Composing a Writer #10. A Manuscript is Not a Book
Let's say pigs fly. You've written the thing you always wanted to write. It's a miracle. It's been in your mind...
Composing a Writer #9. Beta Readers, Secrets, and Dead Darlings
Most families have an odd relative. It's an uncle with hairy ears who drinks too much on holidays or a cousin who converted to a...
Composing a Writer #8. Editing the Editing
I was raised by a woman who chronically rearranged furniture. It was a nervous habit. Coming home late you had...
Composing a Writer #7. Criticism Wanted
I was fifty-nine years old and someone had scribbled "Why should I care?" in thick red ink on my hard-fought...
Composing a Writer #6. Writing for Readers
It's a moment of exquisite anxiety. The kind of anxiety that's prickly and blunt at the same time, and you...
Composing a Writer #5. Write Long, Write Short
As soon as I escaped, I started writing poems. I was barely eighteen and living four states away from my...
Composing a Writer #4. Why Words Matter
She's been my friend for decades. That was me at her daughter's birthday party, singing and tap dancing in...
Composing a Writer #3. Comfortable Creativity
The first time you saw him, he was hurrying down the street, hat brim pulled low, and his cape flying...
Composing a Writer #2. Just Write
We're big talkers. We debate and dream and create. There are issues that good people should agree about on but...
Composing a Writer. #1 Tools of the Trade
Everybody has a list of wishes, some more idle than others. Early retirement is an idle wish if you aren't...
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