More Creative People Should Talk About How They Pay Their Bills: Notes on Stephen King’s “On Writing”

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When I started this blog waaaaaaaay back in 2016 I’d just gotten out of grad school, where my focus had been developing myself as a writer and honing my craft.  Back then, I’d been getting a lot of advice on how to be a writer: Write every day, write in the morning when you’re fresh, research agents who’ll want to read your work, find critique partners, revise multiple drafts, and so on.

If you were to follow all of this advice to the letter and make writing the focus of your life, it would certainly add up to more than a full-time 40-hour-a-week job—though no one ever came right out and said it like that.

My problem was that while aspiring writers were ostensibly developing their crafts over this 40-hour-a-week period, how were they supposed to be earning money?  Were they supposed to be independently wealthy, so they didn’t have to work?  Were they supposed to be working a part-time job?  Or were they not actually supposed to be devoting that much time to their craft, and carving out time on evenings and weekends instead? (And if they did it during their evenings and weekends, how would they find the time for family and friend relationships???)
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I Chose a Cool Opening Quote for MFA Thesis Novel!

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I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with opening quotes on books—on the one hand, some of my favorite books start with them, and they can set the stage for the story to follow and give the background on the novel name or the author’s other thematic choices.  For example, here’s the opening of my favorite Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises, which includes not one, but two quotes:

You are all a lost generation.
– Gertrude Stein in conversation

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever… The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose… The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to its circuits… All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again.
– Ecclesiastes Continue reading »

Why Rest Matters – The Art of Rest with Claudia Hammond

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I had my mind blown the other day listening to an episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Intelligence Squared.  The episode featured an interview with Claudia Hammond, author of the book The Art of Rest, which is exactly what it sounds like.

The discussion covered what rest does for us, and how it’s different than sleep.  When we rest, we’re disconnecting from all the things we have to do, and doing something simple or enjoyable instead, anything from daydreaming to taking a hot bath.  Hammond mentioned one really important aspect of rest that made me stop and think: if you’re feeling guilty about the thing you’re doing, it’s not restful.

When I heard that I realized I often feel guilty when I take time off to do restful things, whether it’s reading, spending time with friends, relaxing, taking a walk, or playing a video game.  There’s a voice in the back of my head that tells me what I’m doing is a waste of time and that I should be spending my time on something productive.  The guilt stops me from Continue reading »