{465 words — 2-minute read}

In late 2022, as I approached completing the first full draft of my memoir-plus, A MEMORY MOSAIC, and as I participated (and continue to participate) in Facebook writers groups, I realized I have much more to say about memoir, fiction, writing and creativity that what is contained in my fairly slim, 200-page book. In those Facebook groups, I’ve been offering my thoughts, often based on materials in my book or ideas that came to mind in writing the book. Usually, that came in the form of comments to a post. Of course, Facebook group scrolls quickly slip into oblivion.

So this blog/substack is a way to allow this writer’s mind a place to continue to express my thoughts AND a way to do so that’s less random and a bit more lasting. If you take up the challenge, the journey, of undertaking a memoir, or you are already engaged in doing so, you may have an insatiable desire for more about the writing process.

As to the title “A Writer’s Mind” . . . It’s not “THE Writer’s Mind” or “My Writing Mind” because it’s my hope that I’ll be exploring the writing experience, the writing state of mind, which includes you as much as it does me. Paradoxically — or perhaps inevitably — I’ll end up writing about my own work, my own thoughts and conclusions. After all, these are the thoughts to which I have the greatest access. (I’m still working on the mind-reading thing.)

I hope as well that this doesn’t in the end appear as a self-centered, self-serving enterprise. If I inspire you, if I ignite you, I’ll be succeeding in my mission. I’ve been a professional writer, editor and publisher for closing in on half a century. And I was writing as a child, teen and college student for a dozen years before that. So I have a LOT of thoughts, observations and insights flooding, swirling, cascading inside my skull. I just want to get them out and share them. And you likely have them, too. This applies even if you’re just diving into writing; your mind must be in overdrive, a whirlpool of questions and concerns.

This platform is my chance to play with ideas brought up in my memoir. Sometimes they will be elaborations or riffs. Sometimes they will simply be extracts, giving the passage in the memoir a chance to air on their own.

At other times this platform will explore thoughts that entered my mind as I wrote my memoir but never made it into the 199 pages of the book . . . and at other times, thoughts I’ve had about writing and creativity over the years.

That leads me to the concept of the “million-word book,” which I’ll pick up in the next post.