All Blog Posts Tagged 'writing' (141)

I think for most people, their vocation or avocation usually derives from personal interest or enjoyment. A person enjoys helping children, so becomes a teacher. Somebody fascinated with ancient history studies to be an archeologist. If you grew up really wanting to solve people’s burning pee issue, then your earned your degree in urology.

For me, writing began because…

“I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.”

Actually, these days, I wish I could nap and still have plenty of daylight left when I finally awaken. Or, if I’m really enjoying the night, that it could last longer. Day’s light and night’s dark don’t last long enough to suit my purposes.

Anyway, that’s philosophizing for another…

As I write this post I am feeling very happy. After a somewhat stilted and disjointed start to the month I managed to get my ass into gear and am now officially half way through my NaNoWriMo project. Hooray! Who knew I could magically find the time to write 25,011 words in just 14 days, complete with a demanding toddler in tow? Apparently I could, I did, and I am on track to succeed!

The novel is shaping up nicely, although my inner editor is already screaming that it is not good…

     Working as a tutor in the writing center, it's very common to get started on a discussion completely unrelated towards the student's assignments. I find myself going on about my own personal writing issues, current events relating to argumentative essays, and even the occasional discussion of entertainment. Last night I talked with someone about "Assassin's Creed 3," which already has a strong following, but a few days ago I brought up "The Walking Dead"--big mistake. I love the…

In a recent taekwondo class I was instructing the students in the single bahng mahng ee form. For those of you who can't read Korean, that is the single stick. The form is lengthy and complex. I've told my students many times (and I apologize to the creator of this form) that I think the single stick is boring. Or rather, I have seen too many times boring forms performed by competitors at tournaments. I…

(« Enigma » by Matías Argudín)

« Leaving The Ashram » is the third chapter of « Entering The Stream, » a trilogy describing an episode of intense introspection that will open our second album, « Satori.…

Does your writing have that bloated, overstuffed feeling? Do you have the habit of packing in more words than needed for clear communication? Are your readers easily fatigued by your writing? Do you send out your documents without first subjecting them to rigorous and strenuous editing? Do you run out of breath when reading aloud?

If you answered “Yes” to any…

Choosing the Right Type of Subject

When deciding what the subject of your sentence will be, you have three types of nouns from which to choose: creatures, things, and ideas.…

If someone were to ask me why I write, I would have to reply, “Why not?” It is part of who I am.   As a child, my love of a good story often got me into trouble at school. I would hide my library book, usually  a mystery, behind the pages of a bulky school text. That is probably the reason my grades suffered in other areas, especially math.

At night, my mother would often find me hiding under the bed sheets reading. This was after she had told me more than once to turn out the lights…

A couple things have happened in the last month or so. They have me thinking about changes.

I really dislike change, even though I know sometimes, even most times, the new situation will be better. I’m resistant to jumping into the water without a net…or something to that effect.

The first thing was that my goofball landlord, who hasn’t deigned to take…

I find myself looking back at past learning environments and wondering how much of the learning was my responsibility and how much of it was the institutions. As I re-read my post on blacks failing, I wonder about patterns of delusion that may have been prearranged by the institution.…

Choreography (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This week I started choreographing for a big dance show in the studio where I teach ballet. What makes it even more fun for me than usual is that I have been given creative license, and if you knew me well enough you’d know that…

RECONNECT TO PAST

On a lovely day almost forty years ago I drove south from my new home in Winslow, Arkansas, intent on revisiting my childhood past. Though Highway 71 had changed a lot, I had no trouble at all recognizing Old Creek Road. Back in the early days it was rutted and narrow and meandered through the remote hollow where more than a dozen families lived. I turned off with some reluctance. This would be hard, for what I had always known was gone. Deep down in the…

First-time author Marissa Carmel debuted last month with her YA fantasy iFeel (http://goo.gl/MnDYg). As she continues on her blog tour, see what she has to say about the expectations of being a writer and a mother.…

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my most recent work. Feel free to browse around the site for my other pieces. Any comments or critiques on any of my stories are welcome.

http://thecharredtree.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/the-funeral/

Just a quick shout out here to the Authors.com community that I've posted this week's story to my blog, The Charred Tree. The story this week is part of the serial, Diaspora, and is entitled Prickles and Thorns. As part of a serial it does build upon previous installments--a full list can be found via the "Serial Storylines" link at the top of the blog. Comments and critiques are always welcomed and appreciated.

Enjoy!…

Yesterday was a writing day for me and I made some progress on one of my serials. After the writing was done I made the rounds of Facebook and Twitter and this posted by my friend, J.R.D. Skinner:

"Being a writer means sitting in your chair till your coffee is cold, and then drinking it anyway."

This has to be one of the most profound statements I've ever seen and I wanted to share it (with J.R.D.'s…

I realized something as I was going through my RSS subscriptions and Twitter time lines, I started to look at how I was selecting what to read. I rely heavily on RSS and Twitter for my daily consumption of news and blog updates, I have hundreds of subscriptions and follows. No one can possibly read everything that comes up and I noticed I was focusing on the headlines of the articles. If it was not catching me I would move on to the next one leaving it behind. That article could have had…