Personal Essay
5 Tips on Self-Publishing Your Book
For book writers, the publishing process is often a fearful mystery. Self-publishing a book can intensify this mystery, because it can seem like you’re all on your own, with no…
Read MoreWriting for Mindfulness: The Foundations of Mindful Writing
Being present, focusing on images, appreciating goodness: these are the foundations of mindful writing. Writing for mindfulness is a skill that any writer can develop, helping you to sharpen your…
Read MoreThere But For The Grace of God
The phone rings and you don’t know if it’s the phone or the new, beeping pill dispenser your husband bought so he could leave you alone in the house for…
Read MoreTo Magic
Every mother dreams of the day her daughter gets married. She prays it’s to a man that will love her with all his heart. A man who will take on…
Read MoreStick Figures
12Grandmother. Ten years old and I’m kneeling on the carpet next to her. She smells like flowers with English Garden names: peony, jasmine, narcissus; she smells like black and white…
Read MoreProof of Life
There is a tiny person under my roof this morning. She arrived two days ago, and I fussed and worried and sterilized and kept the appropriate social distance, until finally…
Read MoreMy Blessed Boy on the Streets…and my Teacher of all Things Good
Previously Published in U.S. Catholic. A sometimes lonely leftover phone booth stands on a street corner in Portland, Oregon. When a street person feels so inclined, he or she can…
Read MoreInterview: Barbara Henning Discusses “Prompt Book” and Finding the Inspiration to Write
If you’re a writer looking for prompts, inspiration, or lessons on literary movements, then writers.com instructor Barbara Henning‘s new book Prompt Book (Spuyten Duyvil Publishing, 2021) is your solution. Naturally, we…
Read MoreProse vs. Poetry: Their Differences, Overlaps, and Writing Each
The difference between prose and poetry seems easy to explain: one has blocks of text and fully-fleshed characters, the other has line breaks and pretty words. That’s it, right? Despite…
Read MoreHow to Avoid Clichés in Writing
I hope this isn’t unoriginal, but reading clichés in writing make me feel like I’ve woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Really, clichés in writing are a dime…
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