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July 16, 2018Why It’s Okay If You Haven’t Finished Your First Book Yet
I thought I would finish my first novel by the time I turned 25.I laugh at the absurdity of that now. But in my early 20s, I believed it when people told me that anything was possible with hard work and ...
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February 28, 2016
Why Some of the Best Writers I Know Aren't Publishing
Some of the best writers I know are relatively unpublished. They might have a story out here or there, or maybe write professionally in another genre, but they aren’t actively trying to pursue a publisher ...
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November 28, 2022
Why TV is Good for You
If your mother was like my mother, you were told to turn off the television as a child (in my case, Family Ties or Miami Vice or Murder She Wrote or. . .) and pick up a book. Any book. Because everyone ...
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July 11, 2019Why We Need to Celebrate All Our Writing Milestones – Even the Small Ones
A few years ago, I got an offer to purchase a small personal finance blog that I ran. The buyer agreed to the amount that I asked for – only there was a catch. They would give me a third of the money ...
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February 02, 2021Why We Need to Question “Hobbies” in the Pandemic
On a rainy Thursday morning at the end of January 2021, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling for far too long... I couldn’t remember what I had done in 2020. I remember the past couple of years clearly: ...
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October 15, 2015
Why Writers Need to Talk About Work
Like a lot of people out there, I used to think that anyone who had a book published must be “making it” as a full-time writer. I didn’t wonder how much they might actually be making, just assumed ...
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February 17, 2016
Why Writers Should Be Reading Works in Translation or Part 1 of The Extravagant JT Reading Plan Never to Be Started or Completed
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about reading because I’ve rekindled that love. I go through phases with reading, as I guess most of do, usually dependent on how engrossed I am in my own projects. ...
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October 05, 2015
Why You Need a Creative Manifesto (And How to Write Your Own)
I wrote my first creative manifesto in 2011, inspired by author and blogger Justine Musk’s own efforts to do the same after she wrote about the competition for a writer’s attention these days.It isn’t ...
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July 31, 2019Why you should re-read books
I am a big reader, but I am an even bigger re-reader. Yes, I have a mountainous stack of to be read books, but I believe that it’s important to my writing practice—and to my basic existence—to dive ...
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October 24, 2015
Why Your Book Doesn't Really Need a Launch Party
A couple of years ago, I finally admitted something to myself:I hate organizing launch parties.Like, completely just no.I love coming up with ideas for them. I love talking about them. I love making posters ...
