How to Be a Writer
Writing will not always be easy or fun or predictable, but if you keep going, you will discover more about who you are and what you have to offer to the world.
Have You Been Seen?
On a television show I was recently watching, there was a curvy girl trying out for a ballet summer program. She got cut almost immediately. Her ballet teacher gave her a wig and told her to go audition again under…
Following Your Ideas
As human beings, we do a lot of damage to ourselves. Sometimes the most heinous damage may seem the most benign. It is impossible to measure the toll of those voices—those internal voices that we have running through our minds…
Perfection
In the subways of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) advertising is ubiquitous. Paid advertising lines the walls of subway cars. Ads hang overhead and lurk around at eye level. Entrepreneurs hijack the paid advertising by attaching their own flyers…
You Have So Much More Time Than You Realize
We live in a culture that believes in diminishing returns. Everything, it is said, depreciates. When I’m caught up in this hysteria, I try to remember examples that contradict this belief. Fine wines, beloved talismans, inherited furniture, and friendships whose…
Achieving With Ease
A year is just a concept—just like a month, a week, an hour, a minute, and a second. These are all concepts that some human being created to manage this great stretch of awareness that is the human experience. These…
Surviving by Percentages
Every once in a while a friend confides that she is sure she’s been kicked off my writing blog. “It’s been a long time since I received a new post, maybe you don’t want me on your list anymore,” friends…
Surrendering the Ego
One of the things I have never wanted to embrace was the sheer amount of work writing takes. Novel writing in particular is a long game—and it can be harrowing, depending on your level of practice and your outlook on…