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
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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
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
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&
Five Metaphors Activity
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
The Book I Never Published
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