Category Archives: Uncategorized

As we honor his birthday today, it’s worth remembering that Abraham Lincoln had his share of setbacks, personal and political — he knew what it felt like to fail and have to fight another day. We’ve all had them — … Continue reading →

A story: Chuck Yeager, the hero of Tom Wolfe’s classic, The Right Stuff, is widely considered to be the best pilot who ever lived. The night before he was scheduled to attempt a world-shattering feat — flying solo in the … Continue reading →

Ah, there it is again: the ever-present, ever-critical inner editor. You know the feeling: You can be writing merrily along on a creative roll, when suddenly, you’re pulled up short. Your inner editor is at it again, tapping on your … Continue reading →

“Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.” Plautus (254-184 B.C.) What a wise fellow Plautus was! He was a playwright in ancient Rome, so he surely knew a thing or two about trouble and how to handle it. His … Continue reading →

“There is no wealth but life.” “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.” “Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.” John Ruskin Today, February … Continue reading →

130 A slashed Blue — A sweep of Gray — Some scarlet patches on the way. Compose an Evening Sky — A little purple — slipped between — Some Ruby Trousers hurried on — A wave Gold — A bank … Continue reading →

Writing is all about words: falling in love with them, coaxing them, wooing them, worrying over them, playing with them, cutting them, adding them, and even, like Shakespeare, inventing them. Writers are word lovers and when we love them hard … Continue reading →

Who knows why, but the word “enchantment” was floating around in my head this morning just as I woke up as the theme for this post, so I’m going with it. Enchantment — a lovely word, isn’t it? It rolls … Continue reading →

When Lin-Manuel Miranda was creating his smash hit Hamilton, he spent some of his time writing the musical in an old Revolutionary War-era mansion in Upper Manhattan. Just sitting in the place where the characters he was writing about had … Continue reading →

When J.K. Rowling was penning her now-legendary Harry Potter series, one of the tools she used was a version of storyboarding: She mapped out her chapter outlines and plot points using vertical columns on a sheet of paper. This gave … Continue reading →