Word by Word

Practical insights for writers from Jessica P Morrell

Archive for the 'Jessica Page Morrell' Category

October

Autumn Poplars, Otakar Nejedly

Read the rest of this entry »

Write from a commotion in your heart

Find what causes a commotion in your heart. Find a way to write about that. ~ Richard Ford

Read the rest of this entry »

Eclipses are Portals

The Eclipse of the Sun in Venice, Ippolito Caffi Eclipses are portals. This one is about endings. Letting go. Especially letting go of the stories we tell tell ourselves that we no longer need. Time to ask youself what is no longer true. Have heart, Keep writing, Keep Dreaming And watchingt the skies

Read the rest of this entry »

Sentence Begat Sentence

Yesterday I was hiking a small, nearby mountain with a friend. I always feel my mood shift as soon a I reach the point where the old firs take over.  The hike is only a mile, but you can wind around to shorter paths and stretch it out if you want to linger or get […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Life is art

Read the rest of this entry »

September

Read the rest of this entry »

Why Literature Can Save Us

The remarkable Richard Bausch has reminded us that literature can indeed save us. “For me the greatest hedge against evil has always been the power to imagine the other. To enter the reality of the other. And literature, is, isn’t it, an exploration and confrontation of exactly that.” Bausch is a prolific American original. I could write a […]

Read the rest of this entry »

William Butler Yeats

  And a softness came from the starlight and filled me to the bone. ~ Willam Butler Yeats, from The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems For more on the life of Yeats, here’s a fascinating biography and a number of poems. Started my day reading about his life and a number of his poems. […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Brother, Electric

We’ve got rain in the forecast for tonight and I’m hoping it arrives. The break from the heat is so welcome especially since I just spent five days in Utah where the air was so parched and nasty I couldn’t wait to return to Oregon. Trouble was it was 97 when we landed.  Color me […]

Read the rest of this entry »

I disappeared into books when I was very young

Like many others who turned into writers, I disappeared into books when I was very young, disappeared into them like someone running into the woods. What surprised me was there was another side to the forest of stories and the solitude, and that I came out and met other people there. Writers are solitaries by […]

Read the rest of this entry »