1. 97. Let’s Try That Again

   

   Sometimes it’s difficult to decide whose story to tell. You’ve got your conflict – a guy (let’s say he’s a photographer) leans over the guard rail of a bridge and may or may not be about to jump while a woman driving by thinks he needs saving and decides she’s the one to do it.

   Now you’ve got some choices to make about who gets to tell the story and how that character is going to tell it. Read more →

2. 98. Bitch Slap Your Inner Control Freak

   

   Ms. CF (a/k/a the control freak who rules my life) has been in my head a lot lately, making it hard to write. She and the rational side of my brain (let’s call him Mr. R) are besties. They love to commiserate about how to get me away from this writing…thing…and into something more practical and monetarily satisfying. Something safe. Something controllable. Read more →

3. 99. You’ll Never Guess What Happens Next

   

   To some writers–including me–plot can seem like the dirtiest, most despicable of four letter words. Read more →

5. 100. Embrace

   

   For this exercise, you get to choose an image to pair with the writing prompt. Read more →

6. 101. Let The Wheels Turn

   

   Here’s a writing exercise to do with your morning coffee, or over iced tea at lunch, or with a drink late at night.  Read more →

7. 102. The Days of Cards and Candy

   

   One of the hardest parts about writing is getting started. That’s why I incorporate writing exercises–both in-class and take-home–into all my classes. Writing exercises are a way to get the creative side of your brain working without the judgmental side chiming in. They’re a way of generating ideas. They’re a way of getting unstuck. Which is why I’ve decided to start sharing writing prompts on this blog.  Read more →

9. 103. Where Have All the Bookstores Gone?

   

   Bookstores and libraries have always been my safe havens. As a kid I spent long afternoons at our local library, where my mother would leave my sister and me while she ran errands. There, I browsed the shelves for new finds to borrow by the armful. Of course, there were certain books that I didn’t dare bring home–Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Forever by Judy Bloom–for fear my parents would take them away, deeming them too mature for a grammar school kid. Those books I read right there, at the long wooden tables in the adult reading room, where the librarians let my sister and me linger since we’d proven ourselves to be polite kids who read quietly, passionately, voraciously.

   Read more →

10. 104. Step Into Their World: Where Fiction Writing and Caretaking Converge

    

    I am a control freak, which makes it difficult to be a writer or a mother or a wife or a…well, you see my point.

    I’ve mostly learned to circumvent this particular quirk, at least when it comes to writing. It’s taken years, but I’m getting better at letting my characters figure out how to behave based on who they are and what they long for.

    Still, the control freak in me resists. Some days Ms. CF spends hours circling me, poking, prodding, jumping on my shoulder to whisper in her harsh, Gollum-y voice, “They’re nobodies. You’re the one writing. Make them do what you want. Make them!”

    Read more →

11. 105. Let’s Talk About Lit Mags

    

    There are so many great literary magazines out there, from established favorites like New England Review, Iowa Review, and Ploughshares, to exciting newcomers like Midnight Breakfast, Ink & Coda, and Origins, a new journal accepting submissions for its first issue.

    I’m an avid journal reader and like to share my favorites, especially now, at the beginning of submission season, when journals are re-opening their doors for submissions and writers are revving up to seek homes for their work.

    Read more →

13. 106. Submission Tips: Get Yourself on That Newsstand

    

    Submitting to literary magazines is always a hot topic in my workshops.

    Whether I’m introducing beginning writers to the lit mag world or I’m working with seasoned writers like those my Press Send Workshop, who revise a story, research submission markets, and then submit to their top four markets during the final class, I know that all my students are eager to discuss how to go about submitting their work to journals.

    And there is a method that gets results.   Read more →

14. 107. Embracing Our Bodies

    

    Ever since I participated in the Love Your Body Now project, the brainchild of Shannon Bradley-Colleary, I’ve found myself acutely aware of the growing number of projects that are intent on expanding our definition of beauty and teaching women to view themselves and their bodies with more kindness and love. Read more →

15. 108. All Kinds of Big Dogs: Blog Book Tour

    

    Recently, my paisan Eugenio Volpe tagged me in a Blog Book Tour meme where authors answer five questions about their writing process, post the answers on their blogs, and then tag three other authors to do the same.  Read more →

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