Authors Electric

I love the spring but it’s the fall when I’m energized with ideas and projects and there are opportunities everywhere. The list of writing competitions is impressive, just remember, dear writer, Google is your friend, and you can find them researching on your own. Yesterday a young man asked me about creation. The creative process can be a strange thing. Sometimes we know exactly what we did to achieve our art, and other times we have no idea where the inspiration came from. That's part of the excitement, but can also make frustration build. It can make your head burn, heat spreading toward your heart. How do we reliably access this inner muse? If you're the type of writer who hates to plan ahead and the joy is in the discovery of that first draft then try this: free-write. I would do this in my classes and students would get stumped. Then I invited students to bring a journal. Personally, this is what I use. I also use index cards. This technique is to put anyth...