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Writing With a Naked Soul

Writing With a Naked Soul

There are some pretty standard writing cliches out there that I always thought I agreed with. On the surface, I do. Some are just so much more profound than others.

Example: Write what you know. Yes. and no. Write what interests you. Write what you’re willing to research. Write what makes you excited to get to the page. Write what you want to read.

Example: Stick to one genre.I was never a fan…

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The Future of Physical Writing

The Future of Physical Writing

I know, It’s a dramatic image, isn’t it?

I’ve had my grandson since April, and I’ve taken charge of the homeschooling his district is doing through the COVID  closures. He is eight years old and in advanced programs for math and reading.

It breaks my heart to say this, but he hates writing.  He hates the physical act of holding a pencil and putting marks on the paper. He’s come close to hating…

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The Journey Creates New Words

The Journey Creates New Words

It’s amazing how life can be somewhat peaceful and then turn you on your head. I’ll give you the basic run down, but the chaos of the last 2 1/2 years is not the topic of this post.

In January, 2018, my husband died. In May, I developed a pulmonary embolism. In November, the building attached to mine burned to the ground, taking the water main, the electrical, and my car with it (totaled…the…

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Is Co-authorship Worth It? Perhaps this is a naïve blog post, but I’m curious to know how both readers and writers approach multi-authored novels.

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How Poetry Broke me Open

How Poetry Broke me Open

Photo (C) Michelle Mueller, 2013

Mis küsib elulahkmel heitlik maru! Kuid sina enesele annad endast aru.

What asks the errant storm at life’s crossroad ! But you must answer for yourself.

           — Betti Alver, From Tähetund

  Three and a half years ago, I was sitting shyly in Avignon, France around an unknown family’s table while laughter and curiosity and, yes, wordsdarted around me with…

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The Writer and--Ooh, Shiny!

The Writer and–Ooh, Shiny!

Reminder:   The 50% reduced coaching fees in honor of Int’l coach week end at midnight, Sunday, May 21. To take advantage, be sure to email me before then. More details here. I was going to title this post the Agony of Choice, but let’s be real. No one wants to talk about agony, right?  And we are all familiar with “Squirrel Syndrome.” Sometimes a shiny is just a shiny. It attracts our attention…

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Just for You, Our Muses

Just for You, Our Muses

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and/or Mother’s Day. If you read the A to Z series in April, you might have caught the news that I’ve spend much of the last year training to become a life coach specializing in creativity, the creative process, and writers. YOU are the inspiration for that endeavor. This community not only gave me the courage, you gave me the vision for how I can give…

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Z - Zest

#atozchallenge Z - Zest, Ray Bradbury

Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating, by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer’s make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road he wants to go, I would only warn him to look to his zest, see to his gusto. Ray Bradbury I was sure I’d lost my zest. I was pretty…

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X - Words as X-Rays

X - Words as X-rays #atozchallenge

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly–they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World The right words reveal our bony parts. They dig in and expose new thoughts, revelations, feelings. The right words can comfort or challenge, affirm or deliver a swift kick. The right words can change us entirely as we sit with them.  The desire to write the…

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V - Voyage of Discovery

V - Voyage of Discovery #atozchallenge

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol I This is another of my favorite quotes. It’s helped a lot in times of feeling my circumstances were never going to change for the better. Developing new eyes, a new way of looking at things, has been so helpful. The main reason I love this quote is…

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T - Truth

T - Truth #atozchallenge

That’s what fiction is for. It’s for getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth. Tim O’Brien Humans are born with this amazing ability to replay scenes in our minds, to edit them, recast them, and alter actual events on our mental stage. It’s psychological benefits an be enormous (or destructive depending on the person). Fiction is a bit like that. We can tell deep truths…

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S – Smooth Over the Sand “I was sand, I was snow—written on, rewritten, smoothed over.” ― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin…

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R - Reflection

R - Reflection #atozchallenge

I hear many people share with me that they just ‘have to do this thing’ before they can relax and slow down. The truth is that taking the time to be still and reflective actually increases productivity and gives more joy to what you’re doing when it’s time to take action again. Maria Erving Of the new writers I speak to, about 70% of them don’t understand that writing requires “off time.” Call it…

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P - Patience

P - Patience #atozchallenge

One time, ,when I was very little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I’d just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn’t have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples. Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner I often think I was put on this…

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O “How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.”  ― Paulo Coelho  As the old cliché goes: Life is full of opportunities.

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N - Night

N - Night #atozchallenge

I’ve always loved the night, when everyone else is asleep and the world is all mine. It’s quiet and dark – the perfect time for creativity. Jonathan Harnisch, Porcelain Utopia I confess. I am a night owl. I like staying up until the wee hours. I love to write that late. I’ve not observed any difference in my writing based on the time of day, so it must be a psychological effect. Still, when it’s…

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L - Listen, or Not

L - Listen, or Not #atozchallenge

  Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. anything can be. Shel Silverstein This has been a favorite quote of mine for the last year. The very idea that we can choose who we listen to is liberating, isn’t it? It’s our responsibility, of course, to…