Category Archives: advice on writing

Pizza for dinner.

We’re having homemade pizza for dinner. My kitchen is warm and filled with good smells. I am blessed.

I’ve not been very faithful to my plan to Write Now, but here’s a bit of something I wrote in 2010. My regular writing gigs dried up around 2008, so by then I was pretty desperate for work. Here’s how I wound up delivering pizzas and blogging under the pseudonym “Mama Marinara” on Janet Simpson-Templin’s great site Pavo:

Advertising on Craig’s List brought one response that sounded great. The company was “looking for honest people with a keen eye for detail to visit various adult sites online and write the things they like and dislike about each.” Now, I’m not squeamish. I’ve written some pretty racy limericks. I even modeled nude for an art class a long, long time ago. Adult magazines don’t automatically earn my moral outrage. The job paid $350 a week.

Read the whole piece here: http://karynzweifel.com/?page_id=109

I want to go camping.

SerenityThisWay

Here’s why:

If you ever want to get outside yourself and just observe human nature, there’s no better place than an RV park.  We take along our tent, a 35-year-old relic my dad bought on a whim when his marriage was bright and shiny and his understanding of my mother was surging toward its high water mark.  To my memory we never used it.

I didn’t even know we had it, in fact, until my parents divorced and honored me with a explorer’s pass to the physical detrius of their marriage.  It’s boxy and square and makes a lot of noise assembling the aluminum poles.  I’m quite fond of it.

read more here

 

Why Write Now?

Writers write, right? That’s my favorite writing advice from my very favorite writer. So Write Now is not just about getting assignments and earning money. Although I really like earning money.

Write Now is an exercise in self-discipline. I’m going to try to write more. Starting Write Now.

Oh, but wait. Here’s a procrastination. I have bunches of stuff I’ve already written. So I’ll post that here. So I can go make another cup of coffee, stare into the fridge, make a grocery list, call an old friend. Anything. Because writing is hard. Writing procrastination, now, that’s easy…

Here are some personal essays, available write now, if you want to buy the rights and republish. Because I like money. Did I say that already? Or you can just read them. If you’re looking for an excuse to procrastinate, I’d be happy to make a small contribution to the cause.

I’ll work harder at self-discipline. And write something new. That leads me to my favorite advice from my other very favorite writer: don’t worry about shitty first drafts.