I just spent a week "off the grid," disconnected from anyone not in my direct line of sight. I wasn't living alone in Arches National Park, the way Desert Solitaire author Edward Abbey did for a long summer in the late 1950s, but I read his tale while taking in the eerie quiet of a …
Month: August 2011
Say ‘Hi’ for Me
It's August in D.C., which means nearly everyone who lives and works here is elsewhere. I'm spending some quality time with my family right now and this blog will be silent for a few days, but below are links to some blogs I enjoy whose authors appear to be continuing to post during the summer …
Creativity Tweets of the Week — 8/19/11
Before we leap into some of the links on creativity and writing I shared via Twitter and Facebook this week, I have a question for my Canadian readers -- are you as enthralled with poutine as I am? I was reminded of this delicacy -- french fries topped with brown gravy and cheese curd -- …
4 Steps to Breaking Out Your Creativity
Sometimes I post wisdom on the creative process I learned from talented and hard-working artists on my cross-country trip across the United States, but on occasion I post about how I'm applying those lessons in my own life learning. This is a post of the latter variety. Every creative I know juggles many projects -- …
Creativity Tweets of the Week — 8/12/11
Let's get right to it, eight new posts on creativity and writing that I tweeted and shared on Facebook this week. CREATIVITY "29 Ways to Stay Creative," Vimeo: A fun, short video (with occasionally distracting music) that has tips both whimsical (#7, sing in the shower) and important (#16, allow yourself to make mistakes). "Set …
6 Steps to a Winning Writing Workshop
When you're just starting to share your work as a creative writer, you hear people say they've been "workshopped." When, you might ask, did the word workshop become a verb? It sounds painful, like you've been bent over a sawhorse and violated with a jigsaw. When done right a workshop is far more pleasant than …
Creativity Tweets of the Week — 8/5/11
They say if you gather enough monkeys to pound on enough typewriters they'll eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. My friend Melanie is in a creative slump; maybe if she went ape-$#!* crazy on a keyboard for an hour, there would be an inspiring line of poetry produced there that might spark her muse. …
A Shooting Star, or the Story of a Life
Thirty years ago, on July 16, 1981, I lost one of my muses to a violent car crash. I had never met Harry Chapin, had never been blessed to hear him perform live, but he shared the story of his life through his music, and the story of my life is forever changed because that …
The Artist's Road 