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Memoir Classes, Litquake, the Writers Grotto, the Nobel Prize, and more

While we’re all getting ready for a Covid Halloween, the impending election, and a possible return to school, the literary world is all ablaze. News this month:

Writing from Your Life

My six-week online memoir class starts in just one week. Take advantage of the pandemic to turn your life stories into pixels. This is […]

Fall Writing Classes are Open for Registration!

Congratulations on surviving six months of a pandemic! Now that you’ve mastered sourdough baking, binged every Netflix show, and organized all your digital photos, it’s time to write that memoir! Join me for a six-week asynchronous online class (with optional Zoom sessions) Oct 15-Nov 19 that will teach you the nuts and bolts of memoir […]

5 Ways to Improve the Action in Your Story

Check out my guest post on improving the action in your story over at Anne. R. Allen’s blog today, then buy your own copy of Writing Action!

Create a Writing Habit in 2020

Happy New Year! It’s time to make good on those New Year’s resolutions to WRITE MORE, FINISH THAT BOOK, or RECORD THOSE MEMOIRS. Whatever your writing goals, you’ll benefit from developing a daily writing habit, and that’s where THE WRITING HABIT comes in. I’ve taught this popular class at The Writers Grotto in San […]

Lit Starts—The Writers Grotto’s New Series of Books About Writing

News Flash!

We at the Writers Grotto are so excited to announce the launch of a new series of books for writers—LIT STARTS. The first four books in the series (Writing Humor, Writing Dialogue, Writing Character, and Writing Action) will be in bookstores this coming Tuesday, September 10. Each book features an essay […]

Fall Class at the Grotto

I have two classes coming up. Click the titles to enroll!

Edit Yourself, THIS SUNDAY, September 23

Edit Yourself (with Meghan Ward)

Social Media 2018, Sunday, October 7

This is a new class that will address how social media has changed in the past year and where you should be focusing your energy (Facebook? […]

A Growth Mindset for Writers

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably heard of Carol Dweck and her book Mindset, or maybe Po Bronson’s Nurture Shock, which references Dweck’s research. The theory behind Mindset is that children who adopt a fixed mindset—who believe that their intelligence and abilities are fixed and won’t change—don’t do as well during the middle school and […]

The Imperfect Writing Life

At AWP16 in Los Angeles in March, I went to a fabulous panel called The Imperfect Writing Life with Samantha Dunn moderating and Andre DeBus III (author of House of Sand and Fog and Townie), Carol Edgarian (author of Rise the Euphrates and Three Stages of Amazement), Neil Thompson (director of publishing at Amazon) and […]

AWP 15: Minneapolis, Here I Come!

I’m getting excited for AWP! I just bought a new umbrella, and I’m digging my coats and sweaters out of the closet. I’ll be moderating a panel Thursday morning and participating in a reading Thursday afternoon. Please come to one or both if you’re going to AWP. I’d love to see/meet you! Details about my […]

Is Your Writing Good Enough?

Do you ever wonder if your writing is good enough? Like, every day? Do you sometimes wonder whether it’s not the publishing industry but YOU that is the problem? That maybe you don’t have it in you to succeed as a writer? That maybe you should have gone to law school after all? You could, […]