I just couldn’t move on. I have always considered myself a compulsive journal keeper. I've been writing since pre-puberty somewhere between a few times a week - to one big end of the week catch up. Months have gone by this past year as I stare at the end of my turquoise Moleskine and I just wanted to get to that last page and have it be over. But I couldn’t – it felt like my brain wasn’t working in the same way. I suddenly was scared of my past. I was scared of memories, photos, and mementos setting me off. I now think I was in a deep protective mode – I had no interest in the past because … [Read more...]
Writing With Triggers and Trauma
(Re) Considering Trauma In my new day job, I work tangentially with people in drug and alcohol recovery. I say “tangentially” because I do marketing and am not a therapist, but being around it starts to seep in. Most of us have either had some sort of trauma or have known someone close to us who has an addiction problem. One thing about trauma is that once you start to see it or recognize it in other people you begin to see it in yourself. Looking through the lens of trauma puts your own in focus. Most people have trauma – it is very hard to get through your life without an accident, … [Read more...]
Inspiring Writing Prompts for Self-Care
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” ― Audre Lorde Writing is a way for me to hit the "refresh" button. To wring myself out when I feel like a crumpled rag or just get my feelings out in one long diatribe (that no one will ever need to see). I have definitely been through difficult times when I began to wonder if anything made me feel calm and at ease. Whether it was local trouble - seeing the homeless line the freeway underpasses here in Los Angeles and the pain of knowing how unkind society can be. Violence on the news … [Read more...]
Stunt Writing Featured on the Secret Library Podcast
I am so excited to share my appearance on the Secret Library Podcast, in conversation with the always amazing Caroline Donahue! She created the Secret Library Podcast (available here on iTunes) because, "Most people believe that books are created in cabins all alone, where authors pound away on some manner of keyboard. Then they hand this masterpiece off to a publisher and it feels very much like it goes down a tube and comes out the other side as a book. By speaking to authors and other book lovers, I'm diving into the mystery that is the book world today." We spent an hour chatting about … [Read more...]
Writing & Describing the Depth of Feeling
I received an email today from my mother, in the postal (snail) mail. It was a printed copy of an email I sent to my dad in 2002, which although it came in time for Father's Day I was too sad to open it with my father's passing. In the last few weeks I have come up with a lot of creative ways to describe how I feel such as, "covered in molasses" for my sticky inability at times to leave the house or that I am wearing "vaseline glasses" to describe that under water feeling where you feel a little bit separate from the world. I've told people that I am raw. Raw like someone took that 70s Lava … [Read more...]
Memoir: Untangling Life’s Longings
I've just finished Stephen Levine's book, A Year to Live. It is about how to live this year as though it was your last. Morbid? Not really. Doesn't everyone occasionally want to skip to the end? Even if just for a quick, curious glimpse? In the book he makes a few statements that are truly about memoir. He writes, "We untangle the present by unraveling the knots of the past. Remembering the etymological root of "nostalgia" is a "reminiscent pain," we do not hold on to the past but relieve it of its burden." Nostalgia contains the knowledge that we can not go back and relive a moment we … [Read more...]
Spark & Flow FREE Creativity eBook Download!
Let's start with the good news: you don't need to find creativity, it is already inside of you! The Spark & Flow eBook was created to give you ideas about how to access, play with, experiment on, and move with your already existing creativity. Our brains are dialectical storytelling machines. If I give you two images, your brain will immediately compare, contrast, and begin to tell a story about the two scenes. We cannot NOT tell stories. Our very consciousness is a long repeated internal story about who we are, where we came from, and what we want. A recent article in the Los Angeles … [Read more...]
Playing 20 Questions to Get to the Soul of Your Creativity
Above my desk is this index card. How We Spend Our Time is How We Spend Our Lives There are so many things competing for our time and attention. I know I can heat up a can of soup OR make my own. Heating up the can definitely fulfills the need to get something in my belly but lacks the sensual pleasure of chopping fragrant fresh herbs, dicing up a nice mirepoix, smelling the savory flavor of onions caramelizing in butter. Consciously making a decision about what brings us pleasure is a constant calculation. As a writer who also owns a business based on the art and craft of writing I often … [Read more...]
Stunt Writing Experience: The Complete Series
As my Stunt Writing class on the Canvas Network is starting to reach its end, I wanted to put together all of the posts that I wrote trying push myself past teaching and opening myself up to the process. There are quite a few things that knocked me off course. I had an incredible work load, and didn't have as much free time as I would have liked in order to do more research and read more about what scholars, psychologists and other practitioners think of the Mind/ Body Connection. But in the end it is all the same inquiry: how do I react in situations that involve synching my body and mind and … [Read more...]
The Stunt Writing on the Canvas Network: The Challenge!
A stunt is a feat of daring, an act with a beginning and end, focused on showing off a specific skill. The Stunt Writing For Personal Experience class includes prompts, lectures, readings, and discussions for writers of any age, at any level. Inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous quote, “Do one thing every day that scares you,” Stunt Writing For Personal Experience is a process that uses writing as a tool for you to learn about yourself, and gain skills in communicating your own unique story. Why take the Challenge? I think that it is easier to get beyond your boundaries but with a … [Read more...]