When my neighbor hollered at me over the fence, I was annoyed. Couldn’t she see I was deeply in my writing process? As the calls persisted, I realized what she was seeing might be a bit misleading. I wasn’t at my computer or furiously scribbling on paper. I was sprawled on the hill in our backyard with my eyes closed, the ... continue reading
Finding Your Quotable Self
I use quotes a lot. When I wrote my Backyard Pearls book, I started each chapter with a quote. I read quotes in my writing process teleclasses. I have whole files of quotes categorized by topic on my computer. So when I started creating the schedule for my next writing retreat, of course I began looking for quotes for just ... continue reading
Writing is Messy
The other day I was sitting in a discussion group when a woman walked in wearing a pale pink “Life is Good” t shirt. She seemed in a good mood… until suddenly she looked down and realized that there were food stains on her shirt. Mortified, she started making excuses, saying that she always left home with clean shirts, she ... continue reading
How to Finish
Do you know the difference between a finished and unfinished project? I can tell you in one word. Staying. I know that seems rather obvious. If we throw up our hands and quit, whatever we are writing or doing just doesn’t happen. But it’s even deeper than that. Author Leo Babuta says that the key to mastering and finishing ... continue reading
A Winter’s Creative Hibernation
It is 72 degrees right now, in January no less, and I am sitting in paradise. In my own back yard, with the rye grass a spring green, a bee strolling across my day planner, my dog laying next to the patio sniffing the air. Ahhhh… It feels like such a long ahhhh… because it feels almost as if I’ve been in a 3 month ... continue reading
Letting the Writing Take You
A couple of weeks ago I started writing my newsletter about a topic I love – pleasure. As I wrote, I was frolicking with words, playfully tossing them up to see where they’d land. And then I got sidetracked. I left my pleasure article holding a knapsack on the side of the road as I went off in other directions. Each day, ... continue reading
Finding Your Creative Wellspring on Retreat
I hear it every time. When I mention a day-long writing retreat, the first response from women is often a sigh and a dreamy look, like wouldn’t that be heaven. Then reality takes hold and the excuses begin. They don’t have time. They really aren’t “writers.” It sounds intimidating. And I always smile, knowing that when ... continue reading
A Room of One’s Own
I just had lunch with a memoirist friend of mine and we had a great discussion about stoking the flames of creativity. We are both working on a big project right now – she is writing her memoir and mining her past for details, while I am creating a new brand and also mining my past for clues on what it needs to be and what ... continue reading
Frittering, or what we do when we don’t want to do something!
Frittering. That’s the word my daughter uses to describe what she does when she’s actively trying to avoid doing homework, but so caught up in feeling guilty about not doing it that she doesn’t instead choose something she actually enjoys. In other words, frittering is how we pass time before and after the stuff that’s ... continue reading
Reconnecting with What Matters
I’m not quite sure when it hit me. Was it when I was floating on my back in the bright Mediterranean Sea? Or perhaps sitting on the roof of my cousin’s house in Crete, laughing and eating as the moon rose over the mountains? Maybe it was listening to the chanting of the priest in an ancient monastery as frankincense swirled ... continue reading