Tulips. Photo by BF Newhall
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Dear Readers: From now on I’ll be posting on Thursday mornings. [Read more...]
The Writing Room
I’m a writer who loves to talk about writing, so if you’re a writer or an aspiring writer I hope you'll stop by now and then and keep me company . . . You’ll find writing tips here as well as my thoughts on the writing life. Watch out, though. The Grammar Geek will be putting in her two cents from time to time.
Writing Tips — Begged, Borrowed, but Mostly Stolen From My Favorite Writing Coaches
March 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
I’ve been writing personal essays, newspaper columns and blog posts for years now. I’ve learned some writing tricks the hard way — by trial and error. Others I’ve just plain stolen from my various writing coaches, people like the San Francisco husband-wife team, Carol Edgarian [Read more...]
Writing the Personal Essay — Forget the Good, Go for the Bad and the Ugly
March 1, 2013 By 2 Comments
A sure sign that story has potential is that it looks like the buds on our star magnolia tree — rough, prickly and off-putting — until given a chance to blossom. Photo by BF Newhall
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
When I sit down to write a personal essay or a blog post, I start with a story. I look around in my life for a moment that I can’t let go of. A story that won’t let go of me. Usually it’s something painful or surprising, a prickly story that makes me uncomfortable, sad, worried [Read more...]
The (Two-Year-Old) Rhetorician at Our House
February 15, 2013 By 2 Comments
The rhetorician in 1985 with crib, blankies and bottle. Photo by BF Newhall
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
What’s rhetoric? I’ve always thought of it as the high-flown, idealistic and/or manipulative language of politics. But really, it’s something we human beings do all the time. My daughter Christina, for example, discovered the art of rhetoric right around the time she was being weaned from baby bottle to plastic cup. [Read more...]
‘Read Me a Story, Mommy, But Not That One You Wrote’ (Or,The Nicest Thing My Husband Ever Said to Me)
December 28, 2012 By 7 Comments
Our 1986 home office with floppy disk drives, Christina, and Petunia the cat. Photo by BF Newhall.
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
When my kids were still at the Mommy-please-read-to-me stage, the Oakland Tribune found itself in a bit of a budget crunch. To save money, management cut my part-time work week back to a single day.
It was demeaning. It was insulting. I was humiliated. [Read more...]
