the writing process

  • Answering The Call To Adventure: Part 1. Discovering The Writer Within

    A few days ago, a close friend passed away rather suddenly. I think the shock of her death gripped many of us in those first hours, where we didn’t know exactly how to react. We searched for meaning, we tried to make sense of the fact that she was here in one moment, and gone…

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  • The Story Had To Be Told: On Writing The Christmas Rose

    Yesterday, I published my short story, The Christmas Rose. It’s been less than 24 hours since I shared it with my readers, and I wanted to answer a few questions about why I wrote it. Q: The story is pretty long — almost 8,000 words. Most people aren’t reading pieces that take more than a…

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  • I am a writer, photographer, educator, and speaker. But more than any of those things individually or together, I am a strong advocate for all of us to accept the challenges we face daily and do our best to live an inspiring and fulfilling life. I wrote and published Cold Rock because I believe in…

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  • I have been interested in memoir writing all my life. I wrote my earliest pieces in sixth grade, thanks to a tremendous teacher, Jack Delaney, who introduced his students to the world of writing true stories about the experiences we had in our young, young lives. I graduated from Goucher College with a Master of…

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  • This morning, I led a workshop on metacognition and daybooking. If you attended this morning’s workshop or are interested in learning more about this, you can download my Powerpoint presentation here. Feel free to email me with any questions at all. MWP MetaJournals

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  • photo: rus vanwestervelt, october 29, 2011, glyndon, md The snow last weekend that just barely touched us in Baltimore but devastated the New England region was the best and most timely contradiction for me in all ways. Yesterday, over at Maryland Voices, our True Tuesdays prompt focused on Contradiction and the opportunities we are suddenly…

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  • One of the things that divides me as a writer (hence, the title of this blog) is how much–if at all–I “teach” my readers any valuable lessons. Much of my past writing in this blog has been didactic in nature, asking you semi-philosophic questions about how we live our lives. The response has been great,…

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  • Reclaiming my space

    I’ve had this “debate” with writers for decades now, about the necessity of having your own “space” to write. There are basically two sides to this argument: Side no. 1: Get over it and just write. You don’t need to be in that perfect world, that perfect setting to let the words flow. Just write.…

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  • Greetings, all (especially those who joined us today in Hunt Valley for the SOMIRAC Conference!): Here is a copy of my presentation at the SOMIRAC conference. Please feel free to email me with any questions about the concepts and applications of metajournaling. SOMIRAC MetaJournals

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  • Productive Day

    I feel….well, I feel like I have a connection with you, Constant e-Reader. And so I just wanted to let you know that I had a productive day today. I am back on Twitter and establishing some good correspondence with other writers, and I spent a great deal of time researching the realities of publishing.…

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