Stephanie Klein's Greek Tragedy

free for all thoughts

Already today I’ve cleaned my closet, cleared my bedside table, and organized the bathroom vanity. I took my allergy pill and a few others. Flax seeded it up. Mixed a shot of espresso with protein powder, and measured, yes, 8…

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middle of the night

I’ll never get it out, all the feelings I have. I’ll never get them to you in a way you understand I’ll never know how to say it in a way that won’t make you grieve Because the second…

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mindmapping: idea generator for writers

Mind maps. You begin with a blank page, turn it horizontally, then smack a word or image at its center. By association, you see what grows. I don’t always follow those directions, but I do find that following my…

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if jokes about swinging scrotums make you laugh

If you think jokes about balls and swinging scrotums are inherently funny, your dominant archetype element is fire–at least according to my younger sister Lea. A licensed massage therapist, Lea (and my sweet baby Linus) are moving from Montana…

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on the horizon

It wasn’t all that long ago. I stayed awake with anxiety, a hot laptop leaving red wormy marks on my stomach. I only noticed them when I got up to pee. I was in too much pain to feel…

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the secrets of objects

(Finding the Extraordinary on an ordinary rainy day) I sometimes think there are hidden secrets in our lives. Not things that we don’t want to tell people, or things about which we’re embarrassed, but the kind of secrets the…

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but almost barely

  I love this. These Ray Lamontagne moments, where you’re just sitting at a bar with a glass of Rioja, listening to the soulful voice, the one that sings about flowers falling from hair, about how he’s been to…

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five traits you liked in yourself as a child

There are always obvious answers, easy choices, roads well-traveled. In fact, standardized tests bank on it, presenting the lazy, most commonly incorrect answer as choice "C" (also the default letter in the A-E of multiple choice answers). No doubt there…

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formulaic empowerment

  I was thinking today about empowering moments in my life, underdog moments, rising above it, I don’t give a shit what you think moments. They come down to being told "no," and doing it anyway. They’re defiant moments. …

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the stuff we’re made of

I’ve always loved this idea: making a fiction collage of each character, complete with the actor prototype in mind. I’m doing it now for the television version of Straight Up and Dirty. I love this exercise, to know the…

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