Tag Archives: writing

Birthdays, Marathon Running, and Life

By laurie | Published: November 1, 2011
This time last year I turned 49 years old – a few weeks after our youngest kid went to college and in the middle of the FORGE book tour. Immediately I started to think about what it would mean to turn 50. In the decade between my 40th and 50th birthdays, I wrote and published [...]
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WFMAD Day Almost The Last

By laurie | Published: August 30, 2011
First things, first. As I post this, Muslims on the other side of the world are waking up and celebrating the end of Ramadan. Eid Sa‘eed! If you are celebrating the Eid, I hope you have a blessed day. I also hope (if you’ve been following this blog for the past month), you’re able to [...]
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WFMAD Day 29 – Slaying Demons of Doubt

By laurie | Published: August 29, 2011
I’ve heard from a number of you recently about the struggle to maintain your confidence during the writing process. Many (all?) of you are beset by doubts about your talent, your current project, the competition, the marketplace, your future, and pretty much everything related to being a writer. So am I. Frankly, it’s amazing any [...]
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WFMAD Day 27 – Go Bag

By laurie | Published: August 27, 2011
I think the most striking statistic about Hurricane Irene so far is CNN’s statement that the storm will affect 1 in 6 Americans. (I’m still trying to wrap my head around this.) We are far away from the danger; might get some wind and a little rain. We’re used to losing power frequently, so that’s [...]
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WFMAD Day 26 – Permission to write suckaously

By laurie | Published: August 26, 2011
Several of you asked me to address the universal discomfort of sucky early drafts. Given the barn floor quality of my early drafts, I consider myself an expert in this area. “Queen of Awful Early Drafts,” that’s what you can inscribe on my crown. Here’s the thing they probably don’t tell you in MFA school: [...]
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WFMAD Day 25 – Dive in

By laurie | Published: August 25, 2011
(PSSSSST! BE SURE TO SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF TODAY”S POST! I HAVE TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!) One of the differences (for me) between an early and a late draft is that as I revise, I trim or cut the opening chapters. I have a bad habit of frontloading too much information in early drafts. [...]
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WFMAD Day 24 – Overcoming the pain

By laurie | Published: August 24, 2011
No earthquakes up here on the tundra today, so I’ll write yesterday’s original blog idea. The idea came from my right knee. The right knee that started acting up at mile 13 during yesterday’s run, and forced me to stop many, many times to stretch. (Because it’s not really my knee that is the issue. [...]
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WFMAD Day 23 – Earthquake edition

By laurie | Published: August 23, 2011
I had a great run today. On that great run, I thought of the PERFECT WFMAD blog post. I shuffled home, ate, showered, and headed out to run a few errands before I sat down to write. Somewhere in the middle of the errands, there was an earthquake. No, I did not feel it, though [...]
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WFMAD Day 22 – Habit-trails

By laurie | Published: August 22, 2011
We are gerbils. We have our paths that we run daily; kitchen, car, office, school, work. We pause at regular intervals to eat and to (ahem) get rid of what we’ve eaten. Most of us bathe regularly and brush our teeth. We are the products of our habits. Only problem is, when not enough of [...]
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WFMAD Day 20 – Stuck in a rut?

By laurie | Published: August 20, 2011
Is your writing stuck? Maybe not. Maybe the ideas are sputtering along. But you’re not happy, because you know (down deep inside) that what you are writing is a bit mechanical. Bloodless. DOA. If you have the kind of busy life that makes it hard to develop a consistent writing routine (hence your presence on [...]
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