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Remember when grade-school teachers insisted you include three to five complete sentences in every paragraph? That formula worked well for crafting elementary essays, but you’ll benefit from sometimes tossing aside that guideline in current projects. Variety adds spice not only to life but also to your writing rhythm. Shorter paragraphs make points with a punch. Longer paragraphs, on the other hand,

Register today to participate in my free Make Your Writing Shine Webinar on July 10th at 7:30 p.m. EST or July 11th at 12:30 p.m. Your stories are important and deserve to be clear and grammatically correct. They deserve to sing. Don't let your grammar and punctuation fears slow you down or stop you from sharing your wonderful stories. Your…

The Friday night dusk had already settled as the six o’clock hour came and went. We should have left our house for the beach hours ago. A five-hour drive late at night does not for a happy toddler make. Finally, the back door opened, and my husband rushed in. “I’m sorry, honey. I got tied up at work. Are you guys ready? I just need to change.” My fourteen-month-old daughter wrapped herself around his leg, giddy. It was after nine when we left, Sophie already in her pajamas. As we drove, I felt impatient and just wanted to be at the beach already. We had originally planned to make a stop en route to pay a brief visit to my mom and dad. But now, it was already so late.

Treasured American novelist, Philip Roth, passed away a few weeks ago at the age of eighty-five. His fictional work is known for having strong autobiographical influences as well as social commentary and political satire, but he also wrote several memoirs, including Patrimony: A True Story, which tells the story of Roth’s eighty-five-year-old father, Herman Roth, and his battle with a brain tumor.

This prompt comes to you from Writing Your Life team member, Jess Burbank. I am in the chaotic, uncertain, thrilling, and exhausting process of moving. A few months ago, my husband’s company was acquired and we were asked if we would be willing to move to Seattle from the current home we are renting in the San Francisco Bay area. Since that decision to move, my husband has started work at the new company and we have a new home, the first home we have ever purchased for our family of four. The home-buying process is difficult, but it is also fun, and had us thinking hard about what we’ve liked and disliked about the previous places we’ve called home. No place has been perfect, but each one has had some great or memorable quality.

A twenty-year-old young woman first stepped foot onto American soil, unable to speak a word of English. She felt nervous, frightened, and excited all at once. An arranged marriage had brought her out of her beloved Cyprus, an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, to Connecticut to meet her soon-to-be husband and his family.

As I wrote in the newsletter introduction, the last week of every month I will feature one or two of the bites from my book, Eating an Elephant: Write Your Life One Bite at a Time. What's in a name? A lot, according to bites eight and nine. No matter where you are in the writing process, I want you to name your book. Give it any name. You can always change it later. It is important to name your book now, even if you haven't written a single word. Why? I have a few reasons.

As William Zinsser writes in his book, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, "Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.” Let me make writing a little bit easier, as we get down to basics. You have the desire deep inside of you to write your stories. If you didn't, you wouldn't be reading this newsletter. It's hard, though, isn't it?