Appearance definitely matters. This is no less true for pages than people, and I include both digital and paper pages. In a single afternoon I came across four  instances where choices of font, type size, color, or formatting made reading a challenge for me. It’s never a good idea to make reading difficult. It’s way too easy for readers to set your work aside, or click away from it.  Here’s what I found: A memoir with double-spacing between paragraphs. The story seemed choppy. I finally realized that my eye was interpreting the extra vertical space ...

Flickr photo by SwimParallel Within the online writing community you’ll find an ongoing discussion of the merits of writing by hand versus keyboard. Virtually all articles and posts are anecdotal, with a conspicuous lack of research. One exception is an intriguing blog interview Joy Castro  held with author and writing teacher Heather Sellers that comes close to supportable evidence. Heather claims that she can tell with near 100% accuracy by reading a student’s work whether it was written by hand or on the computer. “The best work is always written first by ...

Punji Pensive, by Indi SamarajivaJamie’s sick, so I’ll have to fix a casserole to take over. This is such a simple and typical thought — the type that generally passes unnoticed, or at least unquestioned. Lately I’ve begun to notice these thoughts and question them. Increasingly often as such thoughts begin to form, I pause and rethink the situation. Is that true? Do I have to (fix a casserole, do the laundry, write a blog post) now? Generally, the answer is No. I don’t absolutely have to do that. But I want to. ...

Today is National Grammar Day. To celebrate, I’m sharing some amusing grammar mistakes that made it into print. “Except for a tragic accident, the 35th annual Bath Heritage Days parade went off without a hitch.” The Times Record (Bath, Maine). A tragic accident is a minor deviation from going off without a hitch! “The Patchwork Quilt Guild met to celebrate Christmas with a gift and cookie exchange. Kay Hanley wore a necklace and she was lit up and flashing all during the meeting.”  From the Fallon (Montana) County Times. What was in the ...

Who could be more qualified to mete out advice on writing memoir than someone who  holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Stanford, wrote her own award-winning memoir, Don't Call Me Mother, and worked for decades as a clinical psychologist? This legendary person is Linda Joy Myers, who in addition to all the other things she does, is founder and president of the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW), and a veteran teacher and coach of aspiring memoir writers. Linda Joy's latest book, The Power of Memoir: How to Write Your Healing Story, was released ...

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.— Mark Twain Did you ever stop to think that the way you visually arrange words and sentences on a page amounts to clothing your stories?  Before you read further, I invite you do to download my free e-book, Make Your Pages Picture Perfect and take a look at eight “before and after” examples of the difference layout can make in attracting readers’ attention and easing the path of their eyes as they dip into the words. Move your mouse over the small pink stars ...

“When I quit concerning myself with projects and turned my attention to process, my work really took off,” explained internationally acclaimed fiber artist Sandy German in a talk about the work shown in a local exhibition. Sandy leads a group of quilters who meet weekly in Monroeville, Penn. to  explore quiltmaking as a vehicle for personal growth and creative expression. “Sandy gives us a theme to work on, and when we come back with our finished pieces, no two are alike.” said one group member. "We celebrate the differences in our work." “This ...

This morning I awoke in a rosy glow of delight, recalling an amazing dream. In this dream I was able to change a potentially ugly situation into a joyful one. Other dream fragments bubbled to the surface. As I slid out of bed to record these shimmering dream bubbles in my journal, I recalled an event related to these dreams, and then a few others. I jotted all these thoughts in my journal as fast as I could, in highly condensed form. Related thoughts and insights tumbled out. The result is rather like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle scattered on a table, without a cover picture to ...

Today is my blogoversary.  How the time has flown. Just four years ago I clicked “Publish” for the very first time on what was then The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing. Lots of words have gone into the 380 posts that passed through cyberspace in the intervening1461 days, and I can’t begin to count all the topics. If I printed all the content on trade-sized book pages, they would fill about four volumes, which goes to show that writing a little bit, maybe 1200 words a week, will fill a book in a year or so. So keep on writing, one story at a time. ...

The last few days, and presumably the next few, I am exploring journaling as a way to face down fear. I'm scheduled for cataract surgery on my left eye on Monday, and the right one ten days later. In general, cataract surgery is no big deal. In fact, my father claims that he'd rather have cataract surgery than a root canal. It's said to be the most frequently performed surgery in America, and virtually 100% effective with infection and other complications almost nil.  It does help to know that, but it isn't that simple in my case. If I were having standard, old-fashioned ...

How often have you heard the mantra “Your problems are your best friends,” or some variation thereof? I could fill several pages without stopping as I listed all the reasons we should rejoice in our tribulations because they are such valuable learning opportunities and that sort of thing. Indeed, I even believe most of those reasons. A variation of this advice carries over into lifewriting wisdom. Yours Truly joins such notables as Dr. James Pennebaker, Univ. of Texas Psychology Department chair and author of Writing to Heal, and Linda Joy Myers, Founder of the National ...

“How long should a story be?” I’ve never taught a beginning lifestory class without having this question arise. I’ve never found an improvement on the classic answer: “As long as it takes to tell the whole story.” For an powerful example of how large a slice of life can be packed into 282 words, click over to the essay blogger Maureen M entered in TupperWare’s Chain of Confidence contest. This poignant tribute to her mother covers a lot of ground. It includes all basic elements of a complete story (who, what, when, where, ...

While I was in Mexico awhile back, I struggled to express ideas in my rudimentary Spanish. I had to build sentences word by word. One day I realized that building stories is much like what I was going through to build sentences. Let’s take a look at how one sentence unfolds. We go. This sentence is grammatically complete, but it does not express a complete thought. It begs for amplification. Where do we go? We go to mountains. That’s better. But what mountains? We go to Sierra Madre mountains. And when do we go there? ...

Sharon Lippincott takes pleasure in announcing the birth of her new blog, A Los Alamos Girlhood. This latest addition to the Heart and Craft family of fine blogs arrived yesterday morning, January 18 and has been warmly greeted with instant acclaim. The blog, located on WordPress joins The Heart and Craft of Life Writing and Ritergal’s Tek Tips to form a trio of interrelated resources. Why a new blog? Why not simply include all that information in this one? It’s primarily a matter of focus and scope. This blog, The Heart and Craft of Life ...

It’s probably time to start a new blog, specifically about the memoir I’m writing. I’ve been spending serious journal time doodling content and concept ideas, but had not found an entry point to begin writing. Yesterday magic happened. A random sentence I heard earlier in the day took root and moved me to begin a new document beginning with that thought. Before my eyes drooped so low I had to crawl between the covers, about 2500 words had bubbled forth, and they were nothing I’d envisioned or considered writing. Yet they were good. They are keepers. Yes, ...