We often make the mistake of thinking we “have” to be in the “right” mood to write. The truth is, any mood can be used for writing. Any mood is a good writing mood. The trick is to simply enter whatever mood like a room and sit down and write from there.
Loneliness
Our mythology tells us that writers are loners. In fact, one of the most potent writer’s blocks I know is the fear of loneliness that people associate with the writing life. So much has been written about the loneliness of the writer’s lot that it feels like heresy to report the truth as I know […]
Communication
Art is an act of communication, and if we are constantly communicating our smallest thoughts, how will we have time for big ones? Cell phones miniaturize your life, breaking it down into tiny sound bites. I think we call them “bites” for a reason. They tend to devour our time and attention. There’s no room […]
Showing Up
I learned to turn my creativity into the only God I could believe in– the God of creativity. I learned to get out of the way and let that creative force work through me. I learned to just show up at the page and write down what I heard. I didn’t have to be in […]
Writing
Although we seldom talk about it in these terms, writing is a means of prayer. It connects us to the invisible world. It gives us a gate for the other world to talk to us, whether we call it the subconscious, the unconscious, the superconscious, the imagination or the muse. Writing gives us a place […]
Begin Where You Are
The first step toward accomplishing any creative goal is always doable, and often simple. We assume that to make a movie we need to move to L.A., get an agent, attach a star, raise millions of dollars. But when we approach it this way, we are unlikely to begin at all. Each step seems impossible. […]
Inspiration
I have been warned that artists’ autobiographies are self-serving, but I’ve seldom found them this way. Artists tend to be truthful where art is concerned. I am thinking now of a favorite book of mine, Musical Stages by Richard Rodgers. From this book we learn that although he fought both depression and cancer, Rodgers strove to […]
Reflection
Walking on my treadmill daily, I have made a practice of reading while I walk. I am currently reading my own memoir, Floor Sample. I’m hoping to see what I can learn from reviewing my life as one long, narrative thread. I’m currently in a sad section– my divorce from Mark Bryan. It strikes me […]
Writing By Hand
In the advent of more and more technology, Morning Pages remain the same: they need always be done by hand. Hand-writing puts us in touch with our emotions. We learn how we feel about what we say. Writing by computer is a more shallow practice. It yields us speed and distance, but not the depth […]
A flicker of interest
I write longhand. My hand seems to lead my thoughts. I could go faster by computer, but faster is not better. Writing by hand gives me depth. Writing by computer merely gives me speed. Just outside my writing room windows, a Northern Flicker lands on a bird feeder. A checkerboard bird with a red bib…it […]
Connect with Julia
