Archive for April 2019
How to write for 14 years without missing a day and never run out of ideas.
I’ve been blogging since 2005. I have not missed a day, even when scumbag cowards attempted to derail my career by blatantly mischaracterizing what I write and portraying me as some crazed lunatic. I hope they are still reading today. I’ve shifted my blog to three different platforms and changed the name each time, but…
Read MoreMemorize some poems
I took a class in college on poetry. I wasn’t a poet, nor did I want to be a poet, but my creative writing advisor thought that writing poetry might teach me to distill my fiction down to its essence and find the truth about what I was trying to say in my stories. I…
Read MoreI don’t have time to save time
The question I get asked most often is “How do you get so much done?” I’m working on a proposal for a book that answers that very question in great detail. But until the book is written and published, I’m always willing to offer advice on becoming more productive and more efficient, and people are…
Read MoreLast times
One of the books I hope to write in the next couple years will be a nonfiction account of my attempt to try things that I was once did in my youth but have not done for a very long time. The book will center on the idea that so often in life, we do…
Read MoreReligion on the decline. Thankfully.
The latest Harris and Pew polls indicate that the fastest growing religious belief is no religious belief at all. For the first time since these polls have been taken, “no religion” is even with Catholicism and Evangelical as the dominant religious belief in America. Mike Pence must be furious. In addition, a Research Center poll…
Read MoreSpeak Up Storytelling: Jeffrey Freiser
On episode #45 of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast, Matthew and Elysha Dicks talk storytelling! In our followup segment, we offer some corrections on previous episodes and read an email from a recent 100 day Homework for Life champion. ALSO, UPCOMING SHOWS: April 27: “Put Me in Coach: Stories of Athletic Endeavors” at CHSMay 18: Speak Up…
Read MoreStrangeness of Vermont
I spent two days in Burlington, Vermont earlier this week, teaching attorneys to tell stories and prepare witnesses and clients to tell stories. I took a few photographs while I was there that I thought I’d share. When I arrived in Burlington, I found myself staring at this interesting and slightly creepy building at the…
Read MoreTry new things. Aggressively, relentlessly, and constantly.
Chase your dreams but also try new things. Ever since I was 17 years old, I was chasing my dreams of being a professional writer. In 1987, I was writing term papers for my classmates, earning money for the first time as a writer. I used that money to buy my first car. In 1990,…
Read MoreBillions with a B
I’d like to officially dispense with the phrase: “That’s billion with a B.” I’d like to eliminate it from the world forever. Make it extinct. Destroy every bit of it. Have you ever heard “million” when the person said “billion” even once in your life? Are the letters M and B so close that you…
Read MoreA picture is worth so much more than 1,000 words
Is there anything better than a six year-old boy falling asleep while reading his book?
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