Many people are under the impression that with creating always comes joy. Wrong! Most of the time, the emotional journey of creating starts with agony. Agony at not getting it right, at not finishing on time, at not remembering every nuance of the story you want to convey, at bad first reviews.

Some people never get past this first agony. But if they do, then comes catharsis—the big, body-shaking, “Ahhhh” that comes when finally, finally the words on the page match the story in their hearts and, in some ways, help Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a lot of memoir-writing advice out there. Some of it is good, some is completely obvious (and therefore unhelpful), and some crosses the line into stupid and potentially harmful to your story. A few choice examples of the latter:

Write only about positive experiences. Wrong! Writing a memoir is a courageous endeavor because it means that you’re willing to confront some of the mean, dumb, shortsighted, cowardly things you’ve done in your life. Confronting those experiences shows the reader (and yourself!) how you grew from them. They make for a well-rounded, honest—and therefore interesting—memoir, rather than one that bathes everything in an impossible glow.

You don’t need an outline—it’s your life story, after all! Um, okay. First off, Read the rest of this entry »

This article is reprinted from www.alphadictionary.com.

Here are the 100 most beautiful words in English. How do we know we have the most beautiful? They were chosen by Dr. Goodword (Robert Beard), who has been making dictionaries, creating word lists, and writing poetry for 40 years. For five years he wrote the Word of the Day at yourDictionary.com and since 2004 he has been writing the series, So, What’s the Good Word? here at alphaDictionary. Below is a select list of his favorite poetical words that he used in his poetry—or wishes he had. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re counting on Random House to jump on your book, offer you a fatty advance and slave over marketing, here’s a tough little eye-opener: It’s not gonna happen.

Well, okay—technically it could happen. According to Bookseller.com, 275,232 new titles were published in the U.S. last year by traditional publishers. That seems like a large enough number; surely your book’s good enough to make the cut, right? Maybe. But consider this: Those books are among the 1% that commercial publishers choose from the millions of submissions they receive each year. And that number doesn’t even represent the number of books that were submitted to agents, 98% of which are rejected! With that in mind, how should you proceed?

Yes, okay, you can be persistent. You can pore over the latest Writer’s Market and compile lists of agents who could each be The One. You can compose query letters and synopses and stuff dozens of envelopes with shaky hands and a hopeful heart. Then you can Read the rest of this entry »

Today, in Peoria for the Illinois Arts Council, I led a core values workshop for 73 adults who work in the arts, primarily with children (I made some great Barrio contacts that I’ll be following up with). As a group we discovered something. The core values work I did with them would be great to do with students, especially at-risk kids. I’m going to be discussing that further with some of these people. One asked me specifically Read the rest of this entry »

Congrats to our client Bea Fields, co author of Millennial Leaders and EDGE! A Leadership Story for her mention in Women Entrepreneurs:  The Next Wave of Leaders.  Bea is ferociously attacking the worlds of social networking and Gen Y and her dynamism is infectious.  She leads an online class called Become a Blogging Maniac if you’re interested in furthering your online skills. http://blog.becomeabloggingmaniac.com/about

Some writers have an exceptional ability to use language to convey an idea.  Others are brilliant with metaphor.  Still others excel at dialogue or description.  My strength is truth.  Coming from an acting background where I strived to always live truthfully in front of the camera or on stage, I have an innate ability to sense what is true vs. what is “put on” when it comes to writing.  I was watching James Lipton being interviewed by Dave Chapelle for the 200th episode of the show Inside the Actors Studio.  Throughout the episode, they played back various moments where guests of the show described what they believed acting was.  Harrison Ford’s comments struck an epiphany in me.  He talked about how hard he worked to “live” in front of that camera.  To expose the ugly, weak, frail pieces of a character as well as the strength, optimism and courage that a person exhibits in their life.  It struck me that that desire to live in front of others is the strongest asset that I brought into the world of writing from my previous career.  If you’ve ever read my fiction works (Excalibur Reclaims Her King, Edge! A Leadership Story), or the fiction of those I have coached (Duckey and the Ocean Protectors, China Girl), what you’ll find above all else are moments of very vulnerable truth.  I do not have a huge vocabulary. I do not have a colorful way with language, or description. But I do have a way of bringing the truth of a moment to life.  What are your assets as a writer? I hope you’ll take a moment to share them with me.