A few years ago, my brother and sister-in-law gave us a beautiful bowl. Although I have always considered the bowl to be lovely, we’d had it for a few years before it revealed its true gift: It sings with me. I’m a classically-trained soprano. When I hit a specific high note in practice, the bowl starts ringing, extending and […]
Managing the Muse
I wake for some unknown reason in the early, still-dark morning. A quick glance at the clock reveals that it’s 5am, so I settle back into bed, willing myself to sleep. I want and need those next two hours of slumber. As I try to resume where I left off, an idea for a blog post pops into […]
Writing Advice for College Students: Beware Academese
Heading off to college? No matter what your major, you’ll end up having to write at least a few papers or survive Freshman English. My first piece of advice is simple: Beware of Academese “Academese” is the specialized language of academics that belongs in scholarly tomes, not the real world. When writing term papers, you may be tempted […]
Battling Distraction When Writing
Remember the talking dogs in the Pixar movie “Up?” If you haven’t seen it, the dogs are outfitted with a device that translates their thoughts and barks into human language so we can hear what’s going on in their heads, to great comic effect. One running joke is that whenever a squirrel is nearby, every other thought vanishes. All of […]
Where Do You Go for Inspiration?
Tracking Your Muse’s Favorite Hangouts What are you doing when the ideas start flowing in your brain? Where do new insights strike? When you sit down and the writing is fluid and productive, where have you been in the hours and days preceding? Those are the places that your Muse thrives. The Muse is a short-hand label for those […]
What Inspires Your Writing?
Getting To Know Your Muse Inspiration may appear in dreams. New ideas or complete phrases might pop into your head when you’re doing the dishes. Or, you’ll be in the shower when you suddenly think of a wonderful approach for something you’re writing. Our best ideas seem to come from places beyond our intentional control. That’s probably why the Greeks personified inspiration in the […]