My goal this year is to write three complete novel first drafts so that I get into the habit of finishing things. I figured that since I've spent the last two years focused almost exclusively on revisions that having a drafting goal would be a good thing. So far, it's going surprisingly well. As of... Continue Reading →
Twelve-Year-Old Badass
I want to recapture the badass I was when I was twelve. Twelve-year-old me wasn't afraid to raise her hand in class when she knew the right answer. Twelve-year-old me wasn't afraid to be an outspoken liberal in a conservative town. Twelve-year-old me wasn't afraid to be feminist, and pagan, and publically weird. Twelve-year-old me... Continue Reading →
Second Guessing
Note: For Context on today's post check out Confessions of a Ghost When something ends, the tendency is to think back to the beginning, to follow all the steps that brought you to failure, to wonder which were missteps, how you could have done better, how your instincts could have been so wrong. I've been second... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Baltic: Part Three
This year's curriculum on the Writing Excuses felt custom tailored to the problems I've been experiencing in my writing lately. I've been procrastinating badly: Emma Newman talked about Fear and Writing and how procrastination is generally underpinned by fear. I spent a lot of the cruise thinking about my fears and the forms they take... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Baltic: Part Two
I crouch as low as I can without sitting on the rain-slick ground, photographing cobblestones and parquet floors. I lie flat on my back in a flagstone courtyard trying to capture the majesty of a tower. I stretch my arms above my head and stand on tiptoes: how else can a capture the sheer scale... Continue Reading →
Tales From the Baltic: Part One
We start with fear. Fear of missing the flight. Fear of being stopped at customs and being sent back to the states (Why? I don't know, but my fear can always think of a reason. Maybe it's the bag of airport trailmix I forgot to throw out. Maybe my doppleganger has been muck raking in... Continue Reading →