Creative Nonfiction by Andrea Badgley
The self-doubt is creeping in. I’ve published 12 blog posts in a row, all written on the fly with minimal editing, and with rare exception, minimal planning. I get up, I write, I publish. I needed to break out of a rut. I was writing privately, a lot of nothing, and frankly, I was trying … Continue reading Feeling vulnerable about blogging
I’ve been transcribing my childhood diaries off and on for the past year, and while it’s not as horrifying as I thought it might be to revisit teenage me, I am let down. Not by what’s in there, but by what is not. I have memories of specific scenes from my life — Grandma showing … Continue reading I want the scene *and* the feelings
I’ve never had a fountain pen. Prior to this Christmas, I used the Signo Uniball 207. You can buy the Uniball at the grocery store or Target or the drug store, and they are fast-writing, smooth, inky pens. They’re great, accessible pens for when you need an instrument that can write (almost) as quickly as … Continue reading I've got fountain pens, and now I want to write and write and write…
More than 20 years ago, when I was in college, an acquaintance left a note and a gift on the coffee table in my apartment. I guess I had baked cookies and they ate a few. A single word from their note is still branded on my brain: “I give you this [gift I don’t … Continue reading The power of precise words
I’m reading Stephen King’s On Writing again. I love how real and honest he is, and how unstuffy. It’s so refreshing! That honesty is at the heart of his fiction as well — he doesn’t pussyfoot around anything, anywhere, he just lets whatever is in him out. Also, honesty is his biggest piece of advice to … Continue reading Nouns and verbs
I convinced myself for a long time that I can’t write fiction. I read tons of fiction — it’s my favorite thing to read — but my perception of myself for years has been that I lack the imagination to write fiction. I can’t create something from nothing. I can only write what is or … Continue reading Taking small steps when the final destination seems impossibly far away
