I still remember one of my professors chastising the class about absolute statements. He told us to avoid them or risk the peril of being confronted with a contradictory claim, not to mention a less than stellar grade. I accepted his instruction because the underlying statement was and is sound: no one person can know everything there is to know about even a single topic. It’s foolish to pretend otherwise. [Read more…] about How to be a Better Writer: Acknowledge the “but”
Who are You Writing for?
Of our greatest acts we are ignorant. You were not aware that you saved my life. – Emily Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Will Visual Media Kill Writing?
The newer social networks – Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, Snapchat – have one thing in common: they’re visually oriented. The premise behind them seems to be about sharing experiences and emotions “of the moment.” None of them require much captioning, raising the question of whether they’re killing writing. [Read more…] about Will Visual Media Kill Writing?
Write Right and the Giving Tree
How to Handle Failure
The problems of failure are problems of discouragement, of hopelessness, of hunger. You want everything to happen and you want it now, and things go wrong. – Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art” [Read more…] about How to Handle Failure
Get out of the Emotional Sandbox
emotional sandbox: (n) an overreaction to external stimuli that points to a deeper and larger issue than the surface one