Sometimes we feel stuck, but we're not actually stuck. How do we know we're making progress? How can we choose a way of looking at this that's right for us? Table: Ways of Knowing You're Making Progress With Your Writing Way of
One of the core beliefs of this experiment is we deserve actual tools to get unstuck, not advice on what worked for whatever famous author or some cis white business bro telling us how to have better habits. But I am sort of fascinated with the overall fascination around famous
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
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
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
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
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 "Five Whys" is an approach in which you ask and answer a "Why?" question five times to try to get at the root cause for a situation you'd like to address. It's used extensively in quality improvement in healthcare and other
I would like to read my child a book about ACT UP. I would like to read my child a book about a community needle exchange.
In 2019, things were falling apart, so I decided to write a novel about a trans man who tries to get pregnant and then things fall apart for him. His name was James. I signed up for Ariel Gore’s manuscript writing workshop and worked on it all summer. On