As a past creative writing major and Writer’s March guest blogger and participant, the last few years have been a fascinating, vexing, and many times defeating redefinition of my relationship with writing.   When I was an undergraduate and asked why I write, the reasons were somewhat self-centered. They had to do with my own parsing of the world, my own relationships, my introversion and anxiety, my penchant for escapism. Somewhere in there, I had an understanding that other people might want to read my stories and that this might contribute to some sort of universal empathy and understanding of others, but ultimately, it was just about me. I enjoyed writing, I was good at it, and it made me feel slightly less crazy than not writing did.

As I matured (I guess…or something like that…) those reasons just didn’t hold enough water for me to keep writing consistently, and without being conscious of it, I began to reframe the act of writing as something that had a lot less to do with me as an individual and more about the collective stories and ideas that writing could manifest throughout the world. Continue reading →

Guest Blog by Melanie Unruh

At my college graduation, my Spanish professor told my family that I am someone who grabs hold of an idea and refuses to let it go until I’ve seen it through to the end. At the time, I thought this was just an amusing anecdote, but the more I live, the more I know it’s true: I hate to be interrupted.  Inspiration is such a fleeting, fickle thing that when it comes my way, especially when it relates to writing, I don’t want to lose my flow of ideas.

Fast-forward to eleven years after that graduation ceremony. Uninterrupted work of any kind is a luxury, a miracle, even. On a given day, I am a teacher, a student, a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur, and yes, a writer. These are only the major titles. There is no such thing as continuity.

I love my life, but sometimes I think I’m half-assing every single thing I do. How can I call myself a writer when I have to force myself to carve out time for it? After my son goes to bed in the evening, I usually have a pile of dishes and a mountain of essays that need attention. I can’t remember the last time I changed the cat litter, but they’re not shittting on the floor yet, so that’s okay, right? The winter has been long and full of late night snacks, so I really need to start working out again. But what about writing? Continue reading →

By Guest Blogger Randi Beck

Think of today’s offerings as two tapas of the podcast world. Each is a very listenable 25-35 minutes and gives you just enough to think about but not so much that your head will explode.

Here they are:

Why I Write

This one is brought to you by the National Council for Teachers of English and consists of 30 minute interviews with writers of all sorts.  The writers are delightful & inspiring. The host sounds like a morning radio disc jockey. The intermittent sounds of traffic, birds, and shuffling papers gives away the fact that all or most of these interviews are done over the phone…in other words, sound quality is not always top notch, but it doesn’t really interrupt the experience.  It’s still very new as it started up late last year, but episodes are released every two weeks.

Lore

Yes, if you are a frequenter checker-upper of what’s new and hip in podcasts, you’ve seen this name before. You’ll be entertained and (if you’re a good listener) you can learn some things about story-telling or gather some sci-fi/mystery/horror inspiration from these creepy, suspense tales based on true stories and legends around the world.  If you like being creeped out, listen before bed. If you don’t…don’t.  And here’s a fun bonus writing exercise: After listening to the tale in the 3^rd person, try writing a short-short story in 1^st person from the POV of a character living through one of these little nightmares. Go ahead and be a little crazy if you feel so inspired, taking on the point of view of the werewolf, murderous child, or disturbed elderly woman choking someone to death.

Cheers!

Life before a full-time gig:  writing and latte

Ever since I started a full-time 8-5 gig this past December I’ve been falling behind on everything from laundry and house cleaning to keeping in touch with friends (except for the scanning of Facebook which mostly just depresses me).  And of course writing.  Which makes me feel like I have no business writing this post.  It has been hard. So damn hard.  I can’t even imagine what my friends go through to work on writing, many even have written books!   And these are friends with spouses and children along with their full-time jobs and writing aspirations.  Some of them even manage to get exercise routines into their regular daily schedule! Continue reading →