It’s been a while since I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. So long, in fact, that when I decided to review it here, I had to pull it down from the shelf to reacquaint myself with it first. Skimming, I noted the chapter names and tried to recall what I had learned from each. […]

Many thanks to Ira Glass for unwittingly pinch-hitting on the blog while I’m otherwise occupied. In the fourth and last installment of his thoughts on storytelling, he discusses two common pitfalls storytellers fall into; not using their own unique voice, and being too self-centric. Let’s listen in…
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Ira’s on a roll. Let’s tune in and see what he has to say about taste and its effect on storytelling. Of all his videos, this is the one that spoke loudest to me. So that’s why I’m so frustrated with my writing sometimes…
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Another foot in a shoe has washed up on the Canadian coast. This is all you need to know about today. Instead, let me tell you about what I did on my summer vacation.
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I couldn’t say anything on storytelling that Ira doesn’t cover in this series, so I’ll spare you the commentary. On with part 2…
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Although you wouldn’t know it from my recent silence, I’m actually feeling reinvigorated about writing. Last week’s vacation helped me sort some things out in the way that only changing venues can do. While I’m processing what I’ve learned and putting it into blog form, here’s the first of a wonderful set of videos that […]

Misery, if you love company then get your scrawny ass over here. Both of my loyal and astute readers may have noted my switch to a new minimalist style of blogging. This vastly more efficient technique works thusly:

Think up good ideas
Analyze them to tatters
Stuff the shredded bits in the trash
Repeat

And the best part is, all […]