-
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Occasionally, I hear writers say that they don’t read books in their genre for fear that they will be influenced. Horse feathers! Dancers mimic the instructor until they get the moves right. I learned to ride a horse by watching and listening to my trainer. I learned penmanship by copying letters from the model and, believe…
-
Frozen Stiff
She’s frozen by indecision and fear. Fear of boring people, fear of not writing a helpful piece that answers the so-what question, the why-should-anyone read what she has to say. She’s not famous, not a celebrity from the cover of a magazine. OMG! She makes more coffee, listens to more music, takes a shower–anything to…
-
Walking While Writing
Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop has scored again. They have created a project called Write Denver. (Details at Write Denver.) Yesterday at Friday 500 Dan Manzanares and Yanara Friedland rolled out the concept for us, including the process: walk to connect, set your own pace, pay attention to departure and arrival, include memory/reflection, attend to details. We walked on Race Street…
-
Runaway Words, Lost in Time
Last week I blogged about the writer’s checklist and posted a short form of what might keep an otherwise disorganized writing project on track. That was such a good idea. Too bad I didn’t take my own advice. As some of my friends know, I’m working on a sequel to Accidental Child, and I’ve been…
-
If It Works for Gawande
Recently I caught a TED talk by one of my favorite authors, Atul Gawande. He spoke about the positive effects of having OR teams use a checklist before starting a procedure. He had gone to airline pilots to help him and his team design the list. Flyers have long used pre-flight checklists. The surgical results were dramatic in terms…
Karen Douglass, Author 