Writing has always been a solitary profession. There is nothing new about that. With notable social exceptions like the Algonquin Round Table and the circle of poets surrounding Oscar Wilde, writers, unlike actors, have generally been a solitary lot. Even so, these can be particularly lonely times for writers. The publishing world seems destined to […]
I am on a ballet tour, but I am not a dancer. My primary career is writer, and my other job is ballet master class tour producer. It is not a “day job” it is a five months of the year job. Twice a year– two months in winter and three in summer– I bring […]
Cleverbot is an artificial intelligence web application which “learns” from human input. That is, it goes through a database to find responses that humans typed in when asked similar questions. Here’s what happened when I tried to have a conversation about ballet with it. (I am “User” the computer is “Celverbot.”) User: Do you like […]
So it’s Nutcracker season. Last night I dreamed I was in a theater and the ballet dancer David Hallberg was on stage, dressed in a white ballet costume. He was breathing in that heavy but controlled way that dancers do when they are taking bows after a solo. (What that? It was no effort at […]
“When you’re given a limit and you’re given boundaries, sometimes creation is even better.”-David Hallberg A few years ago, in my book Broke is Beautiful, I wrote about the role of constraint in creativity. I was reminded of it today while watching the video above (in which the ballet dancer David Hallberg is not constrained […]
I have loved this Youtube video, Leadership From a Dancing Guy, since I first saw it when a friend of mine posted it on Facebook a while back. It shows how it is the first followers and not the leader who create a movement. “The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader.” I […]
I gave some thought to the focus of this blog, what ties its content together and what a regular reader might come to expect here. It is occasionally about the pleasures and pitfalls of the writing life, but more often it is about the stories we tell, the language we use and how they shape […]
I gave some thought to the focus of this blog, what ties its content together and what a regular reader might come to expect here. It is occasionally about the pleasures and pitfalls of the writing life, but more often it is about the stories we tell, the language we use and how they shape […]
About a month ago I wrote a post as part of my ongoing reflection on the arts and failure. In it, I argued against the way we talk about success and failure. I’ve been thinking a lot about failure lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that failing may be the great American taboo. People […]
“Doomed because it’s never good enough.”-David Hallberg, ballet dancer. Today I am failing to write a chapter in my new novel. My recent adventure in Washington D.C. was good for my soul but it has derailed the momentum I had on the writing. I have all of the pieces of the chapter already written and […]
Story and Self 