MONTPELIER, VT: This is supposed to be a ten-day celebration of two years of hard work. At the conclusion of this Vermont College of Fine Arts residency I will hear my name called and be handed a diploma signifying I am a Master of Fine Arts. So why have I been so crippled with anxiety …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Identifying A Nagging Sense of Anxiety
MONTPELIER, VT: "In a creative writing project, voice is everything." So said Sue William Silverman at a lecture here at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing summer residency. Sue, an accomplished memoirist and longtime VCFA instructor, was joined in the lecture--titled "Containing Multitudes: Shifting Voices in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction"--by fellow VCFA …
Continue reading MFA Nugget: Finding Your Creative Writing Voice(s)
Imagine yourself completely immersed in a world of creativity and trust. For ten days and nights you participate in a creative workshop, attend lectures and readings, and engage in conversation that has nothing to do with the latest machinations of your boss or the latest disasters feeding the news cycle. You are one with your …
Continue reading MFA Nuggets are Coming! MFA Nuggets are Coming!
No matter what type of creative writing you pursue--fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry--a compelling scene can deepen the reader's immersion in your words. In two weeks I'll be giving a lecture at my final Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing residency titled Imagining History: Creating True Scenes You've Never Seen. I've provided a teaser of …
Continue reading Imagining History, or Creating True Scenes You’ve Never Seen
We all need a pick-me-up now and then, especially when pursuing our creative passion. The creative process is often a solitary one, in particular creative writing. Sometimes when I need a touch of inspiration I'll visit a blog by a writer who inspires me. I now have the ability to visit with 101 different writers …
Continue reading 101 Sources of Writing Inspiration (And Win a Free Book!)
It's a question to which any blogger should have a short and simple answer: At what point on the blogging spectrum is your blog? The problem is that only people who have taken my blogging class are familiar with this map of web content that I created a couple of years ago. Now I'm sharing …
Continue reading Where Do You Fall on the Blogging Spectrum?
God-given. Gifted. Blessed. These are adjectives and nouns we use when referring to someone as talented. We are suggesting that talent was a gift the individual received before he or she was even born. So if a creative produces a breathtaking work of art, and she is talented, why would we complement her by suggesting …
The Artist's Road 