The emotional roller coaster of writing—have you experienced it? Most likely, your answer is “yes,” as it’s a rare writer who hasn’t. Sometimes, writing is an amazing high. The story is going so well that you write furiously for hours without noticing the passing of time. Your email inbox isContinue Reading
What do you think of your writing? Ask yourself this one day and you’ll get one answer. On another day, your answer will probably be different. A few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure about my writing. I felt uneasy, like I was standing on shaky ground. I didn’t know whetherContinue Reading
Would you know if you were suffering from writer’s anxiety? A friend of mine wasn’t getting her writing done. It had been over a month since she’d made any progress, or even sat down to focus on the work. It was her second novel and for a long time sheContinue Reading
As a writer, you may sometimes find that you lose faith in your work. I got a chance to check out the new movie “Keanu” a couple weeks ago, and it reminded me of this. Too hilarious, by the way, if you haven’t seen it. In the movie, the charactersContinue Reading
Think back to your childhood. What happened when you cried? Did your mother soothe you, try to fix what hurt? What happened when you were happy? Did you see that emotion mirrored in your parents’ smiling faces? Now, what happened when you got angry? Raised your voice? Slammed the door?Continue Reading
Hollywood isn’t known for its multi-layered box-office smashes. They don’t often make millions with metaphorical masterpieces. The general word is that Americans don’t like them. They like their stories nice and neat, simple and straightforward, properly wrapped up and sealed at the end. Apparently, that’s why many of them scoredContinue Reading
My step dad just passed an important anniversary—a year ago, he went through a double knee replacement. I remember that day well. One of the things that struck me as particularly challenging was the near endless process of medical-record-taking, from the initial registration to the consistent stream of nurses andContinue Reading
I got a chance to re-watch a few scenes from M. Night Shyamalan’s movie “Unbreakable” awhile back. I’ve always liked the film, but this time I realized what a great illustration it is of someone desperate to find his purpose in the world—in this case, the antagonist, Elijah, played byContinue Reading
In looking over the many author features here on Writing and Wellness, I’ve noticed one thing that keeps coming up again and again. Have you seen it? On Friday, May 2, 2014, I read Steven Pressfield’s latest blog. There it was again. Even this former Marine and hugely successful authorContinue Reading
Hollywood isn’t known for its multi-layered box-office smashes. They don’t often make millions with metaphorical masterpieces. The general word is that Americans don’t like them. They like their stories nice and neat, simple and straightforward, properly wrapped up and sealed at the end. Apparently, that’s why many of them scoredContinue Reading
At the risk of sounding ignorant, I’m going to admit something here: I’ve never read Letters to a Young Poet by Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. I’ve heard of it, of course, but never read it. Maybe my teachers were negligent in school. Maybe for whatever reason it just hasn’tContinue Reading
The new movie African Cats, released a few weeks ago on Earth Day, follows the story of two families struggling to survive on the African savannah—one, an aged mother lion named Layla and her daughter; and two, a strong mother cheetah and her five cubs. There’s a lot to commendContinue Reading