After 16 months of full-time journalism, I am now officially unemployed. Never ever before have I quit a job without lining up a new gig. And so begins the next adventure, of reinventing myself — yet again — while living off my savings. This is incredibly scary for me. As a single mom with a [...]
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If it’s spring, then it must be time for fresh ideas. In my case, this means digging into my personal bag of tricks and finding new ways to practice what I preach to students. But first I need to set the scene for you…. Let me begin by saying that there is nothing scarier than [...]
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Who needs Santa? I am here to deliver a huge gift to myself — and you. From now through Jan. 7th, I am shutting down my social media and pretty much getting off the Internet. The goal is to detox and return to you fresher and more relevant than ever. For those of you who [...]
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After years of teaching journalism and writing my own stories, I’ve come up with some tried-and-true tactics for wrangling words. What follows are some of my favorite practices. Take them together as a check list and you’ll be in good shape too. The batch of links below is for the time you sit in front [...]
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The ability to conduct a great interview is more than a journalistic triumph. Sure, it’s a skill that gets me great stories. But along the way, it’s become a critical life skill that helps me in everything from partying hearty to landing jobs. Looking back to my rookie days, I made the newbie reporter’s obnoxious [...]
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The earth pulses in a three-beat rhythms. That’s why it helps to organize our writing around groups of three. When I was teaching, my students — especially the know-it-all adult writers — would initially thumb their nose at the Rule of 3 (and at me). Too formulaic, they’d say condescendingly. But then, I’d push them [...]
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