Against all odds, for the first time since I started making birthday resolutions well over a decade ago, I accomplished all of my goals last year. To be sure, most of them were pretty vague: take better care of my body, write more short fiction, and read to expand my horizons. My thirtieth year ofContinue reading “The Birthday Resolutions Achieve Escape Velocity”
Tag Archives: creativity
C’est la pandémie
It’s been 38 days since the COVID-19 pandemic became real for me. That was the day I started working from home, the day most businesses in Washington closed their doors, the day my knuckles started to crack from the sheer amount of handwashing I was doing, and the day that the numbers of the sickContinue reading “C’est la pandémie”
The Making of a New Short Film: “As Seen On TV”
There was a time in my life where I could call up a couple of friends with a wild idea, grab my handheld camcorder and make a short film in an evening or a weekend. It was a freewheeling, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants style of filmmaking that prioritized creative freedom over everything else — including scripts, plot, lighting,Continue reading “The Making of a New Short Film: “As Seen On TV””
Wired for Story
I don’t know about you, but I’m always writing stories in my head. A snippet of interesting conversation, an observation on the street, a song on the radio — my brain will wheel off on a creative tangent. I hear dialogue in restaurants. I imagine plot twists on my drive to and from the office.Continue reading “Wired for Story”
The Magic of Deadlines
I have heard rumors in my travels of creative people who are entirely self-motivated. They get up early, awakened by an innate drive to create, go to their computers, ignore Facebook and Google, and complete their work in a timely manner with no exterior motivator. I am not one of those people. I’m not evenContinue reading “The Magic of Deadlines”
My Solo Writing Retreat to the Island of Inspiration
It was a dark winter’s night when I drove onto the ferry from Point Defiance to Tahlequah. I was off to nearby Vashon Island for a day-and-a-half solo writing retreat to start my novel. On the short trip from Tacoma to Vashon, I tried not to think too much about the enormous task I wasContinue reading “My Solo Writing Retreat to the Island of Inspiration”
An Exercise In Words
I am sore. I’ve been working out on a regular basis for the first time since my little league soccer days and it hurts. Muscles hurt that I didn’t even know I had. Everything aches, but that is the price of growing healthier and stronger. This weekend, I also devoted several hours to writing. IContinue reading “An Exercise In Words”
Missing Moleskine
Break out the hound dogs and round of the search party — my Moleskine notebook is missing. This is not a drill; this is a full-scale, four-alarm emergency. Alert the president that we are at DEFCON-2. It’s that serious. If you don’t already know, I love my Moleskine. Sure, it’s a small stack of paperContinue reading “Missing Moleskine”
Our Response to Attacks On Free Expression
Last week, my heart sank when I heard on my drive to work that several staff of the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo had been killed in a brutal attack in Paris. Journalists and cartoonists — artists like me — had been silenced for their work. The sad news came just weeks after a satiricalContinue reading “Our Response to Attacks On Free Expression”
Supporting My Writing Habit
This week, I read a very interesting roundtable article by Liz Entman Harper on The Morning News. In it, seven published writers talk about how they continue writing while still having a full-time, 9-to-5 job. This is a question that has plagued me since I started working: How can I follow my dreams of beingContinue reading “Supporting My Writing Habit”
