Category Archives: identity

What do you know for sure? What do you know for sure?What do you know is true?What do you know by heart? Try to capture what you know for sure in a list or a poem or a scene. *Remember, you don’t have to accept this invitation…but I do hope you will accept the invitationContinue reading “open invitation no. 47: for sure”

Be a little fancy. “Everybody wants to be someone fancy. Even if they’re just shy.”—Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz If you’re looking for a writing topic, consider something fancy. Fancy, I am sure, conjures different ideas for all of us. If you already know your topic and you’re looking for a way to write it,Continue reading “open invitation no. 41: fancy”

Open your blog. Write. The day is made up of routines. Whether intentional or not, each day has a rhythm and those rhythms are built through routines. I’ve come to believe that cues are the best ways to set routines in motion. A cue is a signal for something to happen. I read scripture andContinue reading “open invitation no. 37: routines”

Take time to remember what you loved to do as a child. What did you love to do as a child? Pause and remember. This isn’t something you need to race to do; linger. Consider different locations where you could be found as a child—what did you love? Consider food you ate—what did you love?Continue reading “open invitation no. 35: childhood loves”

Be true to you. There is no one in the world like you, and you are just the way you should be. When the year piles up, sometimes it can weigh us down and be heavy on our shoulders. It’s easy to think we should be different than we are. Take time today to shedContinue reading “open invitation no. 29: shed all the shoulds”

Writer friends are important. The act of writing is rather solitary, which is why writer friends are essential. It’s one of the endearing things about Sharing Our Stories and the abbreviation — SOS. The distress signal, SOS, is not an abbreviation. I wrote about it here, when I was first dreaming about #SOSmagic… For aContinue reading “open invitation no. 24: Make writer friends.”

Describe yourself as a writer. My son Jordan is a high school sophomore and in creative writing. On his first day of school he came home with an assignment: to describe himself as a writer. “I’m halfway done,” he said. It made me chuckle, because I wondered if he were halfway done with the assignmentContinue reading “open invitation no. 19: your writer self”

Claim a sacred space in each day. The days go by in a flash. Slam-bam and you are crawling into bed. Writers are just like everyone else, except they’ve decided to claim sacred space in each day to pause. Learn to make pause. Stop. Notice. Think some thoughts. Sacred means something you protect. Protect theContinue reading “open invitation no. 13: claim sacred space”

Open your arms. Still wider. It’s special, the way this community is built around invitations. I’ve had a lot of fun extending invitations to writers. One person responded, “I’m sure you sent this to a huge group of people…” Actually, it’s not been like that. I’ve waited until I’ve felt a nudge to mention itContinue reading “open invitation no. 7: open your arms”