Writing Process

Let Go. Return.

From the poet Josephine Johnson: This is the need, the deep necessity of every life; To scatter wide seed in many fields,But build one barn. This is our blunder, to…

Journal

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 39: KonMari-ing my Clothes

I want to say “Part One of a Five Part Series” so that I am forced to go through the whole entire process. For those who don’t know what I…

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 38: What Makes a Novel “Succeed”?

  A designer friend of mine shook his head when I suggested a choice for our kitchen renovation. “No,” he said, “I don’t think that will succeed.” It was the…

Journal

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 37: Reasons for Hope in the age of President Toupee

There is so much bad news. Just now, I learned about the NFL’s stupid new policy, fining teams if players take a knee during the (racist, war-mongering, unsingable) national anthem….

Writing Process

Day 36: Pretend MFA

There seems to have been some confusion about the last post I wrote. We did not, for instance, get another dog, nor did we (would we) name her Dolly Parton,…

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 35: Spring Fever

And the flowers budded and bloomed on the trees, who finally and swiftly grew leaves so green it hurt to look at them, and the air became friendly and you…

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 31: Just Write

  With the first crocus, all possibilities open up. Finally the ground is beginning to shift. The siding is going up. There are chimneys in the roof for the two…

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 28: Pause

  The framing is complete. Plumbing begins tomorrow. Next week, windows and then maybe doors. The roof comes soon. I am supposed to be writing songs. I have bits and…

The Barn Project

Writing Process

Day 23: Architecture and the Novel

My Tuesday writing group is scribbling away in the front room, while Hudson and I sit back in Couchland, gazing at the new building. The guys are taking a break…