Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

imagesExercise Time!

All the New Year’s tweets and Facebook posts about resolutions began to swim together. But one lingered with me long enough to remember the point: Consider it an “intention,” not a “resolution.” I wish I could credit the person who shared this idea, because I love it. And it’s helping me manage a big writing intention of my own: daily writing.

Even if it’s only a few minutes per day, I am INTENDING to write briefly for myself each day in 2015. To help me get in/keep to this habit, I’m currently relying rather heavily on exercises and prompts.

One week in, and so far, so good! One of the poems I wrote after scanning this list of prompts may actually turn into something…someday. And the few hundred words inspired by Midge Raymond’s “Bad Habit” tip may be something I return to as well. (more…)

Friday Finds for Writers

Treasure Chest
Writing-related resources, news, and reflections to enjoy over the weekend.

  • As I’ve mentioned elsewhere this week, Wil S. Hylton’s profile of Laura Hillenbrand for The New York Times magazine provides an excellent craft seminar in narrative nonfiction.
  • “In fact, it feels strangely simple: I have used up my material, the stuff from which I craft stories. I don’t have anything now. Maybe I will have more soon. Or not soon. Or not.” From Robin Black’s resonant (and much-cited among my Twitter connections) essay “On Being Empty: When a Writer Isn’t Writing.”
  • Terrific spotlight on poet Joan Naviyuk Kane in the latest Harvard Magazine.
  • To a considerable extent, librarian and book reviewer Deb Baker’s post “On Being ‘Discontinued'” is another installment in the ongoing “writing for free” discussion.
  • “Jill Lepore had written my book.” That’s what Noah Berlatsky discovered some months ago. Here’s what happened next.
  • Enjoy the weekend, all!

    Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

    Yer Out!

    The email arrived a few days ago. “Dear Erika Dreifus: Thank you for your application to NYFA’s Fellowship program.  We are sorry that we will not be able to award you a Fellowship this year. We received a record number of applications this year….” You know the rest.

    So now it is official: I have applied for fellowships unsuccessfully from the New York Foundation for the Arts in THREE genres: fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Now how many of you can say that?!

    three-strikes (more…)