Catching a Serendipitous Concert under the Tiffany Dome at the Chicago Cultural Center
Sometimes life hands you bliss on a silver platter – but how to capture that joy? I will give it a try here by sharing a recent experience, and you, dear reader, will hopefully let me know if I succeeded. Last Wednesday I was touring downtown Chicago with my aunt and uncle, who were visiting from Michigan. We explored [...]
I Want to Write My Story, But Is It Worthy?
I love it when students share their concerns with me and ask questions that I am sure many writers ask themselves. Today I am sharing one such question (with my student's consent) because it is an important one for anyone who embarks on writing a personal story: Question: There are a lot of terrible things going on in the [...]
Writing Exercise: Color List – Brown
Another month has begun, so it's time for another color list. The color for November will be brown as it seems a month rich with so many earthly things. For the uninitiated, the idea here is to come up with ways to evoke brown without mentioning the color itself because one of the challenges in writing effective descriptions is [...]
Reflections on the Value of a Writers’ Conference
On my fourth day back home from the writersandcritters conference in Sterling, VA, I am still exhausted. Writers conferences will do that to you, even a small and intimate one like this. “You know it will take you days to recover from that,” my fourteen-year-old son said when I told him, somewhat proudly, that I’d been staying up until [...]
What’s in your Pocket? A Way to Characterize Yourself and Others
Looking at what you stuff into your coat pockets offers a sketch of your character. When I sifted through the spoils from our road trip, half of what I brought back were pieces of nature. I realized that I do this all the time. Take, for instance, the contents of any of my coat pockets: In almost every one [...]
Writing Exercise: Color List – Orange
What would fall be without pumpkins? So October's color is orange. For the uninitiated, the idea here is to come up with ways to evoke orange without mentioning the color itself because one of the challenges in writing effective descriptions is getting the color just right. Each month on this blog we work on one color, so far we’ve done [...]