For nearly six years, each week I’ve posted my best teaching on writing and editing for motivation and practical help. I’ve taken a break or two, but the archive of several hundred posts prove it’s a priority for me–and it’s largely because I need to keep the wind in my sails and the breeze at my back. I write to myself to remind myself of
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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou For a long time, I believed the common wisdom about being a more productive writer. I took the usual advice about setting small steps, getting on a schedule and visualizing the end goal. But I could never follow through. Was there something wrong with me? Why couldn’t I stick with the
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“I had been forever altered by our brush with catastrophe….My instrument had changed. And I now understood that it would continue to change. That there would be more befores and afters ahead. Fighting it was futile, impossible. Accepting, even embracing this, was the true work, not only of being a writer, but of being alive.” – Dani Shapiro, Still Writing
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After committing to the slow, patient work of practicing writing, it’s time to consider exactly how you will deliver exactly what readers expect. A few years back, a writer friend of mine introduced me to a book by a well known with a compelling claim: screenwriting guru, Blake Snyder had figured out the formula for proven movie magic (here). I was skeptical because I know so
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