The People You Allow Inside Your Quarantine Will Change You
Before I moved in with her, I knew Vicki Robin only as the local author of the personal-finance bestseller Your Money or Your Life, the matriarch of the financial independence…
Getting Back Up After A Creative Setback
I was standing on a rock in a yard in Colombia, trying to find good reception. My friend, a novelist, was on the phone, and his words, spoken from 4,000…
Why Quarantine Is A Great Time for Writers to Pick Up Yoga
Every Sunday, before I dive into my Morning Pages, I dive into downward-facing dog. I stretch myself into asanas, pushing my body up and out, channeling vitality that will power…
A Writer’s Guide to Camping
Listen, I'm a little bitch about my sleep. If I don't get my 7.5 hours, I morph into an emotional toddler. There I'll be, tearing up about the Capri Sun…
Now Might Be a Good Time for Those Semesters of Black Lit
“White privilege is your history being taught as a core class and mine being taught as an elective.” - Ozy Aloziem Since 2011 and until February, I lived in Capitol…
A Hot Date with Some Lit Mag Submissions
Spending an evening submitting is less like a day at work and more like a hot date, minus the sex and human connection. 🤷♀️
How to Find the Right Lit Mag for You
Every writer should be reading both the best and the most accessible literary magazines. Here's how.
Buying Your Freedom to Be a Writer
I landed at the house of Vicki Robin in early February. The plan was that I, in between apartments, would live in her island home, in a room with a…
Focus and Finish with the Crown of Concentration
Here's a quick and fun way to get some more work done in close quarters with others.
How to Stuff As Much Meaning in Your Verbs As Possible
How to relay an entire simile with a verb packed with meaning.
An Ode to the Literary Bath
One of the bedrocks of a successful writing life is the full understanding that any research that needs to be done can be done in the bath.
Organizing Your Writing Life In a World of Chaos
If you're able to focus on organization right now, here are some projects that could serve you for the rest of your writing life.
How Can We Help Each Other Through?
It took me about two weeks to pick myself up off the floor. I'm still limping, rolling onto the bed, numbing out on scrolling, wine, and various high-fat items. Then…
Cooking My Way Through This
I was scrolling through Twitter like every tweet was a bump of coke, when a post by my friend Willie stopped me: The next day, I spent two hours taking…
How to Write (or Not) During the Coronavirus Outbreak
It's the time of Coronavirus, which is pretty much like the bad dystopian novel plot we all can't believe we're living. And I'll tell you what, I'm not writing that…
Everything I Know About Marketing I Definitely Did NOT Learn from AWP
“Yes!” said a young woman at the AWP conference for writers, rounding the corner to my all-the-way-in-the-back-corner booth. “This is where those stickers are coming from!” It was the last…
Writers Get Wild: Creating Your Own Self-Run Writing Retreat
My rent is $350 for the next three months, and I can't tell whether it's that or the physical space around me, trees instead of buildings, cows instead of crowds,…
10 Things I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Writing the Personal Essay
From my first essay nearly published a decade ago to the viral essay that got a million readers to the little goof essays I write now, here are 10 things I've learned about writing powerful personal essays
Your Writing Career Will Not Survive on “Please”
We stood on a closed-off street at a music festival, near midnight, third or fourth beers in hand, when the musicians on stage stopped in between songs to say, "Thanks…
The Most Important Thing Most Writers Never Do
I'd be driving and think, "Oh damn it, I never followed up with Susan." I'd be shopping and realize it had been six months since that editor offered to read…
Why I’m Learning Grammar: Grammar Foundations Class Review
My coaching student scoffed. "Why are you learning grammar?" A part of me was with her, scoffing at grammar that meant memorizing latinate words. Grammar that was removed by the spectacles…
5 Ways to Write The Cliché Experience Fresh
I’m looking up Narratively’s instructions on how to pitch, and I see this from their editor, Lilly Dancyger: “In case you’re wondering, here are some other done-to-death tropes that I…
Everything a Writer Needs to Thrive: Craft, Business Skills, Personal Finance, & Joy
When I decided to start a blog as a follow-up to my book Welcome to the Writer's Life, I knew I needed to focus. Who is this blog serving, and…
Conferences are Essential (and Expensive)
In 2018, I went to six conferences, which is, according to my bank account, too many conferences. Today I have a new podcast episode out with Clint Proctor, about how…
The Luxuries of Freelance Writing Life
My favorite music genre being Sad Guy With A Guitar And a Story To Tell, my favorite band is naturally Bon Iver. They're coming to play at The Gorge, my…