Tag: writer

Looking for Change

Come April, this blog will turn two.

Well, that’s a bit of a cheat. I created the blog back in 2010, wrote a few scattered posts, and then abandoned it. It came to life again as the result of  my participation in a “platform” challenge in April 2011. During that challenge created by Robert Lee Brewer, I learned a lot about social media and blogging in general and met many kindred souls.

I began the “new, improved” Writerly Life blog with the idea that it would be about what the tag line says: the writing life–how I was/am living it–and writing craft. But over the past year, the blog seems to have gone in a different direction. My posts have moved toward more memoir and personal narrative than writing advice.

So as I approach the blog’s birthday, I’m thinking about change and direction: Is it time for a new look? Maybe a new title and/or tag line? Should this space be primarily a “writer” site that deals with writing craft and issues? Or should it be a place for memoir and reflection? A mash-up of both? The memoirs and reflective essays often tend to tie in with my writing life, so there is that.

I would love to know where you think The Writerly Life should go from here. I hope you’ll participate in the poll below. If I haven’t covered a suggestion you’d like to make or if you’d like to elaborate, please leave a comment.

The blog is for you, you know. Help me re-establish its identity.

(You may choose more than one answer.)

A Picture’s Worth . . . How Many Words? # 2

Here’s the second photo in the series that began a couple of weeks ago:  A Picture’s Worth  . . . How Many Words? (Click on the link to see the first one.)

The point? A prompt that’s the opposite of a photo challenge. Instead of finding or shooting a photo to suit the word/s, you bring the words to the photo.

Maybe it’ll trigger a memory or  prompt a story or poem.  The possibilities are as limitless as your imagination!

So jump in . . . Write about what’s happening in the picture. Write what came before. Write what comes after. Take it anywhere you like . . .

I would love to see what you do! Post your first 100 words or a few lines of a poem in a comment. Or share a link to a longer piece.

Happy writing!

[The photo has a title, but I’m not going to give it to you!]
http://www.istockphoto.com / photo by CREATISTA

Worthy Words: A Peculiar Crossroads

The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location. 

—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964), Mystery and Manners, part 2 (1969).

Railway
Image courtesy of samurai / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How profound is this concept, and how true? 

Flannery O’Connor is one of my favorite writers. A master of the short story, she is famous for blending the gritty and the mysterious into as motley a crew of characters as you’ll ever hope to meet.

If you’ve never read her work, I encourage you to sample her stories. Here’s a link to “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” which is often anthologized.


Have you experienced moments in your own writing where—somehow—the real and the mysterious come together? Tell me about it in a comment!