If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.” ~Anne Lamott
Let me start by thanking you all for the great conversation on last week’s Thank You Notes post. I was particularly intrigued by the input on handwritten notes versus texts. I admit I lean toward sending texts these days, as it is more immediate…and let’s face it, easier and cheaper. That said, I still love…
What do you do when you are trapped in a seemingly never-ending winter? Well, in this case, when life gave me lemons… I made lemon pound cake. And it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And I do. (Thank you Wendy at The Monday Box for the recipe.) I also read…
When someone praises you, do you feel pleased or uncomfortable? When someone criticizes you, are you devastated or defensive? Perhaps a combination of the two? In her book, We Were Made for These Times, Kaira Jewel Lingo offers another more thoughtful response: you are partly right. This response acknowledges that neither praise nor blame is…
Sometimes the ideas just don’t come. I was in that situation last week, so I took a blogging break. No big deal. But this week, I really want to post something…and I do have a couple of starts…but nothing that I’m feeling excited about. So before I pursued one of those half-baked ideas, I thought…
And just like that another year has gone by. As of October 2, So What? Now What? is seven years old. When I wrote my first blog post, I described this blog as a public reprogramming of my internal route guidance…hoping to answer the question “What’s next for me? Where do I go from here?”…
Whether you blog on a schedule or when inspiration hits…whether you have a narrow niche or a more general theme…when you sit down to write a post, how do you decide what to write about? Sometimes I sit down at the computer knowing exactly what I want to write about. Other times, I’m not so…
Last week I ended my blog post with the phrase “right as rain” and wondered aloud (or in print anyway) where that phrase came from. It got me thinking about other idioms and how they came to be…what were the original meanings? For answers, I turned to my friend Google. Today I share Google’s wisdom…
Divine Sparks: Interfaith Wisdom for a Postmodern World. That’s a mouthful…sounds complex…and deep. Well, it is…and it isn’t. When I received a free copy of this book from DartFrog Books in exchange for an honest review, I was not at all sure what to expect. If I’m being perfectly honest…and I did promise an honest…
Everyday it seems a new miracle diet hits the market or a ground-breaking nutritional study is released…one that contradicts the last great breakthrough. How’s a gal (or guy) supposed to know what to eat for optimal health? If you are looking for a simple answer to this complex question, Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food:…
Last week, I shared with you some wisdom from David Sedaris’s MasterClass on storytelling. In response to his questions, you shared some wonderful stories. Thank you. Thank you. If you haven’t yet read those stories, you might want to check out the comments on this post…but be sure to come back! I have more MasterClass…
