Writing Into the Fireplace

I can’t believe I haven’t already blogged about Writing into the Fireplace, but I just tried hunting down that post to send the link to someone, and to my amazement, it isn’t there! It’s time to share this potent secret.

Creative Commons photo by Jernas Lukasz, from openphoto.net

Writing into the Fireplace is a powerful way to get angry, confused, or hurtful words on paper to allow healing to proceed, without running the risk of damaging relationships with the result. Rather than sharing this writing, you immediately burn or shred it.

I unwittingly developed this technique about thirty years ago when I was a grad student in counseling psychology. That degree program was a grueling experience, amounting to an extended course of personal therapy with quasi-therapists at every juncture, and I often found my head and heart spinning like tires in a snowbank. To combat my confusion, I often curled up in a comfortable chair with huge piles of recycled computer print-out — the kind with holes on each side, and huge double-size sheets, linked by perforated folds.

I’d sit and write without concern for my Inner Censor or anything else, until all the words had been wrung out of my monkey mind, and I felt limp and relaxed. I might fill a dozen or more of those huge sheets. The wild rantings and ramblings wouldn’t make sense to anyone else, or probably even to me later. I didn’t want to have to explain anything I’d written, so I’d pitch the papers in the fireplace and burn them, feeling gleeful as I watched flames consume those words and put an end to them.

That writing didn’t produce answers. It did provide an outlet for all that frustration and confusion, and allowed my mind to become sufficiently peaceful that answers could emerge in their own time. I never wrote further about those concerns, but I still use the technique to calm my mind enough to write coherently about touchy topics.

Countless writing students have told me how valuable this technique has been for them, enabling them to write sensitive stories of their own. “I’ve been trying for years to get a handle on that story, but I could never write it without feeling spiteful and nasty. Seeing all those ugly words go up in smoke was so liberating. It was like a key turned in my heart and all the hate and resentment was gone. I could finally write what I wanted to be able to say, and write it truthfully.”

So, that’s what writing into the fireplace is all about — relief, peace, and clarity. You may have to fill that fireplace or shredder basket many times before you feel “finished,” but if you persist, that’s bound to happen.

You don’t have to do all the writing at once. You can write for ten minutes at a time over a period of time. You’ll know when you are finished, and if you then chose to write openly about the matter, your subsequent writing will be clear and powerful.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 32 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Pre-ordering now available on Amazon.com.

Secrets! of a Los Alamos Kid, 1946-1953

Memorial Day is a day for remembering and I spent this day remembering place as well as people. To help in this regard I had a copy Kristen Embry Lichtman’s memoir, Secrets! of a Los Alamos Kid, 1946-1953. I enjoyed this book on two levels. First, it was a vivid trip down memory lane. I also grew up in Los Alamos, and in my later years there I shared many adventures with members of the Embry family. For me, that combination of place and people formed the heart of the book.

Beyond that close connection, I appreciated the craft Kris used in creating the book. It’s a fine example of the scrapbook style of story organization I mentioned in the last post. The book is comprised of twenty chapters of varying lengths. Each chapter covers a designated period of time, be that a single day or several months, and each has a theme. Of the twenty, only six feature a single story. The others group several related incidents of anywhere from a single paragraph to a couple of pages to broaden the coverage of the theme.

Her liberal use of dialog, choice of present tense, and liberal use of photographs make the story sizzle with life, and her gently humorous accounts of her own silent fretting that resulted from typical childish misunderstandings lend a strong aura of credibility to the tales. She matter-of-factly tells of shenanigans like scooting out the door when her mother was distracted, and jumping off the top bunk with the older two sisters when their parents were both away in the evening. Kris’s cozy, informal writing style makes the book read like a letter to a cherished friend or relative and furthers the impression that this is a book one can take at face value without considering the role of literary device or artifice.

Her choice of content was judicious. Although she limited the book to her grade school years, she surely could have filled several times the 110 pages with stories from that time frame. The ones she did include are tightly focused on her purpose of showing various aspects of life in Los Alamos as a young girl. Readers become acquainted with her family, but always in the context of living in that specific community. For example, the tale of flushing extra toilet paper produced a reminder of the power of Zia, a mysterious force unknown to the outside world. The book is about the chance for young children to roam freely in the canyons, and the abundance of neighboring kids to play with. It’s about the lifelong love for the mountains and pine forests that she (probably most of us) developed growing up in Los Alamos. And above all, it’s about the role secrets played in our lives there.

Kristin’s story was published by the Los Alamos Historical Society, and that fact shows that our stories can have value beyond our families. Any of the thousands of kids who grew up as Hilltoppers will find a treasure trove of memories between those covers, perhaps story ideas of our own, and the views of the children growing up there at a crucial juncture in history are of historical interest. Beyond that, I recommend the book to any lifestory writer as an example of a completed collection of stories written and organized in an effective, down-to-earth way.

To date, I know of only one other Los Alamos offspring who has written publicly about the experience of growing up there. I’m inspired to join their ranks, and I hope many others will do likewise. How about you? Could you produce a collection of stories about the place(s) where you grew up? Make sure your Historical Society and/or public library have copies. Publish it on Lulu.com so others can easily obtain them. Who knows how many lives you can brighten, as Kristen has brightened mine?

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 34 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

The Scrapbook Approach to Lifestory Writing

When strangers hear that I teach classes in lifestory writing, they often confess, “I’ve been thinking about doing something like that myself, but I have no idea how to go about it.” While some people start with their birth and write their way through the calendar, another approach is easier for most people to follow. I call this the scrapbook approach to lifestory writing, in the sense that scrapbooks are a compilation of bits and pieces of random material, or a collection of related tidbits. I recommend the scrapbook approach to anyone who doesn’t instinctively reach for a calender, because you can fit the random stories to a calender later if you decide to use a chronological approach.

In the scrapbook approach, you write stories about your spontaneous memories, regardless of chronological order. I’m a scrapbook writer myself, and I might follow a story about my preschool years with another about signing up for Social Security. Some stories are three or four paragraphs long, while others go on for several pages. I have a huge portfolio that bulges with about five hundred miscellaneous stories now, roughly sorted into about a dozen file folders. Several years ago, I parked a few early ones on Ritergal’s website, and I selected a baker’s dozen to illustrate points in The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing, but most are slumbering in the depths of my file cabinet.

Themes are beginning to emerge, attracting clusters of stories, and later this year I plan to begin organizing these themes, weaving them together with some narrative, and filling in blanks with related stories. Perhaps I’ll publish a volume with several themes, one theme per chapter or section. It doesn’t matter that it isn’t clear yet how to do it. When the time is right, it will happen, and if it doesn’t, at least I leave stacks and piles of random stories behind to entertain and enlighten future generations.

If you read memoirs thought-fully, you’ll begin noticing that many are formulated with chapters comprised of a collection of short stories, many perhaps only three or four paragraphs long. Some authors may write the stories specifically for the book, but others do as I’ve mentioned above, culling through collections and assembling the appropriate ones. Who knows how many of these authors set out to write a published volume when they first put fingers to keyboard?

So, if you are unsure where to start, quit fretting. Just sit down and write the first story that comes to mind. Then write another. If you need help coming up with a topic, click on the Prompts label below and skim through the blog articles that come up, or click over to the 236 Creative Writing Prompts website and write your heart out. If you have compiled a story idea list, you are way ahead of the game! Over time, you’ll cover the important parts of your life map. If you get around to organizing the stories in tidy volumes, that will be a wonderful accomplishment. But if all you leave is a pile of drafts, your family will still be thrilled.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 35 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

Shooting Myself in the Foot

I’m about to make a counter-intuitive statement:

In my humble opinion, the Internet may be the worst enemy you’ll ever face as a writer.

I hear your gasps! How can I say this when I’m using the Internet to convey the message?!

Yes, the Internet can be a writer’s best friend, serving as a source of background information, facts, and guidance on tricky things like spelling, grammar, alternate wordings, marketing information and so forth.

The Internet can also be the most seductive, addictive distraction we’ll ever face. It may be worse than drugs and alcohol. I speak from extensive personal experience. How easy it is to follow links, especially from one blog to another. How easy it is to succumb to the temptation to read “just one more” helpful article, or to surf through a forum or reader board. How comforting it feels to seek advice and solace from Kindred Spirits in on-line groups, e-zines and such places. Why, I might even find other writers and send e-mails back and forth exploring intentions to write.

The game players among us (you know who you are) can’t get through the day without a Sudoku or three, maybe even five. Crosswords are good for my brain, experts say. My all-time favorite, Bejeweled, as far as I can tell, has no redeeming value at all. Ditto for all forms of Solitaire, Tetris and similar time traps.

The evils listed above are bad enough, but there is one that can be even worse: The enervation of finding something close to your own ideas already out there in cyberspace. Few things are harder on my ego than discovering my thoughts aren't as original as they seemed.

Why do we follow the siren's song into these sinkholes of precious time? Time that we could spend writing something fresh and original?

Because writing is hard work. It can be painful. It can be confusing. It’s often hateful and distressing, and sometimes I feel as if I’m spinning my wheels and writing the same thing over and over, and anything feels better than writing when I'm feeling that way ... except at the end of the day when I look at a blank page that greeted the day in the splendor of naked opportunity, and ends the same day in that same state of nakedness. Only now, rather than glorious potential, it bears the shame of wasted potential. Then I feel even worse.

If the words above resonate even a little bit in your soul, use the next paragraph as a combination self-diagnostic and affirmation.

Why am I surfing around getting drunk and sated on the words of others rather than writing my own? I keep finding repeats of my story and talking myself out of writing because it's already been said, but their words are not MY STORY!

One page. Just one page. I’ll write one page today.

You’ve read this blog. That’s good. That’s about writing. (I have to aim a bit off-center, lest I lose my standing place in Cyberspace.) Now, be brave. Click the X to close your browser and e-mail. Get your fingers off that mouse and onto the keyboard, and Just Write — Now!

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Debugging Quotation Marks

One of the most common punctuation problems writers face is with quotations marks. In Everything You Always Wondered About Punctuating Dialogue, posted last July, I covered the proper punctuation of dialogue, but there’s a little more to the matter.

On the computer you have a choice of the “old-fashioned” straight quotation marks (" ... " ) or “curly” (typographical) quotation marks (“ ... ”). Today nearly every word processing program is set by default to insert curly ones, and this can pose a problem. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that the mark inserted at the beginning of a quotation has the “tail” up. The mark at the end has the “tail” down.

Our eye becomes so accustomed to seeing them the right way, we only notice when they are wrong, for example, “I said yes, “ she told me. Or, ” No, I do not want to go.” This fluke is caused by a stray space. Your program uses an opening mark if it’s preceded by space, and a closing one if it’s preceded by another character. Most often it’s the ending one that gets turned around because without noticing, you enter a space after the period before you insert the ”. To fix the problem, simply delete the incorrect mark, check the spacing, and retype the mark as it should be.

If you ever need to enter a closing mark after a space, as I have done four times in the above paragraphs, type the mark first, then back up and add the space afterward.

You have the same challenges with single quotation marks, also used as an apostrophe. It looks odd to see it‘s with the mark backward because someone caught the extra space, but not the upside down mark.

Although word processing programs use curly quotes by default, e-mail programs typically don’t. This will only matter if you paste passages from e-mails into a story that is mostly written in Word or OpenOffice and the e-mail has straight quotation marks or apostrophes. I faced that challenge in my book manuscript. I’d forgotten that some stories began life years earlier as e-mail, and they kept turning up through several edits. The simplest solution for more than one or two replacements is to do it with search and replace, searching for (space)" and replacing it with (space)“ and "(space) with ”(space). Of course you know to use the spacebar to enter the (space) ... .

In case you are wondering why those old marks persist, Shawn Hansen over at The Grammar Police would be delighted to explain that the straight marks are properly used with measurements. In fact, until the advent of the typewriter, typeset documents used curly quotation marks with words, and inch and foot marks with measurements. I daresay not even one percent of all readers would notice anything awry if you wrote that your father was 6’ 2”, but technically you would more properly express that as 6' 2".

And now you definitely know more than you ever wanted to know about those ubiquitous little curly gizmos.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 45 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

My Life Is So Ordinary

“My life is so ordinary,” she said. (Why is it always women who say this?) “I’ve never worked outside the home. The farthest I’ve ever traveled was to go to Columbus once, and I’ve been married to the same man for fifty-three years. I cook dinner, do the laundry and go to church. What on earth would I write about?”

“If you met a woman who had lived on the edge of the Kalahari Desert all her life, never traveling beyond the cluster of waterholes where her tribe staked their claim, would you think her life was ordinary and uninteresting?”


“Of course not!”

“Write about your life to explain it to that woman, and it will no longer be ordinary.”

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 50 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

Red Letter Day

Today has been a true RED LETTER DAY. Although I read blogs by the hour and follow a long list regularly, I've resisted the temptation to list every interesting blog I read in the sidebar. When I began this blog, I defined a purpose: all content, whether links or posts, must relate directly to lifestory writing, providing inspiration or instruction to help readers write extraordinary stories about their lives and experiences.

Throughout the fifteen months of this blog's life I've had my eyes open for links to other blogs and websites with related material. I determined to list only blogs focused consistently and directly on writing instruction. Until a couple of weeks ago, I was unable to find such blogs. Then I found The Grammar Police, which you've heard about in a couple of posts.

Today, through a series of synchronistic links, I came across not one, but three additional links. You'll find them all in the links list on the sidebar. The first is Terrisa Meeks’ blog, Just Write. Terrisa has lots of great prompts, book reviews and other helpful material for lifestory writers and memoirists.

The next blog I encountered, Red Ravine, is unusual. All of the posts on this multi-author blog originated as Writing Practice, also known as timed writing. This practice was first described by Natalie Goldberg in her 1986 classic book, Writing Down the Bones, which went on to become the best-known book about writing ever published. She revised the book in 2005. For an explanation of Writing Practice, click over to Red Ravine and select the Writing Practice tab at the top. Read some of the posts while you're at it.

Finally, for those moments when you feel stuck, and those times when you want a fresh idea for Writing Practice, find the link in the sidebar and click over to Creative Writing Prompts.com. This innovative site has only one page, filled with numbers, from 1 to 236. Hold your mouse over any number and a writing prompt pops up. Fortunately, the prompts are short and easily remembered, because you can't copy and paste them.

It may or may not be a coincidence that I just began rereading Writing Down the Bones last night after a dozen years or so. I liked the book the first time, and it's even better now. If this is the sort of writing one can do as the result of a faithful regimen of Writing Practice, I'm sold. I just hope it doesn't take thirty years to get there!

With these new links and the fresh inspiration provided by Natalie's book, I feel richly blessed indeed, and hope some of it rubs off on you!

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 49 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

The Sound of a Voice on Paper

My e-mail today held a Mother’s Day story sent by a writer friend. Something didn’t quite click when I read the story. Is this a flashback story? I wondered. The timing seems off, and ... this does not sound like her writing! This isn’t the way she puts things.

This experience sparks several thoughts, and the first relates to my perception that it did not sound like my friend’s writing. I know the sound of her voice on paper, also known as her Writer's Voice, and this voice wasn’t hers.

I’ve been thinking a lot about writer’s voice lately, and realized that our writing voice can be compared to an opera diva’s voice. When she first begins to sing, the diva sings naturally, like anyone else, though her gift for singing may soon become apparent. Many people have lovely voices, perhaps even the potential to become divas, but the vast majority of them are content to simply sing for worship or pleasure, and their tunes touch the hearts of all who hear.

In contrast, the diva spends years studying, practicing, and learning new ways of projecting and using her voice. Its glory eventually thrills audiences. But all the training and coaching serves only to remove rough edges and distractions from her voice, allowing her truest, purest sounds to emerge. She still sounds like herself — her best, most polished self.

Lifestory writers may go through a similar process. We all begin by jotting down simple stories or letters, some with more natural polish than others. Most people who are primarily interested in leaving a written record of their lives for their families will be content with single drafts or simple edits, and their families will be thrilled with their efforts.

Some of us desire to hone our craft. We read, study, and practice new ways of presenting those stories to polish our technique. Years later, our words may flow like silk ribbons along the page, but our stories will still sound like we wrote them. We may avoid grammatical errors and distractions, and include more colorful descriptions, but they are still our stories, told the way only we can tell them. The longer we write, the more consistent and recognizable this voice becomes.

I know my friend did not intend to pass this story off as her own work, but even if she had, I would not have been fooled, because I know her voice.

Beyond the matter of writer’s voice, this story raises a couple of points about sharing stories by e-mail:

• Sharing stories via e-mail is lots of fun, and an easy way to delight your family and friends. Pasting them into the body of the e-mail is fine, though they will be easier to save for posterity if you attach them as a document.Be sure to include a title, and be extra sure to include your name. I encourage you to enter your name as Copyright 2007, Your Name, or © 2007, Your Name.

• It’s fine to forward those cute anonymous stories that are caught in endless e-mail loops. But as a writer, you need to take extra care to make it clear you did not write the story yourself, or you may confuse people. My friend was in a hurry, and hit forward without adding a personal note or any sort of explanation. Simply listing “Author Unknown” at the bottom would removed any doubt.

Your own stories are unique and special because you wrote them. Give them the respect they deserve, and showcase them proudly, with your name at the top and/or bottom, and a copyright notice. Your work is protected by copyright whether you include the notice or not, but don't settle into complacency with that assurance. Don’t worry about seeming arrogant — think of it as a way of managing respect. Mentioning the copyright shows that you respect your own work and encourages others to do likewise.

I’ll be thrilled if someone eventually forwards one of my stories back to me from cyberspace, and I hope when that happens, my name is still attached. But if it isn’t, by that time I hope half the world will recognize the sound of my voice on paper.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 51 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

Shift Happens

Yesterday I surfed into a strange I-port and found an amazing thing: an embedded slide show with lots of facts about our changing world. This slide show was the winner of this year's World's Best Presentations contest at Slideshare.net. Rather than describe it to you, I'm embedding it so you can view it right here or click over to the Slideshare site.

You may find it disturbing. You may find it exciting. I hope you find it provides a compelling reason to tell your stories about your own life, because this slide show will convince you to write lots of stories about life as you have known it. Click on the single right arrow to play.

You may want to write a story about your feelings, or an essay on your thoughts after viewing this slide show. Have any of the types of change covered in the slide show affected your life, recently or longer ago? How do you feel about the changes it outlines? How do you generally feel about and handle change? Have you learned anything worth passing on?

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 53 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

White Man's Dress Shirt

Now and then I run across a sentence that makes me scratch my head. The latest:

The list of required items included a white man’s dress shirt, black pants, and a red bow tie.

This particular one tickled my funny bone. How does one distinguish between a white man’s dress shirt and one worn by a man of another color? For total clarity, the author could reword it thusly:

... a man’s white dress shirt ... .

Here’s another:

Being an old junker, I was able to purchase the car for nearly nothing.

Oh my! People don’t generally admit to being in that condition, but if I could get a car for nearly nothing, there’s no telling what condition I might claim to be in. Let’s try again:

Since it was an old junker, I was able to purchase the car for nearly nothing.

The car was an old junker that cost me nearly nothing.

I was able to purchase the old junker for a song.

One more example:

I invited to the seminar led by Rick Warren those reps in the company distinguished by their low volume to get them motivated.

Oh my! Where to start on this one? Here’s a shot:

I invited the sales reps in the company with the lowest volume to a seminar by Rick Warren, hoping to increase their motivation.

Hoping to increase their motivation, I invited the company’s low-ball sales reps to a sales seminar led by Rick Warren.

Attention to word order can make a major difference!

The best way to avoid sending such awkward sentences out into the world is to let your stories age before you share them. Set them aside and work on something else for a at least a few days before rereading. You can also ask a trusted friend or family member to read with pen in hand, and writing groups (real-time or online) are a great way to get constructive feedback.

For more examples of repair techniques for sentences like this, click over to The Grammar Police. In two recent posts, The Mod(ification) Squad, Part One, and Part Two, Shawn Hansen tells you just about everything you'd ever want to know about dangling and misplaced modifiers.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 55 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

Story Idea List

In the last post I mentioned the importance of making lists of story ideas as a sign of respect for your muse. I mentioned that a few words will do. As I looked at my current list of blog ideas, I decided to share it to give you an idea of how these lists can work. Take a look:

• Death Comes to the Archbishop, Willa Cather — well-turned phrases

• Grandkids, Camp RYLA. perception —> memory

• Power of “when” — Zippy. Repetition/attribution

• Awkward sentence examples

• “I'd know who wrote it ...”
  

• Powerful stories take courage to tell — Jane’s grandson
  

• Share blog item list

• Respect — for self and others. How learned?
  

• Curly quotes and stuff like that

• Story organization — build on bones
  

• How readers think
  

The order of items is random. As you can see, I’m writing about a random item first. On any given day, I may write something from this list, or I may be inspired to write something else before I get to any or all of these items. In fact, I may never get to some of them at all. The important thing is, they are written down. Should the day come that I am due to write a blog post and Sarabelle is silent, my list will instantly pop a topic into focus.

You may also notice the informality. I use lots of dashes. Sometimes I underline. I generally stick to key words, but there is an index card attached to this list with a whole paragraph on it.

I assembled this list from a stack of index cards and paper scraps. I added the new ideas to the list I keep on the computer, because scraps of paper have a way of disappearing when I need them. I also have a list of personal story ideas, article ideas (in case I ever figure out where to submit one for publication), and quite a few half-finished stories, waiting for inspiration or the time to polish them up.

In spite of all this organization (I do take my own advice in this respect), I’m likely to write about something I’ve recently heard or thought about when I sit down to blog. That’s okay ... the list is a safety net, not a mandate. That being said, if there is a particular item you’d like to see a post about, please mention that in a comment. I love reader requests!

Caveat: If you make a list of story ideas, you give up the comfort of knowing you can procrastinate about writing by not having a story in mind, and you give up many rights to experience Writer’s Block.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 58 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.

A Visit from Sarabelle

Earlier this month I posted two messages (Some Pictures are Best Painted with Words, and Transition Generation) about my trip last month across western Texas along I-10. Those posts were transcriptions from pages of the yellow pad I carried along. I did little editing — they gushed forth fully formed. Following is the third and last of the inspirations I had that day:

Few outside Texas would ever think to seek creative inspiration in West Texas. I certainly wouldn't. Today, after the blessing of spring rains, this basically barren landscape is as green as it ever gets, but it still looks eerily god-forsaken.

Obviously this is not so. As I look with my heart, I see there is something ethereal and mystical about this place. Blog ideas are gushing forth at fire hose velocity. Perhaps Sarabelle, my lifestory writing muse, headquarters here. I know better than to spurn Sarabelle's offering, and I know better than to leave home without paper and pencil. Right now, if I were a poet, I'd write An Ode to Sarabelle, but alas, a poet I am not.

I'll simply honor her gifts by writing them down and urge you to do likewise when she leaves memory morsels in unexpected places. She doesn't require that you write a whole, finished story on the spot. She's happy if you simply jot a few words or a couple of sentences — enough to lock the idea in your mind.

Thank you, Sarabelle

I don't know if it was the landscape that unleashed that flow of creativity. Perhaps the low-grade fever I was running slipped my brainwaves into another gear. Whatever it was, I was grateful for this phenomenon I call Writer's Rush, the opposite of Writer's Block.

You needn't travel to west Texas or run a low-grade fever to experience Writer's Rush yourself. Spending time with other lifestory writers in a writing group, reading lists of prompts, or simply talking with friends and family about "the good old days" is generally enough to get most people spinning out story ideas. Just don't forget to jot down a few notes about each one to keep Sarabelle feeling appreciated.

Write on,

Sharon Lippincott, aka Ritergal

Countdown: 60 days until the release of The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing on July 1. Stay tuned for ordering details.