Category: Corner Post: A Guide to Creating a Writing Life
Corner Post: The Window Between
When writing projects come to an end, step back and recharge. Allow yourself to write short, incomplete things, the fragments that help...
Corner Post: “Get a Rhythm”
First thing in the morning read something—a poem, half a story, an essay, a thesaurus entry. Just get your mind immersed in words....
Corner Post: “Getting Through the Dark Hours”
The thing about novel writing is that the old cliché about rolling with the punches is absolutely true. Flash fiction and short stories...
Corner Post: “The Intangibles”
In my last essay, I talked about the practical side to creating a writing life—balancing money, time, and place. This month I want...
Corner Post: “Gumption”
For me a writing life has always been determined by three things—money, time, and place. And never have I had an abundance of all...
Corner Post: “Dirty Your Hands”
Tapping on a computer keyboard always reminds me of when I played the piano as a kid. Back then the tapping made music. Now, words. Both...
Corner Post: “When the Work Calls You To It”
A friend of mine told me this once. He is an artist and I was asking him about time, about finding, making time for art with everything...
Corner Post: Start a New Year Writing Cycle
In December I jot down what writing got done and what didn’t over the past 12 months. Then I work on the house my wife and I...
Corner Post: “Questions of Risk”
Main characters need a stake in their story. The answer rarely comes in the first drafts for me, but at some point, I halfway figure...
Corner Post: “Stop Time”
What is your writing plan? When I ask my students this question, some have the next ten years mapped out. Some tell me plans...
Corner Post: “Develop a Second Sight”
When I was growing up, working on fences with my father and my brother, the corner post was the most important. It determined how tight our...
