We all need a pick-me-up now and then, especially when pursuing our creative passion. The creative process is often a solitary one, in particular creative writing. Sometimes when I need a touch of inspiration I’ll visit a blog by a writer who inspires me. I now have the ability to visit with 101 different writers […]
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Becoming a Standout Blogger in Six Weeks
May 31, 2013 
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UPDATE JUNE 7, 2013: There are now a few slots available. We’ve decided to break the class into two separate workshops, so if you were unable to enroll before, you may have more success now! You can enroll here. UPDATE JUNE 6, 2013: I just checked the page for my class and saw it is […]
Read moreA Two-Year MFA in Writing Reading List in One Post
May 29, 2013 20 Comments
“So I would imagine you have to do a lot of reading in an MFA program,” I am sometimes asked. The answer is yes, and appropriately so: some believe the best way to learn to write is to read a lot, and to read critically. So what have I been reading the last two years […]
Read moreBeing Creative While Avoiding Outsider Status
May 22, 2013 30 Comments
When someone asks you, “What do you do?” what is your answer? If you’re like most of us, context matters. You might say one thing at a professional networking reception and quite another at a neighborhood block party. But how often do you answer, “I create art?” Part of living an art-committed life is fully […]
Read more3 Steps Off the Path of an Art-Committed Life
May 16, 2013 68 Comments
It is one of my greatest fears. I have abandoned my creativity before; this blog is my chronicle of returning to an art-committed life and working to stay there. That is also a central theme of the travel memoir I am in the process of polishing to final. But it is so easy to drift away […]
Read moreGuest Post: Fine Arts, Creativity & the Aging Brain Positively Linked
May 8, 2013 28 Comments
Here at The Artist’s Road we promote creative thinking and doing at any age. Dr. Francine Toder has written a book based both on scientific research and individual case studies that not only supports the notion that a “vintage” brain can take up a new artistic passion, but that there are many benefits to doing […]
Read moreA Pearl of Wisdom for Fiction Writers
May 2, 2013 6 Comments
Allow me to share with you a nugget for my readers who are fiction writers. This is from an essay on the great Victorian novelist George Eliot by Joseph Epstein, from his recently published essay collection Essays in Biography: One of the modern fiction workshop laws is that a writer should always show and never […]
Read moreFive Keys to Living an Art-Committed Life
April 30, 2013 35 Comments
His story is simultaneously inspiring and horrifying. After ten years in the rat-race of London, James Rhodes returned to his true passion, the piano. He dedicated himself to achieving the mastery he had dreamed of as a youth. And now, after years of dedication and hard work, James is a concert pianist. In his essay […]
Read moreGuest Post: Creating the Workshop of Your Dreams
April 26, 2013 34 Comments
Three weeks ago I wrote about how award-winning writer and stellar writing instructor Robin Hemley no longer has patience for writing groups; instead, he has a trusted fellow writer with whom he mutually shares his work. Both in comments and email, I encountered some pushback to Robin’s choice, with many defending writing groups and others […]
Read moreOwn Your Identity as an Artist
April 23, 2013 81 Comments
I savor the comments readers leave on this blog. But often they are apologetic in tone, along the lines of “I’m not really a writer,” or “I aspire to be a writer.” In the technical sense of the word “writer,” at least as I see it, these statements are a lie. They “wrote” a comment, […]
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