When I was frantic last week, a few fiction writers graciously helped me out. And so did an article I picked up today. As I side note: Did you ever notice that answers come when you ask the right questions? The surprising source was one of my favorite home decor magazines, Coastal Living. In their November 2011 issue, Million Dollar Decorators star Kathryn Ireland answers a few decorator question. I skimmed through them until I stopped at this: If you can’t make it out, it says: What are your rules for hanging art so that it looks pleasing and not…
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I’m venturing into an unfamiliar territory. Fiction. Ack! Talk about anxiety. Fellow fiction writers I welcome your input on this one. Anyway, I let my husband read passages from it every once in awhile. And while I wait, I try to appear calm, but I’m really scrutinizing every eye movement, every shift in his position. What I got from him this time scared the bejeezus out of me. “It’s good. But I’m worried about one thing.” “What?” I asked. At this point, my mind went to horrible, bad plot, unbelievable characters, amateur storytelling. What he said was, “I’m worried that…
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A lot of writers I’ve talked to and read about say that no matter how much they’ve written, published, or even obtained awards for, they still feel like a fake. And I’m one of them. I sometimes wonder what it would take for me to feel validated as in the words of one writer friend, “a real writer.” As if, there was such a thing. Although I enthusiastically try to point out all the reasons he is a writer: the fact that he actually writes (writing a novel, in fact) and has a tremendous passion for it, I can hardly do…
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When I first started blogging, I wrote about my love life, my schoolwork, my little mini dramas that would make for some interesting “Dear Diary” reads. A pint of ice-cream, a flashlight and it almost felt like you were sneaking a peek where you shouldn’t be. Then, I wrote about weddings and baby showers for an online stationery company. Now, I write mostly for me. It’s interesting how from a simple seed of passion, a career can bloom. It took nurturing, hard work, and a sprinkle of faith. And it’s a system that needs to go on forever. Unless I…
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I can only think of one thing right now. My strong desire to match what I feel on the inside to my outer writing life. Have you ever watched a makeover show? The kind where men and women say, “Finally, I feel like how I look matches how I feel on the inside!” That’s exactly what I’m going through with my writing these days. I feel like I have an outpouring of inner wisdom, insight, compassion, emotion, struggles, hardships, inspiration to share. But they are wrapped up in my own neurosis, wading through fears of revealing too much and basic…
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photo by: HarryAlverson It’s time to say goodbye to October and hello to November! My how time flies. One of my past co-workers shot me an email, giving me an update on his life. Since I left the corporate world about three months ago, he happily received a promotion. That got me thinking-what have I been up to since then?