Ask the Author: Neal Lemery
Answered Questions (6)
Neal Lemery
Having people tell me that my writing impacted them, that they found inspiration and affirmation, that they could truly feel what I was saying. This is humbling, and exciting.
Neal Lemery
By being engaged with the lives of others, to share myself, and to truly listen to others. When you practice compassion, you will hear amazing stories and experiences. What happens to you is the flour in your own bread you are making. Share your heart.
When I do that, when I truly dig deep, and then search for the words to express what I hear and what I experience, the words come.
When I do that, when I truly dig deep, and then search for the words to express what I hear and what I experience, the words come.
Neal Lemery
Read good books, on topics you are passionate about. Live your life purposely and intentionally, and have the discipline of setting aside time to write and be with your inner self. Write, then write again. Share your work on a blog, which gets your words out to others. Keep at it. Honor yourself and your life by writing what your passions.
Neal Lemery
As a judge, I met a lot of lost, unfocused, and fatherless young people, and I began to realize their stories are often not heard. Writing helped me process and deal with their stories and their lives, and helped me find my own response to their needs and their aching hearts. I began to visit young men in prison, and I wrote more, and had more stories to share. This book is a book about listening and responding, from one human being to another.
Neal Lemery
I have a rough draft of a novel focusing on a young man in prison, trying to find out who he really is, who seems crazy, but the craziness is his response to his horrific childhood, and his search for his true, sane self. I want to give voice to many mentally ill youth in prison, who have been abused, but are often seen as abusers. The draft came from my participation in the National Novel Writing Month project, (NaNoWriMo) in November.
Neal Lemery
I try to maintain my daily routine of writing at a particular time. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way has a discipline of "morning writes". Just write. Maybe the grocery list. But, write. Something good usually comes from this effort, this space in the day when you devote yourself to writing, and let it flow out of you. I believe in a writer's Muse, and try to open myself to it. I don't like to force my thoughts, but let them percolate, and then flow out.
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