Recent Articles
Rest is a necessary part of the creative process
“I wish I didn’t have so much to write this week,” I said. It was exhaustion speaking, since I haven’t slept in days because of pregnancy-related discomfort. And it’s Christmas, so it’s a short week and I still have gifts to finish and wrap, and all of that hangs over...
There is a grief that waits at the end of creative projects
In 10 days I will be done with my second novel-in-a-year project. For a year, I have spent time with the characters of What He Left Me, and I have held Paulie in my arms, and I have fallen in love with Mr. Langley, and I have rooted for Aunt Bee. It’s not easy to...
Creating outside the box means we must first have a box
Some people reach for 10,000 hours. Some make their 10,000-words-a-week goal. Some set a timer and some set a time limit, but what they all have in common is a commitment to practice. If we want to be great writers or painters or singers, we must be willing to put in...
Deciding which project comes next in the creative life
Kids are away for the weekend, and my husband and I are sitting in our bedroom, with the two whiteboards out, brainstorming what comes next in our creative endeavors. He looks at my side, all those ideas I’ve listed noncommittally, and he says, That looks like a lot....
What I do as a creative is necessary for the world
In thirty-five days I will lose my job. For eight years I have held this position, managing editor who writes articles and designs pages and edits everything between the covers, and I have not interviewed or sent out resumes or seen fit to change careers in all that...
The biggest killer of creativity: comparison
Creatives, we can play a risky game. We fall into the trap of comparison, our work compared to theirs, and we don’t even know their story, how hard that writing was, what that painting looked like when they started, how she had to practice the same move over and over...
Reading is the cornerstone of creativity
I was a just a young girl when I first discovered the wonder of reading. “These words were, to me, as the notes of bells, the sounds of musical instruments, the noise of wind, sea and rain, the rattle of milk carts, the clopping of hooves on cobbles, the fingering of...
Write a GREAT Book Even When Your Time is Limited
