The Coffee Mug Theory of Writing Process
This is just a little thought I've been playing with. I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to this theory, but hey, that's what a theory is, right? I looked it up just to be sure. A theory is "a
Visuals, layout, reader experience, and you
When I published my essay collection Even the Cemeteries Have Space Here, I made the layout choices very intentionally to create a sense of spaciousness for the reader. Shea in the Catskills contributed artwork that further deepened the reader's spacious and reflective experience. I was asked about an
Rethinking Destination
Does a computer give your drafts "too smooth a gloss"?
In November, following the publication of his presidential memoir, it emerged that Barack Obama wrote the entire 760-page tome by hand, on yellow legal notepaper with a pen. A pen!? "I still like writing things out in longhand, finding that a computer gives even my roughest drafts too
Are templates running our creative lives?
We need to talk about templates. These days, if you'd like to communicate an idea to another person, other than perhaps in casual conversation, there's a template for you. There's a Powerpoint template. There's an Instagram template. There's a website
A writing approach I'll never use
I have a confession. Judge if you want. I have always hated index cards. I have hated them since fourth grade when we were taught some irritating method of organizing our "bibliography" by tediously writing various information about books in specific places on the index cards. The directive
How to Be a Seahorse Dad
When your baby has a meltdown on the C train at rush hour and everyone stares – never fear. No one knows you birthed this little one you can't soothe. Let them imagine it's mommy's day off. Let them slot you into that well-trodden
Knowing What You Really Want - Why I Left Substack
In response to a prompt in The Wayward Writer, I drew this: You can take up more space than you think. When people don't know what you're really about, that can be its own form of protection. I might say, "When you know what you&
The Most Glorious Pasteboard
From a review of one of Paul Monette's novels: Every act, every event is cut and re-cut by the author's sparkling prose and bizarre imagination to give us new facets, new depths and new insights. The characters aren't quite real and--this is
The Madonna Secret by Sophie Strand
I've just finished reading Sophie Strand's The Madonna Secret. I love the voice in which the book is written -- where Miriam is looking back on her past, where Miriam can tell us the moments in which she wishes she had understood more or acted differently -- yet