Another Example of How God Doesn’t Play Low-Stakes Poker
I got the call on the way to Virginia.
First I should tell you that when we approached our wonderful landlords about our upcoming trip, we told them we would be moving out. We couldn’t afford to pay rent AND be on the road, so we planned to put our stuff in storage and then find a new house to live in when we got back this summer.
Our landlords surprised us by telling us not to move out. We could keep our stuff in the house, stop paying rent while we were away, and then pick up where we left off as soon as we got back. That was a shocker. Amazing news.
But there is a small chance we may sell the house before you leave, they said. If we do, you’ll need to move out before the trip.
Then came the phone call the other night, 21 days before our scheduled departure in the big blue bus. Read more 
Five Writing Secrets Found in the Movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
I don’t remember the first time I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but (as I’ve explained while pulling writing secrets from other 80s movies) I was only nine years old for most of 1986 and there’s no way my parents were going to let me watch a PG-13 rated movie at that point. But it is one of those 80s classics, right up there with Breakfast Club and Can’t Buy Me Love.
Here are some of the secrets it has to teach us about writing: Read more
How a Harebrained Idea is Turning Into a Cross-Country Trip
Over 10,000 miles. 31 states. 115 days.
I want to leave tomorrow.
For years, Maile and I have dreamed of hitting the road for an extended period of time. We’ve always enjoyed road trips and exploring new places. When I started writing full time just over two years ago, this idea began percolating: What if I could line up enough writing work to pay the bills while we traveled the country? Read more
The Only Rule: There are None
The first and last important rule for the creative writer, then, is that though there may be rules (formulas) for ordinary, easily publishable fiction – imitation fiction – there are no rules for real fiction, any more than there are rules for serious visual art or musical composition…Invention, after all, is art’s main business, and one of the great joys of every artist comes with making the outrageous acceptable… John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction
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Encouragement vs. Despair: Steinbeck’s One Purpose in Writing
“There is one purpose in writing that I can see, beyond simply doing it interestingly. It is the duty of the writer to lift up, to extend, to encourage.
“If the written word has contributed anything at all to our developing species and our half-developed culture, it is this: Great writing has been a staff to lean on, a mother to consult, a wisdom to pick up stumbling folly, a strength in weakness and a courage to support sick cowardice.
“And how any negative or despairing approach can pretend to be literature, I do not know.”
- John Steinbeck, “Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters”
Agree or disagree? Is the one purpose of writing to encourage, to lift up?
