Don’t Write Alone: Writing Life

Once I Publish This Romance Novel, Please Don’t (Slow) Burn Me at the Stake

After being an avid romance reader for years, I’m finally writing a romance novel—and I am terrified of messing up.

Feb 16, 2023
Reading Recommendations for Aspiring Romance Writers

Don’t miss this list of reading recommendations (crowdsourced from Twitter!) for our Romance Week series.

Feb 15, 2023
Why Romance Is Important for Young Adult Readers

For our Romance Week series, Maya MacGregor reflects on literature’s unique ability to show readers that they are lovable and worthy of romance—even if the rest of the world is saying otherwise.

Feb 15, 2023
As a Writer, I Let Astrology Guide Me (Up to a Point)

Though astrology has let me down, I continue to consult the stars. I’m trying to let go of expectations while giving space for hope.

Feb 06, 2023
How to Talk Socialism with Your Fictionalized Parents

To write about my socialist family in a capitalist society necessarily means truth and lies are mixed up.

Dec 14, 2022
Writing Your Own Obituary Can Teach You How to Live

Hopefully, I’ll continue to update my own obituary for years to come—and learn something about myself along the way.

Nov 23, 2022
Writing Advice Isn’t Made for Bodies In Pain

I don’t want to participate in pain’s colonization of myself. I don’t want to write.

Translated Self

Portuguese was my first language, but it was quickly followed by English. To this day, I have the impression that when I speak in English, I bury bits of myself in the process.

Sep 27, 2022
My Writing History Is Best Told Through Handwriting

Aditi Malhotra tells us about how handwriting has been a through line in her friendships, shows how handwriting can be incorporated into a generative practice, and offers some tried-and-tested stress-relief postures for happy handwriters.

Sep 22, 2022
What Celebrity Blogging Did to My Writing Voice

On some days I’d write up to twelve posts, each snarkier than the last. The meaner I was, the more they liked me.

Aug 29, 2022
How to Write About Your Ex

I encourage everyone to write about their ex. Release them. Release yourself. Feel the peace.

Aug 22, 2022
What I Wish I Knew As a Younger Writer

For our Application Week series, Sari Botton on writing for trade publications and what advice she wished she had received.

Aug 18, 2022
Can I Be a Writer if I Can’t Speak English Idiomatically?

If English is the only language that I can claim proficiency in, shouldn’t I be able to speak and write it idiomatically and well, even if it’s not my first language?

Aug 04, 2022
Writing as a Person of the Ear

How I’ve learned to write about my own experiences documenting the AIDS/HIV crisis as an oral historian.

Jul 07, 2022
On Writing with Chronic Migraines

How do you build a creative practice around chronic pain?

Jun 27, 2022
After Fifteen Years, I Stopped Panicking, Started Declawing, and Finally Published My Memoir

At last, I took my teachers’ and mentors’ advice, and scrutinized my own behavior more than anyone else’s.

Jun 16, 2022
How Stand-Up Comedy Helped Me Craft a Public Writer Persona

Writing my first jokes, I’d replaced my anxieties over the public-facing demands of an author career with a greater willingness to show up and be seen.

May 26, 2022
Finding My Authentic Voice as a Late-Diagnosed Autistic Writer

I had always used writing to try and make sense of myself, without realizing just how much of this was a way of processing a divergent experience of the world.

May 24, 2022
I Went to Medical School and Came Out a Writer

Literature and medicine are not opposed pursuits but rather one in the same endeavor to find sense in messy, human stories.

May 18, 2022
Can Fiction Help Solve the Ethical Problems of True Crime?

True crime wants us to believe that our monsters are individual, not systemic—the errant serial killer rather than a violent and inequitable culture.

May 12, 2022