“Where Do You Get Your Ideas?”

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 9 Comments

Ideas come from ordinary, everyday life. And from imagination. And from feelings. And from memories. Memories of dust in my sneakers and humming whitewalls down a hill called Monkey. ~Jerry Spinelli “Where do you get your ideas?” I’m guessing that is a question many writers have tried to answer, including Jerry Spinelli in the quote above. Imagination can be a …

Cutting All Those Unnecessary Words

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 5 Comments

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. ~William Strunk, Jr. Oh, the joys of editing. Actually, editing is the easiest part for me when I’m writing. Of course, I have to admit that I find editing and …

The End Holds Hands with The Beginning

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal 6 Comments

“The beginning and the end reach out their hands to each other.” (Chinese Proverb) One more time I have written those two oftentimes elusive words. The end. I’m not sure I’ve written the right words before those two necessary words, but as the King suggests in the quote below, I stopped. “Begin at the beginning,”, the King said, very gravely, …

Happy Hollyhill New Year

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, Heart of Hollyhill 6 Comments

January 1, 1967 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill on New Year’s Day. Can you believe it’s 1967? Sixty-seven!! I’m fifteen. Grown. Old enough to behave myself, Aunt Love says. Old enough to fall in love, Leigh says. Old enough to take a trip to Jupiter, Wes says. Old enough to understand a few things about life, Dad says. Tabitha …