It's a loss and a gift that part of me stands a little bit outside of every experience, grasping for words.

Part of what I need to do to make a familiar place interesting is to never let it be the same place. That means trying to see or hear things that I didn't see or hear the day before.

A hermit crab essay, named by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola in their craft book ‘Tell It Slant,’ gets its name from the crab that is born without a protective shell, so must scavenge one and make a home inside it. A hermit crab essay takes on an existing form as a container for the essay, such as an obituary, a recipe, or a social media post. The

In prose, white space can indicate transitions in time, place, or ideas, and it can do some of the work line breaks do in verse. White space can be disruptive, showcasing, or suspense-building. White space is a charged silence that activates the imagination and slows the reader down.

The self is a shape-shifter, and art is about letting yourself be changed.

I begin my writing time by reading, pen in hand, because I know what is likely to happen: A word, phrase, sentence, or idea will open a door for me. Behind that door, if I'm lucky, might be a poem or an essay of my own.

A fascinating fact is that the syntax center of the brain is in the part where we process music, not in the part responsible for vocabulary acquisition. So making beautiful sentences is a musical endeavor.

1. End on a significant image


2. Bookend the piece


3. Close with a line of dialogue, internal or external


4. Experiment with rhyme


5. Give it an extra beat


6. End a little earlier

Nothing has impacted my work more than thinking about the interplay between line and sentence. Lines have a vertical energy: They pull down the page, almost as if gravity is tugging from the bottom of the page. Sentences, on the other hand, have a horizontal energy: They push across the page, beginning on the left and pressing toward the right