Before the pandemic, a good friend of mine wrote in public places, environments where there were people around and quiet background noise. That was his routine for over twenty years. With those places no longer open, along with all the other stressors of the pandemic, he stopped writing. Now he is struggling with anxiety and…
What does writing look like? Chances are you are sitting and typing. Or sitting and pushing a pen across a page. And you are thinking, right? Thinking and thinking and thinking. Your brain is working on the plot, evaluating the words you used to describe your protagonist, and judging whether your big twist makes sense….
We have a Super Power. One that not everyone has. We can use that power to entertain and inform, and also to help heal those around us. Or we can cause hurt. I know that sounds pretty pretentious, but it’s true. We can write positive things, or we can write “other” things. We can understand…
In the midst of widespread debates about the national minimum wage and the ethics of unpaid internships, where does the striving writer feature? I’ve been struggling to define my own boundaries as a professional and a volunteer. An eager artist with plenty (too much?) to say, I tend to shout “yes!” to opportunities first and…
America is a mosaic of special interest groups. Dysfunctional examples are political parties. Coffee klatches and bowling leagues serve as benign instances of voluntary associations. Hobbyists congregate around pastimes such as stamp collecting, photography, and scrapbooking. Then there are detectorists who diligently scan patches of ground with mechanisms designed to signal the presence of metallic…