Character Arcs to Warm the Heart
You could chalk it up to nostalgia: Re-watching a childhood classic to remember a loved one or a Christmas past. But often, I find turning to classic Christmas movies can be a way for me, my family and friends to…
Author Archives: Cara Wood
Of Poetry, Sounding Good and Being Useful
I took a course called Technical Writing in grad school. The professor assigned a short manual that he had written himself as the required reading. He spent a lot of the time talking about the precision of language required to…
So, what should our heroes look like now?
I admit it, I’ve fallen in love with my share of anti-heroes. Whether it is Lady MacBeth for her unapologetic ambition, Scarlett O’Hara’s vanity (and great taste in hoop skirts), or even the cruel seduction tactics of Lestat de Lioncourt…
Find Your Chair Pose: How Yoga Helps Me Write
Often I feel like I’m stealing time from everything else I should be doing to write. Or else, I’m living the nightmare of an “I’d rather be fishing” bumper sticker. In this metaphor fishing = writing. It’s a constant trade-off…
Comic relief
As the wheels of our plane hit the tarmac, the woman sitting next to me lost her grip on the powered-down cell phone she’d been clinging to throughout the flight. It landed with a soft thunk on the thin carpet…
Getting the replay: Composing stories that stick
I’ve spent the last few days with the same song stuck in my head. You’ve experienced this before. We’ll both experience it again.