Writing Tip: For starters, read! If you’re new to writing, read inspirational books on writing to give yourself a jump start. I began with Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. I learned to do a “free write.” Without looking, aim the point of your pen on a newspaper. Take the word it falls on and, …
Category: caring lessons
Yippee!
Got my final draft of Caring Lessons in to my publisher this afternoon! It will soon be on its way to layout. Now I can diddle some more setting up this site. Notice that I changed my TAG CLOUD to CATEGORIES with the number of entries after them. Nifty! A slow, big learning curve. I've …
All in a Day’s Work
Today, I'm having fun trying to figure out how to get things on the new "Pages" list you see on the right. I've had many "views" of them already, so maybe you're as puzzled as I am that nothing is there except a place to comment. I'll figure this out. Eventually! Back to getting my …
Go Back to School – Again and Again
Writing Tip: Take writing classes. Classes can be taken in person or online. So no excuses--just need to carve out the time. I've learned a ton about writing that charting in a patient's chart or writing nursing curriculum never taught me. I've benefited by having teachers and many peers give me feedback on what works …
Find a Like-minded Friend!
Writing Tip: Write with a friend. I started writing Caring Lessons only because my long-time friend Marianna and I cooked up the idea together of writing our nursing stories. Marianna and I live in different cities. We met in person in August of 2000 to make our writing plans. In fact, with respect to Marianna, …
Writing as Mountain Climbing…in the Snow
Some days trying to be a writer is like climbing a mountain-after a heavy snow. Two years ago, I happened to be at Mount Rainier on the first day that hikers were allowed after record snowfalls. Their lone plodding journeys up long steep hills came to mind yesterday as I ran into some uphill snags …
Subscribe to More Journals?
Writing tip: Subscribe to writing journals. I promised in an early post that I'd describe my "writing process," how I "crawled step by step from teaching nursing to writing memoir." Here goes. As a nurse, I'd subscribed to several nursing journals for nearly 40 years. So, when I decided to begin writing Caring Lessons in …
“Caring Lessons” Coming Soon
Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor's Journey of Faith and Self is coming out 10/1/10! For use in the classroom or for simply an inside look at the life of a nurse, mom, teacher, and student. I used to tell my students that if an ordinary suburban sandbox mom, propelled by restlessness and prayer, could end …
Love of Learning
I ran into an acquaintance today who is finishing the second year of U of Chicago's Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults. I'm one who encouraged her to go. Due to my pain issues, I had to drop out after the third year of the four-year program. With a life-long interest in learning, I …
In the beginning…
How did Caring Lessons start? And how did the writing progress? Since I'm a compulsive note taker, I've kept everything, and I mean everything--drafts, decisions, musings--in thick, five-subject, spiral notebooks. I can even tell you where I was sitting when I wrote the notes/drafts and what I was drinking--often nonfat, decaf mochas (as if you'd …
Write Along with Me 