July began with a desperate plea for help reprioritizing my life. Thankfully, my friend Jennie Jarvis stepped in to provide some structure to my internal flailing and give me a very simple method to prioritize my time and projects: does it make money or not? I have a generous, but ultimately unhealthy habit of volunteering […]
During May when I was busily seizing opportunities, I decided it was finally time to take advantage of my alumni status and join the UCF MFA writers at the annual writing retreat at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. I had been to the ACA previously for another event, so I was already familiar with […]
This month has been built on seizing opportunities. Which is not a mode I’ve been operating in for some time. My recent modus operandi has been: See opportunity. Want opportunity. Assume I am fit for opportunity. Question all of my qualifications and abilities to fulfill opportunity. Assume someone else wants or needs opportunity more than […]
When you’re starting out in a writing career, it’s easy to look and see what’s at the top of the mountain. Publication! That goal is easy to see, and the path to that goal is easy to figure out: write a book, get an agent, get published. So, you start walking that path by working […]
My mental health plummeted over the month, so I’ve been concentrating on self-care, including what I can do to diminish the impact of the stressful, productivity-focused, anxiety- and rejection-filled life of being a writer. Here are a few ways I’ve changed behaviors to be a little kinder to myself: 1. Pass, Not Rejection Whether […]