I’ve been teaching creative writing classes recently to juniors and seniors in high school, and I’ve been dismayed by the inherent stress in their academic schedules, which seems to slow or prevent creative work. When pressed to come up with a writing assignment, they often freeze, no matter how desirous they are of succeeding in their assign [...]
Posts in category WriteSpa (newsletter)
WriteSpa # 82 – A Dark Energy
I’ve been teaching creative writing classes recently to juniors and seniors in high school, and I’ve been dismayed by the inherent stress in their academic schedules, which seems to slow or prevent creative work. When pressed to come up with a writing assignment, they often freeze, no matter how desirous they are of succeeding in their assign [...]
WriteSpa #81 – The Year of the ...
Snakes mating.
When you think of snakes, what comes to mind?
Friendly, slithery little grass snakes slipping across your bare toes in summertime?
A python wrapped around your arm while you dance?
A cobra swaying to a snake charmer flute?
Do you conjure up water snakes or tree snakes, dragons, or evocative statues?
Rattlesnakes bravely protect [...]
Writing through the Year – on t...
A weekly BlogTalkRadio call-in show starts January 2, 2013, at 6 pm EST. Based on the 52 weeks of WRITESPAS published in “Writing through the Year.” Week 1 will discuss hypnogogia for writers.
Featured guests are welcome – let me know if you’d like to be a featured author on any of my shows. Coming up are topics like [...]
A Five Year Plan
Socrates said (we are told): “Be how you wish to seem.”
It seems to me that’s a perfect instruction for creating a five year plan for yourself. I’ve been thinking about a five year plan a lot lately. There are several reasons for this, but perhaps the most important one is that the last time I created one was five years ago.
So here is [...]
WriteSpa #69 – Beltaine
The first day of May falls at the height of spring and is most familiar to us as the ancient Celtic holiday known as Beltaine… (more…)
WriteSpa #65 – Let Me Love You
Photo: Arturo Mann
January 2012 – It’s time for a paradigm shift. How often have you looked at a sunset and said, “I love that sky!” Or you listened to the radio and said, “I love that song!”
Recently, I realized that it’s time to experience this differently. These past few weeks, walking on the beach early every morning, contemplating [...]
WriteSpa #64 – There Are No Wor...
They say that the Sami people, who live in the land closest to the Arctic Circle, have over a thousand words for snow, but none for just ‘snow’ – as we refer to it. I’ve often felt that our word ‘love’ could use at least 1,000 words to replace how we generally use it, and yet the closest I’ve discovered for a more specific meaning is when [...]
WriteSpa #63 – A Place of One’s Own
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
As I was conversing with a WriteSpa client, and we were discussing assignments and goals, I asked her where she wrote. She hesitated, then said, “It’s a bit problematic…I don’t have a laptop and my computer’s in the living room. I don’t really have a place for it.”
From the way she spoke, I could tell th [...]
WriteSpa #62 – Castling, Forkin...
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Conflict
I loathe conflict, which, for a novelist, is a terrible thing. This summer I tried to appreciate conflict by playing chess, after many years’ hiatus.
Here’s how Manly Hall describes chess (I’m paraphrasing – check out his book): “The chessboard consists of 64 squares alternately black and white a [...]
WriteSpa #61 – Don’t Let ...
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
One of my grandmother’s – and my mother’s – favorite tenets in life was this: “Don’t let your possessions possess you.”
Traveling as they both did, during tumultuous times, when you could count on very little, and yet both of them owning some of the loveliest items in the world (an antique Renaissa [...]
WriteSpa #60 – Teaching and Learning
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Photo:C RIn 1963, when I was 7 years old, my parents took me on a freighter trip around the world “to teach me geography.” When we finally landed back in New York City, I was put into a 2nd grade classroom taught by Mrs. Zay. I had never been to school before, and Mrs. Zay appeared to me like an extraord [...]
WriteSpa #59 – Writing Slowly
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.” Mae West
A few years ago I read Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slow, where he writes about a growing movement that encourages savoring the time you have rather than trying to use it to further another goal – especially in the case of raising [...]
WriteSpa #58 – Your Quest
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Against the great panorama of the Middle Ages, when brave knights wore shining armor and rescued lovely maidens in distress, and castles loomed before one then disappeared in gray mists; where a crucial quest awaited anyone adventurous enough to seek it;; where the qualities of chivalry, honor, loyalty warre [...]
WriteSpa #57 – Spring Kisses
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
How do we write about kissing and kisses and all the delightful pleasurable possibilities that accompany one of the loveliest activities in the world?
Now, I’m not necessarily just talking about kissing on the mouth, or having fun with tongue! What about those extraordinary moments when a stranger ki [...]
WriteSpa #56 – The Art of Medit...
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
I heard that when the Dalai Lama was asked what he would do if he had fifteen minutes left to live, he replied, “I would meditate.”
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and his words have changed my own meditation practice. There’s something bigger and more infinite happening when we meditate, not just a [...]
WriteSpa #55 – Golden Rabbits, ...
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
February 2 is a turning point. The new moon falls halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox. In Celtic history this festival was known as Imbolc; the Christians changed it to Candlemas, and the Irish celebrate it as St. Brigid’s Day. Imbolc signifies pregnancy and spring, and is honore [...]
