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“Il faut cultiver notre jardin,” —Voltaire
For those of us who don’t do fancy French, this means:
“We must cultivate our garden,” says Pangloss at the end of Voltaire’s Candide.
No sentiment could be truer for women who write. Stop focusing on the whole wide world. Instead, maintain a space that is your own and encourages the fruits of your labors to blossom.
But the process of growing our garden requires the right tools. Reading this blog and learning how to revise your own stories could help you cultivate your garden, obtain peace of mind, and establish your writing legacy. Happy reading and writing!
Looking for a specific writing topic? Search the entire blog below.
Sex, Food, Travel—Writing Teachers
Before I started writing about the writing process, I wrote about… other topics. As a flight attendant, I roamed the country looking for historic landmarks and local cuisine. As an educator, I taught theatre, literature, and lifespan sexuality. Oh yes, I was a sex ed teacher, too!
Spoiler Alert: How to Ruin Movies
Plot lines aren’t a new thing in human history. People plotted out stories on cave walls. Death and taxes, right? I know there were no accountants back then. But that’s what they tell us we can depend on in the modern age. In other words, there are only so many experiences that can happen to us humans here on Earth.
Capture Movie Moments in Your Holiday Writing
Reflecting on your life in a journal may help you produce lots of content. But what happens when you have to sift through all that material to get to the good stuff and tell a story?
Journaling won’t get you to the heart of an experience. Not like shaping a story can.
Yep, I advocate for shaping a story rather than free writing. But how do you kickstart that story into motion? You don’t need a long ramble of exposition to figure out where to begin. A gut reaction will get you going and keep you away from passive voice.
The Selfish Art of Thank You Notes
Last year, we had a baby, I got hit with Hashimoto’s, and we rang in the New Year as newlyweds—our rollercoaster ride of domestic bliss. Think celebratory sparkles with lots of poop and other gross stuff. The presents and cards flooded in and many I responded to right away, but plenty got lost in the shuffle between new baby smell and the double visions of thyroiditis.
The Naked Stage: Presenting Your Writing
I got a B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies. A degree I sought out specifically to deal with my anxiety. Tortuous at times, it gave me skills that I used as a high school English teacher, a burlesque performer, and a flight attendant. Speaking in front of people still makes me nauseous. But now nobody notices if I’m on the verge of throwing up.