I have just begun reading John Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, a compilation of Steinbeck’s letters to his editor and friend, to whom he addressed a journal entry every day before writing his manuscript pages for his novel. East of Eden is one of the first books I read years ago…
Category: Reflections on Writing
Still Working at 11 pm
Today has been one of those days – hectic. It is now 11 pm and I am still sitting in front of my computer at the glass-topped table in our living room. I have been here on and off since 1 pm. Ugh. I guess there are just some days when you can’t get everything…
One of My Writing Students Receives a Gold Medal!
I am pleased to announce that my student, Madison Stingray, has won a gold medal for California for her short story through the Scholastic Artists and Writers contest. Her story will now be sent on for the national competition and if she wins, then she and I will travel to Carnegie Hall for a celebration…
My 401st Post and a Big Thank You
Switch Sexes and You Have My Current Life This is my 401st blog post, which seems amazing to me. I began this process a little more than a year ago to see how 20 Minutes a Day of writing might be helpful to my writing process. I would say so far it’s proving to be…
College Essay Deadlines Loom
It’s college essay time again and I am flooded with students who are applying to schools with a November 30th deadline. We are scrambling to beat the clock for the University of California schools, mainly, but also early admission requirements to other colleges around the country, such as University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Tulane,…
Hand in Hand – A Writing Process that Works
Here are two of my daughter Rachael’s grades from the infamously difficult UCLA English department. Of course, I am a proud mother and am pleased to “crow” about them to you all, but I have a bigger point. These grades illustrate something I’ve learned over these past 13 years of working with writing students –…
Falling Asleep while Sitting Up
I am struggling to come up with something to write tonight. I have my 20 minutes to fill and nothing of any note is springing to mind. Hmmm. What to write about? My eyes are crossing. I am so sleepy. It is 7:36 pm. The sun went down around 4:45 and, like a little bird,…
Writing Frustrations or How Not to Write a Novel…
I have been struggling today with my new novel, working out the structure using John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story. It’s difficult because I started with an image and have written probably sixty or seventy pages of this novel, but realize that I have a big problem. My main character, a 17-year-old girl, is not…
Back in LA!
This is Sunset Boulevard. We are back home after driving from Amarillo, Texas this morning. I drove until 2 hours from LA. Ray brought us the rest of the way. We listened to The Memory Keeper’s Daughter audio book the majority of the day. I think I enjoyed it…I am too tired right now to…
Hurray! Two Publications.
I am happy to report that two of my memoir pieces have been accepted for publication: one in the 2012 Story Circle Network hard copy anthology and the other in the SCN online anthology. The best part is that both of these pieces came from right here: my blog. I wrote them in my 20…
20 Minutes a Day 