, noted journalist and professor, have been a profound teacher for me along my writing journey. His words provide insight as well as inspiration, and I routinely return to my Zinsser collection time and time again. In Writing About Your Life, Zinsser states, “One of the pleasures of writing a memoir is to…

As a challenge from my mentor and friend, Lezlie Laws of LifeArt Studio, I jumped into the daily writing pool two weeks ago. The website 750words.com is a digital take off on Julia Cameron's morning pages where you're asked to write at least 750 words each day about anything of your choosing. It can be parts of…

I know the holidays are coming, and you can rattle off a thousand reasons why it's not a good time to start anything new or begin a fresh challenge. I understand, but that is also a way we keep ourselves from stretching. I often accomplish the most when I have the least amount of time.…

This week, the National Book Awards revealed its long list of nominees, and the nonfiction category has some interesting contenders. The National Book Awards are given annually "to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America." Some of the topics for the ten nonfiction books selected…

If your intention for the remainder of 2015 is to write a book that will make you a lot of money and enable you to say I quit to your boss, you might want to hold off a bit on writing that resignation letter. This week, the Author's Guild released results of a survey of authors' incomes that may make…

We're still a week or so away from the day-long Vivify Your Writing workshop but act before October 31st and reserve your place at the writing table for a discounted price. For just $60—that's $15 off the full price—spend seven hours in the company of people you'll enjoy, relish the beautiful surroundings of Lake Fairview and…

Our time is neatly divided into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years, and so forth. I've been thinking about the last quarter of 2015 and how I intend to spend that time, where I intend to focus my energy and effort. Intention is a powerful tool, one I'm learning more about every day.    …