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The Writing Life

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Waiting for Ravens

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Waiting for Ravens--Write RightThe word of the Lord came to him [Elijah], saying, “Go hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”

So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

1 Kings 17:2-7, NASB

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Writing as Healing

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Writing as HealingWriting can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories…By writing we can claim what we have lived and thus integrate it more fully into our journeys. Then writing can become lifesaving for us and sometimes for others, too.

— Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey, “Writing to Save the Day”

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How to Handle Anger and Frustration

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How to Handle Anger and Frustration (the Write Right Way)
The creative life isn’t an easy one. You seek to translate the ideas in the head into words or art on the page. Sometimes, the ideas become realities. Other times, the ideas turn into something more wondrous than anything you could ever have imagined. You stand back, wondering, grateful. Many times, though, the ideas crash against the page and burn. The words don’t come. Everything comes up stick figures. You find yourself angry and frustrated—with the work, with yourself.

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How to be a Better Writer: Face the Lion

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Face the LionA work in progress quickly becomes feral…It is a lion you cage in your study. As the work grows, it gets harder to control; it is a lion growing in strength. You just visit it every day and reassert your mastery over it. —Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

Starting a new draft has fears associated with it. Continuing with the one you’ve begun is a different matter. It has its own fears.

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