Writer Unboxed

In third grade, they made us learn how to juggle. We started with scarves, because they have good hang time in the air, and they don’t make any noise if — okay, when – you drop them. So picture a room full of 8 and 9 year olds throwing these dingy, neon-colored squares of cloth all [...]

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I am so distractible. Dealing with that aspect of myself is one of my greatest challenges as a writer. Though my doc has assured me that I do not have an adult version of ADD, I’ve wondered a time a two. Being distractible can be caused by a whole slew of things—like genetics, parenthood, stress, [...]

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First, a disclaimer. Sometimes I pretend I’m an MD who has specialized in whatever medical issue happens to be going on in my midst. Last week at church, for instance, when my friend mentioned that earlier that day, she had slipped on her stairs and bonked her head, I became a Head Injury Specialist. As [...]

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The cold & flu season has hit me pretty hard this year, and we’re not even into winter yet. My family has gone through more boxes of tissues in the past six weeks than the average elementary school classroom does in a year. As soon as we got over one thing, something else hit. I’ve [...]

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I have finally turned in a final draft of my next novel, The Garden of Happy Endings. It has been a bear. Not kidding. I know that I whine about all of them, but this one really was hard. It was a subject I have not tackled before, and the narrative required a lot from me, and [...]

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In my writing classes, I often suggest to writers that they turn off the internet until they have written their pages for the day. Better yet, turn it off completely on a regular basis and do other things. This has become more and more challenging for all of us. More and more of our world [...]

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Howdy, all! Harry here. Seeing how busy Pack Leader (PL) was, I offered to jump in and write this month’s contribution for her. Not that it was easy to get the gig. ‘Harry!’ At my suggestion PL was all surprise. ‘You can write?’ ‘What do you think us dogs do all day while you’re staring at [...]

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As you might have noticed, I’m a great believer in balance for writers—good food, modest amounts of exercise like walking and yoga and swimming to keep all the organs and joints oiled and moving, plenty of sleep and refueling the well with hobbies and travel and such things. But sometimes life just doesn’t leave a [...]

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If you’ve noticed I spend a lot of time talking about handling writerly fear, it’s because at heart I’m a big chicken. The past few days have been no exception. (Buck-buck-buuuuuck.) In fact, all week I’ve felt the Internal Editor’s breath on the nape of my neck, danced one step ahead of his grasping, bony [...]

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If you’re joining us today, this is Part 2 of my interview with author Kim Richardson. She’s sharing the knowledge gained in writing her memoir, The Unbreakable Child, which recounts how she survived both a decade of abuse at the hands of — and a successful lawsuit against — the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. [...]

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Kit Dunsmore asked: How do you deal with the different stages of a writing project, especially the ones that are least natural for you? A: At the personal level, what stops me from pushing through the unfamiliar is always fear. Fear that I’ll fail, that I’ll be mediocre, that I’ll be mocked, irrelevant. But I understand [...]

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One highlight of RWA Nationals is the RITA award ceremony. It’s pretty dazzling, with an MC, coordinated soundtrack, and large screens which display cover art and author photos between acceptance speeches. It’s the closest I’ll get to the Academy-Award experience in my life, and the two I’ve been to now gave me goosebumps. The audience [...]

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