A writing professor who believed in me

I needed to organize my client’s book in a binder. As I rummaged around my office for an extra “three-ring,” I came across a writing portfolio from my sophomore year of college. Professor Doug Taylor, Writing 323. That was a tough class, and I remember working my butt off for this portfolio during the term. The professor was hard to impress, and I was always a little intimidated by him. He was constantly telling me to “unpack” the text we were studying… I wasn’t going deep enough. The grade sheet slipped out when I opened the binder to flip through my old...

Why? Why? Why?

I wrote the following post way back in April of 2012. Over the course the last year, though, I’ve come to fiercely believe that the ideas of “point” and “purpose”  apply to writing as a whole  not just to writer’s block. I encourage you to define the point and purpose of your writing not only on those fateful and frustrating days when you cannot find the words, but also on the days when the words flow freely. In fact, have a clear purpose laid out before you even start writing your piece. And sometimes you may not discover  the...

Writing is Hard: Part I

A post from the past that bears repeating: “When something can be read without great effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” ~Enrique Poncela   Mr. Poncela’s statement ranks as my number one favorite writing quote of all time. In a mere 15 words, he speaks encouragement, truth, and inspiration about what it means to write. Writing is hard. Writing something for others to read is excruciating. It’s a long soap- operatic relationship with your mind, filled with anxiety, love, self-doubt, exhilaration, jealousy, depression, manipulation, and a secret...

Language Lost and Found in Reading

Reading engages the mind in intellectual whimsy. I recently expressed my wonder and worry about the direction of our language. As we live our lives conversing through Facebook status updates, Tweets, and texts—cementing terms like ‘OMG’, and ‘LOL’ into our permanent lingual records—what is the fate of the hundreds of thousands of lexical gems we’ve already cultivated within our language? When I peruse my dictionary I see a vibrant collection of terms never used– forgotten or unlearned words that could so beautifully and richly express ideas, life, and...

Nancy Drew found me

It’s no coincidence my business is called Pen to Paper Communications. I love putting pen to paper. There is nothing more organic about writing than grabbing a sheet of paper and a pen and letting the musings of the mind pour through the tip of the pen in a rush of ink onto a fresh page. The pen and page is to me as the brush and canvas is to a painter. Any empty page will do as it’s the thoughts that matter most; however, the pages that live in between the covers of a new journal are what attract me. I have many journals none of which are full because I pick out a new...

Authenticity Anchors that which we Write

Authenticity is at the core of all we write. At least is should be, because if what we write does not convey some sense of truth from our personal story, then we don’t connect with our reader. Life gives us the material about which to write; we relate to one another through our experiences and how we are affected by those experiences in terms of how we feel, what we learn, and how we change. I recently came across a 30 Days of Truth challenge and was struck by the honesty conveyed in the posts. Though I don’t know the author, Emily Suess, personally, I felt...