I left a webinar today that was filled almost to capacity. The beginning didn’t grab me, but I waited and listened. I had learned a lot in another webinar of similar format, so I wanted to give this a chance. Common blogging pitfalls, converting readers to subscribers, not having to create too much content—these topics…
To write is to risk. To put heart to paper in black and white, even if it’s hidden in a private journal, is to be vulnerable. To sign one’s name and click publish, without hiding behind a brand or a logo, is to bare one’s soul. To know you were made a writer, but that…
Dearest, Did you know what you were getting into, my love, when you married a writer? Did you know it would mean oft coming home to dishes only half finished because inspiration struck in the midst of the soap suds? Did you know how often I’d nearly burn your dinner—or forget to get it started…
Writing can be a lonely calling. The hammering out of words on keys. The editing, the honing, the writing again. It’s laborious and lonely. So there’s nothing like doing it together with a team of those who are also called to write. Cheering each other on when we get published, when we’re featured as a…
Writing is brave work. Putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard. Stringing words together. It’s all easy enough for a lover of words. Until you press “Publish.” Before you hit “Print.” And then, the very heart of you lays bare for the world to read. That molding and scraping the Lord was doing in your…
It’s hard to be anything but real when we have people over for dinner. They might arrive just moments after I’ve finished vacuuming the momentarily neat floor. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be strewn with toys before they leave. They see that our children don’t always eat their dinner nicely or politely—or at all. …
I open a new post. I pause and look at the blank screen. Often, I have a topic idea. Some days, it’s just a one-word prompt. Sometimes, I have no idea at all what I’ll write. Others, I think I have it all outlined in my head, only to end up with a completely different…
It’s the thing I do in my head when my hands are busy. It’s what I do when I have five spare minutes put together. It’s the job I dream of being able to devote hours to. It’s what reading inspires me to do. It’s the thing I want to somehow find more time in…
For the last issue of New Attitude Magazine, I convinced my parents to let me put my name in the pen pal ads. I wanted some “real” pen pals—”real” as in girls I’d never met before. It was such a thrill getting those first letters in the mail box. Reading the hearts of those dear…
I wish I could go back and tell my 16-year-old self a few things (but would I have understood?).
I would remind myself not to judge when I don’t know every detail…
I’ve often wondered what my writing professor would say if he ever condescended to visit FaceBook or Twitter. Would he rejoice that his too-verbose students had finally learned to condense their thoughts into a few to-the-point sentences? Or would he see those short messages as only an introductory paragraph to an essay? Maybe he would…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I blog. It has prompted a lot of revelations, which will spill out into more blog posts! But the other day, as I was picking up the growing collection of Good Dog, Carl and other board books from the bathroom—stacked on the floor, around the potty chair,…
The End.
The End.