Happy New Year! As 2016 gets underway, I want to share some information with you. There are a couple of things to cover, here in this blog update. First, let me wish each of you a very Happy New Year. I hope that the coming months will be filled with peace, joy, and productivity. Blog and Podcast in the New Year Second, the elephant in the room: Yes. I do realize I have been neglecting the blog and podcast. Sometimes, life throws you curveballs and, like a champion batter, yo

This is a quick post. A sort of poll question, if you will… What service or resource have you tried to find to help you with your writing, but have been unable to find, either on-line or in person? Or, another way to ask: What is something you’ve said, “If only I could find _x_ it would help me be a better writer!” but have been unable to find? If something comes to mind, feel free to post it below, or send me an email. Ask other writer friends to chime in. I’m curious to hea

“I thought you’d already given up blogging,” some of you might say. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve been actively engaged in maintaining this blog, so your reaction is justified. No, what I mean is, I’m giving up teaching writing. This is a tough decision, because in the last few years, I’ve seen some really amazing things with my writing students and private instruction clients. There have been people in my Legacy of Words classes that swore to me they couldn’t write a

(Both of the short fiction stories mentioned in this blog post are also available in the story collection, The Blues and The Oranges. Check out Eric Sheridan Wyatt's books here.) According to WordPress, it’s been 182 days since I last paid attention to this blog. (If you are an agent looking to represent me, and doing your research on my social media skills, please ignore that sentence…) And, it had been a few more months, before that, when I was last truly active as a regula

Here is installment two (of three) focused on my summer scheduling and my attempts to find greater balance in my creative, spiritual-emotional, and physical lives. #writing #writers #creativerhythm #progress #tracking #schedule

When I started thinking about how I would make some changes in my personal and creative life, I started with the first necessary component: scheduling. I knew several things, up front, and I began to plan accordingly. First, making changes in our lives that have measurable, positive effects almost never happen accidentally. Once I came to a point of saying, “Something’s gotta give,” then I needed to be INTENTIONAL about my actions. Further, those actions have to be a part of

As I mentioned early in the week, I hit a creative wall in the second quarter of 2013. Things weren’t happening, for me, and as the transition into Summer came around, I knew it was time to re-charge the process. We all know, on some level, that if we keep doing things the same way we’ve been doing them, we’ll continue to get the same results. When things are going really well, that’s a good thing. Keep plugging along. Keep drawing on those reserves until they give out. But w

This blog is not typically a “product” blog. I don’t endlessly sell items, though I do try to promote my own work and the writing of others from time to time. This is a little bit of a departure. Not much, but a little. There are a couple of events coming up for which you may find yourself looking for a gift. Mother’s Day <img class="size-medium wp-image-1412 lazyload" alt="If you've lost a loved one - a parent, spouse, even a child - you know the desire to have &quot;one mor

Yes, this will be a little whiny. Sorry, in advance. My wife, Cami, came home from a five-day cruise last week with three days left of Spring Break. We had planned to go to the beach, go explore a state park, and maybe even try to get a sailing or kayaking day in. Instead, she progressed from “sniffly” to “blah” to “feverish” to “asleep for 14 hours straight. She was feeling well enough to go back to work on Monday, but by then, my allergies were starting to kick in. I’ve bee

I’ve blogged before about my process. It is something that a lot of people find interesting. I know I enjoy discussing process and learning about the creative flow as others experience it, even if it doesn’t apply to the way MY writing gets done. One of the key elements of my work flow seems to be this: I write first drafts long hand, and then transfer the words to the computer at a later date. First, I am a big believer that writing with pen (or, pencil) and paper is one way

I read a blog post earlier today (a guest post by Matt Ragland over at Jeff Goins’ blog) that featured a metaphor for art that captured a little of my creative mood right now. Matt compared writing to that big bully from childhood who would take your hand and cause you to strike yourself in the face, all while saying, “Stop hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?” In many ways, that’s where I was this morning: my inner critic was alive and much more juiced up on the c

Yes, I know it is already the 7th of January, and whether or not I like it, the new year is in full swing, but when you are married to a teacher (and do a fair amount of teaching and subbing, yourself) things don’t get “back to normal” until the school year re-starts. So, today is my New Year’s Day, at least as my writing life is concerned. Set Goals that YOU Can Control Last week I opened a new Pages document and began listing the things I wanted to accomplish with my writin

All of the titles mentioned in this blog post (with the exception of out-of-print books) can be found here: http://astore.amazon.com/wileymag – Look under the category, “2012 List” (I know. Some of you don’t like Amazon. That’s fine. You can buy these books anywhere you choose to buy them. Thanks.) * * * It is Christmas Eve Day and if you haven’t finished buying gifts for the special writer in your life (or, yourself) then it’s too late! This isn’t one of those, “Hurry, it’s

I hope you enjoyed the essays I posted this week focused on Dorothy Parker’s classic story, You Were Perfectly Fine. Based on the blog traffic, you did, in fact, enjoy these posts. That makes me happy. Not because blog stats matter in the long run, but because I feel like the bigger piece of information here is that these essays were helpful and interesting. That’s all a blogger can hope for, really. In case you missed any of this week’s discussion (or if you are looking for

Blog readers come from all around the world. According to the WordPress stats, I have regular visits from readers in Moldova and Argentina. Go figure. But, I know I also have some local and semi-local readers in the Sarasota and Bradenton areas of Florida. This post is (mostly) for you. The winter quarter is fast approaching and I will again be offering two writing courses through the Lifelong Learning Academy. The classes will be at the University of South Florida – Manatee

Belinda Nicoll is the author of the memoir, Out of Sync, as well as a writing and life coach. (You can read an earlier interview I did with Belinda about her book, Out of Sync.) Check out her website at: www.myriteofpassage.com Belinda blogs on the topics of writing, creativity coaching, and expatriation – http://myriteofpassage.wordpress.com/ I asked Belinda to contribute to this week’s discussion of Dorothy Parker’s short story, You Were Perfectly Fine, which I kicked off

Earlier today I kicked off my December guest blog blizzard which will focus on Dorothy Parker’s short story, You Were Perfectly Fine. In November, I hosted several of my favorite writer friends in a discussion of Flannery O’Connor’s story, A Good Man is Hard to Find. Just in case you missed some of the posts, I’ve collected them all below, with links. A brief introduction and links to A Good Man resources. Heather Magruder writes: A Good Man…What’s in a Name? Kelly Fordon con

In February of 2010, I posted a brief summary and discussion of Dorothy Parker’s classic short story, You Were Perfectly Fine. When I first made the post, I had no idea how popular that blog would be. It’s hard to tell, based on the two comments that follow that post, but that particular blog article is consistently listed as among the most viewed post on my site, based on the WordPress tally of pages visited. Internet readers find their way to my blog on a regular basis by s

No. I’ve not started writing hip-hop lyrics. I did, however, spend most of this week dealing with some computer issues. Thankfully, none of my “real work” was compromised. I did have two external hard drives crash, though, which caused me some logistical headaches, and, some expense of both time and money. <img class="size-full wp-image-1220 lazyload" alt="Backing up your data is important, but the best backup plan is one that you don't have to think about on a regular basis.

December is here, and it’s a big month for me. Obviously, the holiday season is here, which means lots of Advent activities, followed by Christmas and the New Year. My grandfather is coming for a visit, followed soon thereafter by my mom and step-father. The three of them will be snow-birding here in Florida this year, so we’ll get to see them a lot. December also marks my birthday (one of the BIG ones) and my wedding anniversary (which are all BIG ones) and lots of opportuni