Essays – WordOnion

Where Old Manuscripts Go To Die

Each time I begin a new piece of writing — whether it’s a novel, a short story, or an essay — my goal is to challenge myself. I want my new “comfort zone” to be uncomfortable. I experimented with genre when I wrote SUBWAY LOVE, a magical realism novel about a girl from the past and a boy in the present who meet, and can only meet, on the downtown F train. Think: The Lake House meets […]

Story with a capital S

Twenty-five years later I was still at it, having progressed from paper and pencil in middle school, to the coveted Smith Corona electric typewriter in college, to a brand new WP-2200 Brother word processor in 1990. But with a new baby and a toddler, finding time to write took not only determination but tactical planning. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday drop-off at the JCC preschool was 9am. This gave me three hours, more or less, in […]

Flow

“A flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time [ . . ]” I only learned about this psychological phenomenon called […]

She Who Shall Remain Unnamed

Some years ago, I went to hear an author (who shall remain unnamed) speak at an event in Wilton, Connecticut. Whenever I have the opportunity, I make a point to attend author events. I’ve gone to hear my friends — fellow young adult authors — speak at schools and bookstores and libraries. Leslie Connor, Sarah Albee, Tony Abbott, Alan Katz, Gae Polisner, Sarah Litman, Katherine Paterson, S.E. Hinton, Katelyn Detweiler, and Wendy Mass are but […]

The Confession

In those days, it was easy to steal books from the library. There were no electromagnetic sensors hidden inside the binding. Librarians, at least in New Paltz Middle School, didn’t wander around the stacks. They sat behind the counter by the front door and cheerfully checked out books, which just meant slipping a card from the envelope glued to the back cover and stamping, or writing in by hand, the date due. Every week, my […]

4th Grade Tales of Horror

When my 4th grade teacher, Miss Robinson came back from her honeymoon, she told the class her name would now be Mrs. Robinson. That didn’t matter much to us until, that is, she wrote the word COINCIDENCE on the chalkboard. We knew what was coming and that time was of the essence. We all took out a single sheet of lined paper and held our pencils at the ready. When the little hand on the […]

Don’t Cry For Me Writer’s Block

I was taught that there’s no such thing as “writer’s block” — not really at least — by my singer teacher. It was 1981 and I was a lit major in my third year of college. SUNY Purchase was a professional art school so there was an abundance of wonderful dance, photography, painting, screenwriting, and performance classes available, and one semester I took “Singing For Non-Music Majors.” We started every class by marching in a circle […]

Can You Name Your Ten Favorite Words?

I was teaching an after-school creative writing class at Weston Elementary School years ago. Same day of the week, every week. Same time. Same kids. I had a wonderful ten-week program worked out. Every week I’d introduce a new writing concept, show an example from literature that demonstrated it, then give the kids an exercise to work on. We’d do it first as a class, then I’d give everyone ten minutes or so to write, […]

Even Picasso Knew The Elements

There is no better school for learning to write for adults than learning to write for children. Here are five reasons why: 1.Sentences have to make sense. “She was crying so hard, tears spilled from her eyes and bounced off her jeans.” I wrote it. I was in a week-long writing intensive at Sarah Lawrence. One of the instructor’s lessons was to pull out one sentence from an unidentified manuscript and read it aloud. She […]

Be A Truth-seeker

Be willing to throw your characters under the bus and yourself along with them. When I teach writing in my workshops or in one-on-one sessions, I often find myself saying things like “Dig deeper” or “If you are going to go there, go there” or “Ask yourself if it’s true.” I suppose it’s because that’s the kind of writer I am, and I think people who find themselves working with me are also looking for […]

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