7 Offbeat Books That Will Make You a Better Writer

I’m not an English teacher. I break grammar rules all the time. Sometimes my paragraphs only have one sentence. Sometimes they are fragments. Sometimes they are just one single word. I use ellipses… a lot… because I feel they are a good representation of my communication style. Lots of pauses for effect. When I talk […]

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Creativity Takes Courage (or How a Ball Pit for Hamsters Made Me More Creative)

Time for roll call. Cyprus. Check. Chile. Check. Philippines. Check. India. Check. Washington D.C. Check. Oregon. Check. We were six men and women on a sketchy Skype connection, ready to dig into our first group project for an online creativity course we were taking through Stanford University. As the team leader/gatherer of creative people, I […]

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Why I Read “Where’s Waldo” and Other Banned Books

I glanced over at the clock. 1:15 a.m. I had been reading for over four hours straight. Vonnegut will do that to you. I dug my fist into the family-size bag of licorice swaddled next to me on the bedspread and noticed that my stash was getting low… and that I had absentmindedly eaten all […]

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One Freaking Note Can Change Everything

The lights burned brightly on the old auditorium stage, illuminating the grand piano in the center. I cinched my ponytail tighter and walked out onto the newly waxed floor. Pulling the bench out, I sat down and adjusted my distance from the piano keys. The seat was still warm from the last person… a 10-year-old […]

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The Shortest Manifesto Ever

“Who had I become? Just another shark in a suit? Two days later at our corporate conference in Miami, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. I couldn’t escape one simple thought: I hated myself. No, no, no, here’s what it was: I hated my place in the world. I had so much to say and no one […]

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