Opyrus Blog for Authors and Writers

I just received the following email: “This morning I read your article about the game chutes and ladders. My life lately has been at the bottom of the chute just like your son. And your article helped me change my perspective looking for the ladders...

My writing professor kept extolling the exceptional use of symbolism and foreshadowing in my piece. The problem was that I had no idea what he was referring to.

Writing requires serious vulnerability. When you publish anything from a comment to an article, you are really putting yourself out there. You are sharing something of yourself and from yourself for the world to see. And as we all know, the world...

Have you ever read something and felt like the author must be in your head, reading your mind? Have you ever written something and had someone let you know that you perfectly explained something they were feeling and couldn’t articulate?

Last week I lost a friend. When I heard the news I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t speak. So I cried. For a number of hours that was all I could do.

Have you ever struggled with calling yourself a “writer”? There is something about that title that seems to come with a showy-off type of feeling. It is as if saying you are a writer automatically means that you are saying you are talented. And...

Have you noticed that people often have a love or hate relationship with writing? My guess is that it is a result of years of getting blood-stained papers back in school with comments such as “awkward” or “???” or “wrong word choice.”

Often we think of the writing process of one that requires us to be calm and collected. We have our steaming hot coffee, some classical music playing in the background, the sun is streaming in beautifully and our creative juices are flowing.