Try Writing a Passionate Opinion Piece One of my biggest challenges in writing has been finding my voice. For years I struggled to even understand what was meant by “voice.” If I wrote marvelous, well-crafted sentences, wasn’t that enough? Well, no, voice matters, and it’s something that does not come easily to most. Voice is the indistinguishable […]
If you’ve been hesitant to write fiction or nonfiction because it might negatively portray a loved one, I urge you to examine your motivations. If you’re so angry you need to vent “on paper,” then vent your little heart out, but don’t publish what pours out. Write furiously, then set those pages on fire, literally. Doing so sends psychically transports the blame to the perpetrator—and sets you free.
This “novel virus” reaffirmed that my life won’t feel sufficiently meaningful again until I develop a renewed sense of purpose. Writing has always provided that for me, and I’d discarded my writing practice as if it were an empty, battered suitcase at the end of a journey. Hell, I’d thrown it over a cliff.
A recent study on 138 undergraduate students investigated the relationship between creativity and different aspects of thought patterns presumed to influence the preparation and illumination phase of the creative process. Aspects of thought patterns they studied included: How much one relied on habitual patterns of thought, such as ruminative brooding and/or ruminative self-reflection. Whether one […]
As a writer, words and language are some of the most essential tools we use to tell a story. The words, phrases, sentence structure, and style we use can take us from being a writer who tells an interesting story to a superb writer who mesmerizes, surprises, and delights our readers. Turns out that learning […]
The Tethered Angel stood in front of a stone tomb in Oakland, California’s Mountain View Cemetery. Her nose and mouth had been worn away and the tip of one wing had been cleanly broken. She wore a long gown, the hem of its top layer gathered in one hand. Her hair fell in one long […]
A study of 460 study participants (aged 22-35) from the Human Connectome Project, reported in Nature Neuroscience found a single, stark difference in the way human brains were connected—based on an abundance of positivity or negativity in their lives. In comparing fMRI brain scans to data collected on approximately 280 behavioral, demographic, and psychometric traits—such as the […]
One of the hallmarks of genius is an ability to spot connections between seemingly disparate things, and then use your discovery to create something original. One of the most potent examples of how your brain births, supports, sustains, and fulfills creative ideas comes from the genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the mastermind who brought the highly […]
A study published in the International Journal of Business Administration in May, 2016, found that what students read in college directly effects the level of writing they achieve. In fact, researchers found that reading content and frequency may exert more significant impacts on students’ writing ability than writing instruction and writing frequency. Students who read […]
A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in April confirmed that yoga and a form of meditation known as Kirtan Kriya improved brain functioning by increasing connectivity, improving memory, and decreasing mood aberration. See an excerpt where I discuss Kirtan Kriya in Fire Up Your Writing Brain below. Over the course of twelve […]
Fire Up Your Writing Brain 