The Goodjelly Blog
By Christine Carron
Building a habit of writing regularly continues to be a work in progress for me. A major gift of starting this blog has been the confidence-building effect of posting weekly. I show up for this blog (and for you, the readers) and my writing shows up in return. Again and...
By Christine Carron
When you go to a writing conference or workshop, if you are anything like me, you want positive change to happen as a result of your attendance. Not only because it’s an investment of your time and money, but also because you are committed to growing as a writer. Perhaps...
By Christine Carron
Somewhere over fifteen years ago, I bought the book Writing the Mind Alive: The Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your Authentic Voice by Linda Trichter Metcalf and Tobin Simon. I found it in the gift shop of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. I remember taking it...
By Christine Carron
Which is more memorable? A girl in a beautiful pink prom dress or a girl in a beautiful pink prom dress wearing sky blue sneakers? Blue sneaker girl wins in my book every time.
A girl in a pink prom dress is expected. A girl in a pink prom dress wearing sky blue sneakers...
By Christine Carron
In last week's post, I mentioned a time at a writing conference where I asked a pointless, fawning question that I imagine led to an internal eye roll by the editor to whom the question was directed. As soon as I stepped away from the conversation I was like, “Why...
By Christine Carron
Once a manager attempted to pressure me into committing fraud. When I refused, that person attempted to spin the story so that it appeared that I had been in the wrong and was not a team player. It created a period of discomfort in my life, in my career. I...
By Christine Carron
I should be devastated. After a discussion with my first readers, it became clear that the revision I had been working on for ten months did not work.
I am not devastated. I am relieved. Clarity is a beautiful thing. No matter how difficult the truth.
Once you have...
By Christine Carron
As I thought about what I would write this week, a memory kept sneaking up on me: the first time I used a mouse. It was also the first time I used a personal computer. I was a senior in high school nearing graduation and visiting my older sister at college. I had a final paper...
By Christine Carron
I am not much of a gambler. Once I was in Las Vegas on a business trip and went with some colleagues to play blackjack. I giddily explained my novice status to our dealer, a white woman so brown and wizened it looked like she spent every non-working, waking hour in the sun,...
By Christine Carron
A friend is proofreading the revision I have been working on for months. After all the creative, intellectual, and emotional effort that went into that particular revision, it is a relief to have it off my desk and out of my mind.
Its absence has opened up time in my...
By Christine Carron
Nobody puts Baby in a corner. So goes a famous line from the movie Dirty Dancing. Doubt on the writing adventure is like Baby. It will not be put in a corner. Like any emotion, doubt wants to be felt. To be moved. To be attended to.
I was reminded of this last week as I...
By Christine Carron
I love jigsaw puzzles. Last night, I finished a particularly tricky one. My puzzle speed slowed dramatically toward the end as I sorted out the last fifty pieces or so, which all looked very similar. I got it done through a combination of methodical analysis, leaps of...
