Posts Tagged ‘Creativity’

Writing lesson from Liam’s yellow pages

I’m not talking about the phone directory. I’m talking about what my son brings home, without fail, from his Montessori preschool each day: a small rectangular piece of white paper completely covered with yellow paint.

The first few days he … Read more

 

How to Write a Winning Story

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianjmatis/6717922457/sizes

Everybody wants to write a winning story, but how do you do it? Some answers here, although not really from me. I have written stories–quite a few, in fact–and they won me some small money while I was in college. … Read more

 

Suffering & joy in the life cycle of a novel

According to popular myths about writers, suffering is integral to the creative process; if you are not in pain, you aren’t serious about your work.

For the most part, I find this notion annoying at best, downright troubling at worst. … Read more

 

My Butterfly Rorschach

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sophiadphotography/7797618058

Butterflies keep turning up in my work, as you can see even from the cover art (and titles!) of What Can’t Wait and The Knife and the Butterfly. Recently I saw a beautiful photograph on Flickr* that got … Read more

 

Now Go Write: Write Blind

It’s a new year, and you are looking to start things off right. Set some goals, sure, but most of all, go write. Here’s a tried-and-true idea you can use.

Take a break from structure and write blind (literally, … Read more

 

Finishing a draft: the moment before the drop

For me a first draft is like that impossibly slow climb to the top of a roller coaster… a roller coaster from hell that keeps getting higher and higher so that you spend WEEKS thinking, I’m almost there… I’m just … Read more

 

A certain cowardice: three confessions about poetry

First confession: I used to write poems, but I don’t anymore.

For now, poetry feels too risky, the payoff too uncertain, each poem like stepping from a ledge never knowing how far one will drop. Poetry takes more courage than I’ve … Read more

 

Out of the Closet: My OTHER Writing Self

So… you know what I write, right? YA novels that you can’t wait to get your hands on (and give to people you love). What Can’t Wait. The Knife and the Butterfly.

Well. There’s another Ashley.

Most of the … Read more

 

Reader’s Question: What to do when other passions get in the way of writing?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drachmann/327122302

Q: I have a hard time balancing my love of photography and my love of writing. Is there something else you enjoy doing that sometimes gets in the way of your writing?*

A: Um, yes! I had almost exactly the … Read more

 

What Courage Sounds Like

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoetnet/5518952448/

To ring in 2012, I offer you this scene: a Paris Metro car full of people on their way home, their facial expressions ranging from impatient to bored. In the middle of us all, a woman with her amplifier strapped … Read more

 
 
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