I have a real day job. Not a freelancing, contractor type deal but an actual nine to five. What sucks about this is that my best hours are undeniably nine to noon. Those are the hours when I get my best writing and editing done, but a lot of the time, I have to use those hours for work.

So, I’m having to rethink what a ‘good day’ looks like when it comes to progress on my creative pursuits. Sometimes it’s just one sentence, or writing out my to-do list, or making an edit to a single paragraph. But I know that all of that little stuff will keep adding up, and maybe one day, I won’t need that nine to five.

Whatever you’re working on, I hope you’re able to make a little bit of progress every day, no matter how little that progress might be.

Love and gratitude, as always.

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I’m taking a moment to shout out my newsletter. I’m trying to make it something that’s actually useful for folks, with little tips and recommendations from my own practice or from the practices of others.

I love talking about writing, and I really miss teaching it. While I do have some vague dreams of doing a series of courses, I’m having to start small. So, my newsletter is becoming my outlet for sharing the things I’ve learned, and the things I’m still learning, with others.

If you like writing at all, take a moment to check it out and consider subscribing.

Love and gratitude.

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Read my writing here.

Support me on Patreon here.

Subscribe to my newsletter here.

Some myths about writing/being an author that I’ve worked hard to unlearn:

1. Writing is a solitary practice. Okay, sure you can make it solitary, but why would you? Writing is best in community! Talk to your friends about your writing, engage with authors on their social media, build a network for yourself. I promise it makes it easier to remember you’re not alone.
2. Writing is something you’re born with. Boo! Not true! Writing is a skill that can be taught and developed. While there are excellent classes and workshops out there, I maintain that the best way to improve your writing is to read widely and often. It gets in your brain.
3. It’s smart to write for the market. This is the quickest way to set yourself up for failure, partly because the market changes way too fast for you to be able to hop on a trend, but mostly because if you aren’t excited about what you’re writing, it won’t be good. Write what you want to write! If you’re excited about it, readers will be excited about it.

These are all things that I’m still unlearning (especially that first one!), but I try to remind myself of these things all the time. I am not alone, I can improve my skills, and it will always be best to write what I want.

Love and gratitude, as always.

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So as I’ve mentioned on this blog (and wrote about here), I’ve sort of let everything slip over the past few months. And I’m not beating myself up about it or anything, but I am thinking about what I might do the next time that sort of slump hits me.

I’ve never been the sort of person to write every day, but I’m wondering if maybe I should be. Not necessarily a ‘write something creative’ every day, but just writing at all (sort of like what I’m doing here).

What do y’all think? Do you have a daily writing practice? What does it look like? Please share, I’m open to suggestions!

Love and gratitude, as always.

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Read my writing here.

Support me on Patreon here.

Subscribe to my newsletter here.

I had a band director in high school who used to say that he wanted us to get from ‘good’ to ‘great.’ And then, towards the end of the year, he would start saying that the real test was to get from ‘great’ to ‘excellent.’

I think, for whatever reason, I’ve always tried to do things with excellence. Perhaps it’s because of my band director, or perhaps its because I grew up with workaholic, over-achieving parents who couldn’t sit still for long than an hour or two before worrying that they weren’t being productive enough. Now, I’ve also got a boss who talks about how one of her core values is ‘excellence.’ So I’ve been thinking a lot about what excellence means for me and what I’m trying to do.

I think it’s become a bit of a double-edged sword for me. When it comes to my day job, I think it serves me–there are so many things I want to do, but if I want to do things with excellence, I have to scale back. That’s good. I think with my writing, that excellence holds me back–I get so focused on making everything perfect that I end up paralyzed.

This whole blog, actually, is an exercise in breaking some of that ‘excellence.’ This is not perfect, or ground-breaking, but it helps me to do it, so that’s what I’m doing. Up to you whether it’s up to snuff, I suppose.

Love and gratitude, as always.

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Read my writing here.

Support me on Patreon here.

Subscribe to my newsletter here.