Writing True Stories about Folks and Family
In her bestselling memoir, “The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls writes about how her mother urged her author daughter to “just tell the truth.”
However, in many families and for many of us nonfiction authors, it’s rarely that simple.
On Valentine’s Month: Love Letters to Writing
Writing can be difficult. It can also be joyful. During Valentine’s Month, enjoy these love letters to writing.
2023 Review and 2024 Writer Resolutions
It’s New Year’s Eve, so I’m taking a look back at some writing highlights from 2023. I also list what these opportunities have taught me for 2024. Making your New Year’s writing resolutions? Read my top three resolutions for 2024.
Write Your Way Through a Blue Christmas or Winter Blues
Yesterday, on the winter Solstice, my essay, “Blue Christmas? You’re Not Alone” was published at “The Wisdom Daily.”
The piece is about how, for many of us, this time of year is more about loss than celebration.
“Just Do Your Own Work:” On the 10th Anniversary of Séamus Heaney’s Death
As a 17-year-old undergraduate student in Dublin, I was lucky enough to have Séamus Heaney as my professor and the chair of our college English Department.
Be Independent: Own and Drive Your Own Writing Career
I’m a bit of a Grinch when it comes to holidays, but this July 4, American Independence Day, it feels like we have some things to reflect on. Also, as we still grapple with the losses and unknowns of our COVID pandemic, there are many things to celebrate.
Fair Pay: 6 Tips for Writers (and writing teachers)
Last month, as I filled my dining room table with receipts and mileages and 2022 credit card bills—all to prepare and file my 2022 taxes—I noticed a pattern.
Sharing Your Writing Drafts? Here's My "No" List
This morning, as I started yet another round of edits to my novel in progress, I thought, “Couldn’t I just hire someone to read and edit for me? Let them scribble all these notes and reminders in the margins.
How Much Money Do Writers Earn or Make?
Before we get into money and numbers here, here’s one writer’s response to the earning-a-living-from-writing thing:
“A couple of years ago I went to a writer’s conference, and speaker after speaker basically said, ‘I always wanted to write, but I had to work, but then I married a rich guy and quit my job and now I can write.’
Several of us wondered how to sign up for the ‘find a rich guy’ break-out session.”
Public Libraries and the Public Good
After I graduated from college in Dublin, I set up house in a studio flat at the top of a house in a tiny, one-street town in the Irish midlands.
In-Person or Online? Which Writing Workshop Is Best for You?
In late spring 2020, as we all adjusted to the COVID-19 lockdown, I moved most of my creative and wellness-writing workshops online.
Two months later, by mid summer, I had learned this: It’s not enough to be a talking head blathering away on that screen.
Holiday Gift Ideas for Writers
Last year, the best gift under my tree was a packet of black, ball-point pens from one of those office supply mega stores. I mean “best,” as in, this was the gift that got me really excited, that I couldn’t wait to open up and use.
On Halloween: How To Face Down Your Writing Fears
Last year, the best gift under my tree was a packet of black, ball-point pens from one of those office supply mega stores. I mean “best,” as in, this was the gift that got me really excited, that I couldn’t wait to open up and use.
What Questions Should You Ask Before You Lead a Writing Workshop or Retreat?
Most of us are flattered when we're asked to speak to a group or lead a creative or expressive writing workshop. But there are questions to ask before you sign up.
I’m passionate (some would say ‘cranky’) about our right to tell our own story, to document our lived experiences as they have happened to us and have been processed through our individual consciousness.
How to Write in a Café or Coffee Shop
This is my local coffee shop, Chococoa Baking Company. It’s locally owned, and I love sitting on their patio—yes, even in winter.
During our 2020 COVID pandemic lockdown, this bore true for me, and the thing I missed most from my “normal” life was … no, not dining in restaurants, not outdoor barbecues, not shopping centers (yuck), not bars and certainly not gyms (yuck again).
How Do I Do A Great Author Reading or Event? 5 Tips for Doing Great Author Events, Readings and Presentations
How do I do a great author reading or book launch?
Begin with ‘thank you.’ Event managers have invested time and resources to host you, the author. Equally, the audience members have taken the time to attend. So ‘thank you’ is a really good place to start. And finish.
How Much Can We Write About Our Families (as non-fiction writers)?
Should we tell all truths in personal essays or creative nonfiction?
As a creative writing teacher, students sometimes ask about how to write a personal essay without bashing or trashing the real-life characters (family, friends, employers, ex partners) therein.
Why I Read Other Immigrant Writers
6 Favorite Books by Immigrant Writers
Isn’t it strange how you can spend an afternoon writing something and then, years or months later, completely forget that you wrote it?
Writing Nonfiction: Whose Truth To Tell?
Recently, I read a “New York Times (NYT)” Modern Love essay, “Please go Shelter in Another Place.” The NYT essay is written by a woman whose husband decided to spend part of the pandemic lockdown apart from his wife. After 25 years of marriage, he moved out of the family home and into a nearby AirBnB.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Next Virtual Writing Workshop
Should I take a virtual writing workshop? How to get the most out of Zoom or other virtual writing courses.
Last year, 2020, our COVID year, many of our group celebrations and classes got canceled or moved online—including creative writers workshops and author events.