Despite having written hundreds of poems, over the past decade I’ve kept poetry at arm’s length. It’s still within my reach, should I choose to try writing verse again. But without the benefit of daily practice, I haven’t been able to return to the craft with much enthusiasm. I’ve long reserved poetry as a means…

You may not think your own life story is all that interesting. But, what matters most in storytelling is how your story is told. It’s not so much the content, but rather the presentation. The point of view is also key. Both biographical and autobiographical stories are told with some inherent bias or deficiency on…

It’s been said many times that the blank page is like a canvas. Frankly, a blank page is much more like a desert. It can be the most dreaded thing for any writer to face, being vast, empty, and seemingly infinite. Ironically, it’s what a writer faces all the time.  When you set yourself to…

I grew up in the golden age of blogging, that glorious time when you could scribble a few thoughts on the internet, hit ‘publish,’ and suddenly find yourself the authority on just about anything you please. Yeah, I remember those days fondly. Back then, the most intense competition was between you and that one overly…

Every once in a while, I need to renew my dedication to writing. It’s a curious ritual that I find myself performing every year, a self-imposed checkpoint in my writing journey. I’m sure many writers do this, perhaps with varying frequency or intensity. For me, I find that about every year, I need to refocus…

I’ve always had a burning passion to create things. From my early childhood stacking blocks into structures, constructing with Duplos and later Legos both guided and freestyle, I’ve always appreciated the act of building. I’d even create fake laptop computers on construction paper by drawing a screen on one half and drawing a custom keyboard…

We live in a world where so much information is available at our fingertips. Still, despite the vastness of the internet, there’s a chance to write unique content covering a topic no one has happened to publish online just yet. So, what is the best way to ensure that you’re setting out to write truly…

One of my favorite things about online publishing is that what’s posted online isn’t written in stone. A major drawback of traditional publishing is that once something is in print, it’s out there forever, immutable without the release of another edition. One common example of this drawback with traditional printing is how school textbooks must…