Catapult | Don't Write Alone

Cover Photo: This illustration shows a black woman with an afro sitting at a table and writing on a laptop. She's looking at the audience. Behind her, on the wall, there's a wallpaper of romance book covers.

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.

Nichole Perkins

Feb 16, 2023

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This photograph shows two people in overalls standing by a red wall. They are holding hands and there is a pinkish tint covering the photograph.

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.

Maya MacGregor

Feb 15, 2023

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This photograph is of an open book laying flat on a table. The pages in the center of the are folded inward so they make the shape of a heart. There is an overall pink hue to the photo.

Reading Recommendations for Aspiring Romance Writers

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

The Editors

Feb 15, 2023

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a globe of the earth with constellations drawn over the top of it.

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.

Rachel León

Feb 06, 2023

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This is a collage of thee book covers against a red background. The three book covers are Natalia Ginzburg’s 'Family Lexicon,' Doris Lessing's 'The Good Terrorist,' and 'Which Side Are You On' by Ryan Lee Wong.

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.

Ryan Lee Wong

Dec 14, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

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.

Meg Dalton

Nov 23, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: A photo of a laptop, half-closed, with a hazy pink screen that casts a pink glow over the keyboard.

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.

Aditi Natasha Kini

Oct 27, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a person in a dress standing on top of a grassy hill, the sky behind them a bright blue. They are holding an old, worn traveling case in one hand.

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.

Elisa Wouk Almino

Sep 27, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This illustration is of a person doing the yoga pose "child's pose in prayer."

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.

Aditi Malhotra

Sep 22, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: A photograph of Paris Hilton, a blonde woman in a bejeweled dress, standing on a pink carpet. A large crowd of photographers crowd in front of her taking her photograph.

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.

Lyz Mancini

Aug 29, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This is a screen grab taken from the movie 'Something's Gotta Give,' in which Diane Keaton is sitting in front of a laptop bawling.

How to Write About Your Ex

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

Elizabeth Teets

Aug 22, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: An image of a person looking at a reflection in the mirror

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.

Sari Botton

Aug 18, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This photograph is a picture of a sword in a glass display case.

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?

Alisha Mughal

Aug 04, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This header image has a completely white background with a single ear in the center of the photo.

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.

Brendan McHugh

Jul 07, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: A photo of six brightly-colored spoons laid flat against a bright blue background. The spoons are arranged in alternating height—a tall one, then a short one. They are purpple, orange, blue, yellow, pink, and robin's egg blue.

On Writing with Chronic Migraines

How do you build a creative practice around chronic pain?

Yuvi Zalkow

Jun 27, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This black and white photograph shows a woman in front of a mirror. We see a side view, so we see both the woman, holding a hand over her eyes, and her reflection.

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.

Sari Botton

Jun 16, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: Photograph by Matthias Wagner/Unsplash

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.

Lindsey Danis

May 26, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: This photograph shows a hand with painted fingernails holding up a glass ball. The rest of the photograph is blurry, but through the glass ball we clearly see a row of buildings, which are flipped upside down.

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.

Aisling Walsh

May 24, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: Photograph by Marco Verch/Flickr

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.

Xi Chen

May 18, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Cover Photo: A black and white photograph of a strip of crime-scene tape. On it in all capitals are the words "crime scene do not enter." In the background are trees.

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.

Katie Gutierrez

May 12, 2022

Don’t Write Alone | Writing Life

Don’t Write Alone: Writing Life