Our greatest desire, greater even than the desire for happiness, Is that our lives mean something. This desire for meaning is the originating impulse of story. ~Daniel Taylor I believe that everyone’s lives, however “ordinary,” are filled with experiences that speak to universal human experience and are therefore interesting to […]
‘Tis the season for sending holiday cards and letters. Personally, I love to receive these newsy letters from friends and relatives. Sure, they can be a little on the rosy side (who wants to write about life’s depressing details and send them out during the holidays for heaven’s sake!), but […]
A confused student recently asked me about the difference between legacy writing and memoir. “Aren’t they pretty much the same thing?” she wanted to know. “Aren’t they both just writing about life?” “Well, yes and no,” I said. Not the clearcut answer she probably wanted. Yes, they are both forms […]
In every discipline and art form, it’s important to practice the fundamentals in order to keep them sharp. Years ago, I was a competitive ballroom dancer; yet, no matter how skilled or accomplished I became, my accomplishments were all built on the solid foundation of the fundamentals of each step: […]
In my class on “Finding Your Voice,” I define a writer’s voice as “… the who (the personality) you hear in your imagination while reading or, conversely, the who your readers hear in their minds when reading your work.” While a writer may evoke a number of different personalities through the […]
