As some of you know, I am from a family with six children (seven, except my little brother, Robert Alexander, died shortly after birth). All my older siblings: my sister, Leslie (11 years older); and my brothers, John, 9 years older; Jim, 8 years older; and George, 3 years older; have died. The only sibling…
Category: Reflections on Writing
Thoughts on This story I’ve Been Writing
I am writing a first draft story that people are reading in its first draft form. This is good in that I get encouragement as I proceed; it’s not so good because I think of a new idea after the installment has gone out and I don’t quite know how to correct what I’ve just…
Does Media Make Us Happy?
I recently saw an article that said that Facebook causes people to feel less content because they tend to compare their lives to others. Along that same vein, I was helping a student tonight work on a paper based on a book whose premise is that Americans have shifted from family-centered to society-centered primarily through…
Writing Class I’m Offering In West Hollywood/Beverly Hills
This is a class I am offering in Beverly Hills. Please pass this along to any who might be interested. Much thanks, Len (Click on the image to enlarge)
College Essays – A Chance to Grow
I started my day with a student who came to work on his college essays. He is an impressive young man with a 2290 (out of 2400) on his SATs so his options are great. He is applying to several Ivy League schools – including Harvard – and has much work to be done since…
“Healing” Writing
Well, I still haven’t done my paperwork – no muse visited this afternoon – but I have written my little heart out this evening and I’m happy about that. I have just concluded my “Writing as a Way of Healing” class and I spent this evening doing some healing writing of my own. While I…
Lost in Website Builder Land
I have been determined to build a website today. I have failed so far. There are many choices of free website builders, but, unfortunately, they include information that is beyond my level of computer literacy. Alas, I am hog-tied, at least for tonight. I keep thinking that if I create a website where I can…
Revisiting My Novel/Memoir…
I am thinking of returning to the memoir/novel that I worked on for a hundred years and looking at it with fresh eyes. I have work-shopped much of this writing and have had lots of feedback in the past. I’ve written and rewritten and gone from surface issues to much deeper ones. But I made…
Thank you, Edward!
A friend of mine in Texas, Edward Southerland, gave me a book when I was there a few weeks back. The gift was inspired, he said, from the reading he has done on my blog, which I will take as a compliment since I am always pleased to hear that people actually read my blog….
Students, Timers and Home
I am sitting with my first in-person (versus internet) student of the summer, George, who will be a 6th grader in the fall at Hawthorne Elementary here in Beverly Hills. George is here to work on speeding up his writing pace plus adding more details to whatever he writes. He is one of those boys…
20 Minutes a Day 