In her endlessly quotable book, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott advises that we cannot give our characters an easy time of it. Specifically, she writes: But no matter what, you are probably going to have to let bad things happen to some of the characters you love or you won’t have much of a story. Bad things happen to good characters, because our actions have consequences … The poet Kathleen Flenniken … [Read more...]
Create in Solitude
I’m going to start there: Create in Solitude. I doubt there is a successful artist who wouldn’t agree that solitude is essential if you are going to paint or sculpt or compose or write. If your immediate space is filled with distractions—other people, e-mails and texts and phone calls, unrelenting noise—how can you connect with the muse that dwells inside? (I don’t normally reach for euphemisms … [Read more...]