Erika Writes: I would love to be able to do a wrap up for the year, but to be honest, I haven’t kept track of enough of what I’ve watched, listened to or read this year. I’ll save that for next year, perhaps when there’s a full year of posts to reflect on. Looking Back…
Category: A Piece of Our Minds
Banned Books Redux?
New Book Bannings A couple of months ago, during Banned Books Week, I wrote that banning books is really about protecting fragile adults, not children. Since then, it seems like there’s been an explosion of efforts to restrict access to books, especially books about queer topics. My own school district in Florida has dealt with…
Your New Year’s Writing Resolution
So you want to start writing. Maybe you’ve tried other New Year’s Resolutions in the past and they haven’t stuck–or they have! Maybe you’ve tried more health-related ones or career-related ones. A New Year’s Resolution to write more is a wonderful thing. Cynic that I am, I think it’s a nice idea to take stock…
Mental Health Before Writing
Self-Care For a Disabled Writer I wouldn’t be the writer I am if it weren’t for the particular set of challenges that I have. The one who writes about my own difficult truths, one who tries to do it with sensitivity and compassion for the people who are reading it. I frequently forget to extend…
Watch/Listen/Read
Erika Writes: Shakespeare, Sedaris, and Such This week did not start out with anything as remarkable as last week’s ugly crying. It actually began with a birthday celebration for one of my kids. Beyond that, I’ve been trying to keep myself distracted because I had expected to hear about something very important on Wednesday only…
The Third “Rule”: Writing Groups
Are There Really Only 2 Rules of Writing? The short answer is: Yes. The long answer is: Well… Shall we get into it? The reason we start with 2 rules of writing is that I want the word ‘rule’ to mean something. It’s not a helpful hint; it’s not a suggestion. If you do this,…
Expectations: When will I be a “Writer”?
So, this happened: Last Monday, as I was making last minute edits to the piece about writing and ADHD, I got an email. That day, my ADHD felt extra strong and everything that could distract me did. It was no surprise that I stopped what I was doing and immediately went and looked at my…
Watch/Listen/Read
Welcome to this week’s Watch/Listen/Read post where Adam and I (and this week’s writers if they choose to,) share with you what we’ve been watching, listening to, and reading during the week. If you would like to write for us but are feeling uneasy about sending in a work of fiction, poetry, etc., contributing to…
Give Yourself Permission to Write
This is a topic that’s dear to my heart. People are likely to look at me (on paper) and think there’s no way I could be experiencing impostor syndrome about my writing. I’m over 450 manuscript pages into a novel. I finished and submitted a 300-page dissertation in 2019 and was granted the degree of…
But I Can’t Do That?
Writing with ADHD I’ve been watching the clock this weekend, knowing I had to get something finished so it would be ready to post today (Monday). I was working on one piece for this blog and another piece that isn’t quite right for this blog, although it might be in the future. I did spend…