Wild Words

Writing in the margins isn’t just the actual time captured, it’s also the belief that these micro-moments add up to something. In Part 1 of our liminal space series, we discussed the “sacred pause,” Part 2 covered how to approach liminal seasons as a vacation from writing, and today we explore re-entry. What happens after we’ve moved through a pause, a break, or liminal season but also find the same schedules and demands waiting for us? 

Conversation Starters

“Big shifts are harder to achieve and make sustainable long-term, so pick one, maybe two things to start with and see what happens when you prioritize your writing again with both your energy AND your time.”

Episode Highlights

• How I moved through creative liminal space in 2023

• Experiments to reconnect to your writing practice

• Why writing magazines can help you feel connected

• What’s happened since making micro-shifts to prioritize writing

Let’s Connect

After spending three weeks away from home this winter (more on why in the episode), it got me thinking about how we spend time off from our writing routines, and how to approach it when we do. This episode is full of real-time insights on preparing for a break, including suggestions for mindfully setting expectations and cultivating curiosity along the way. 

Episode Highlights

• What *not* to do when you’re preparing for a break or vacation

• How to set realistic expectations

• 6 things to try when you’re out of your regular writing routine

• My biggest takeaways from three weeks away from home

Let’s Connect

In a world driven by doing, pausing can feel lazy, inaccessible, and scary. Most of us know that rest is important, but often find ourselves caught between what our bodies are telling us and the cultural expectations we’re pushing up against. It’s a lot to navigate, and takes time to soften into. In Part 1 of a 3-part series on liminal space and creative pauses, hear the wisdom from three writers who have approached this in different ways, plus a handful of practical suggestions for embracing this energy in daily life. 

Conversation Starters

“I had intentionally brought no distractions: no email, no books, no articles to read, no doing-things, no podcasts, no small or big work tasks, no lists, no organizing intentions, nothing. That was it. It sounds easy. It wasn’t.” —author Molly Caro May on her recent sabbatical 

Episode Highlights

• 3 authors on how pausing has impacted their creativity

• Reflections from book burnout, starting a brand new book, and planned sabbaticals

• The attachment between worth and productivity

• Practical suggestions for embracing the pause in daily life

Linkable Mentions

Welcome to a new season of Wild Words! I’ve recently completed my seasonal reflection ritual, and am sharing my process to support your writing practice too. We’re covering what came up in winter, the books I’m looking forward to reading, what my writing life looks right now, plus a few podcast updates. 

Episode Highlights

• How a reflection ritual supports your writing practice

• Why wintering doesn’t always mean not writing

• The books I’m excited to read this spring

• 8 questions to ask yourself as you head into a new season

Linkable Mentions

Learning what makes your brain and body feel supported and safe is an act of self-love. With a spirit of experimentation, this episode offers a variety of ways to soothe your nervous system, tune in to what feels good, and prioritize rest on a daily basis.

Episode Highlights

• Why experimentation is a key to understanding your nervous system

• The easiest type of breathwork to try

• Which types of books are the most relaxing to read

• Why rewatching old sitcoms can help your body integrate

• A pitch for touching trees

• The essential oils I can’t live without

Linkable Mentions

Surprise! After a year of consideration, I’ve officially moved my newsletter to Substack and this episode is the audio version of my first official post. From my brief history in the entrepreneurial world (hello, burnout) to the slow and methodical steps I’ve taken to simplify how I show up (and where), we’re talking about what it means to be a writer online today.

Episode Highlights

• The mistakes I made when pursuing and online business

• 4 reasons it took me so long to stop doing all the things

• How Substack supports my decision to embrace ease

• Why paying for a newsletter service was less about the money and more about keeping my body in survival mode

Linkable Mentions

Every November, writers from around the world commit to writing daily for 30 days, with the goal of generating  50,000 words of a new novel. National Novel Writing Month has enormous potential for helping us make progress, but not everyone feels comfortable with the parameters. If you have a new project you’re itching to make progress on, the concept of NaNoWriMo can be useful, but it’s not one size fits all.

Episode Highlights

• The benefits of participating in NaNoWriMo

• Why poets and memoirists (not just novelists) should consider it as a tool

• How to customize the experience to work for your current season

• Why writing 1,600 words per day doesn’t work for everyone (and what to try instead)

• Public and private accountability ideas

• Schedule tweaks that fit into your day

Linkable Mentions

My guest today is Tiffany Clarke Harrison and we’re talking about the shadow side of publication—something many writers experience but rarely discuss publicly. While it’s normal to experience self-doubt, comparison, anxiety, and feeling like you want to crawl into a hole a couple of weeks before your book comes out, we often meet ourselves with shame, believing that we should simply be grateful for the opportunity. But what we really need is to offer tender compassion, and get in the habit of expanding our capacity for joy long before launch day. 

Episode Highlights

• Why paying attention to how our body feels in different situations is the first step to preparing yourself for publication

• Recognizing and avoiding the shame spiral of “I should be grateful” in the midst of “this also feels scary”

• A 7-word mantra we can use during publication (or anytime!) you’re heading into a visible season

• The importance of expanding our capacity for joy long before books are released

• The play-by-play experience of finding out Obama chose her book for his summer reading list (and why she was ready to experience it)

• Why choosing presence is a gift to yourself and your nervous system

• The difference between bragging and celebrating your work

Meet Tiffany

Tiffany Clarke Harrison is an author, author mentor/book coach, and intuitive introvert whose blood runs thick with feelings and beauty and purpose: writing stories that reflect what it means to be human, and guiding authors of literary fiction to do the same. She writes about feelings: the ones that feel good, the ones that don’t, and definitely the ones you don’t want anyone to know. She graduated from Queens University of Charlotte with her MFA in fiction, and her novel, Blue Hour, was listed as one of the best books of 2023 by Vulture and made Barack Obama’s 2023 summer reading list. 

Links:

Ever since Substack came on the scene, writers have flocked to the platform which claims to be a social media alternative that supports writers getting paid for their work. But is it something all authors should use? If you’re Substack curious, trying to decide whether or not to host your newsletter there, or just want some thoughtful ways to think through the decision, don’t miss this episode.

Episode Highlights:

• What Substack is (and isn’t)

• Pros and cons of using the platform

• Deciding when to turn on paid subscriptions

• Soulful questions to mull over as you decide where to show up online

• How running a paid Substack is impacting my decision to use it now

Linkable Mentions

With a new season upon us, the time is ripe for considering new routines. On this episode we’re talking about the transition from summer to fall, including why it can feel more intense (especially for sensitive souls). I’m sharing six categories of routine I’m currently thinking about—including beverages and literary journal submissions—to give you ideas to play with and inspiration to take with you into the cooler days ahead.

Episode Highlights

• Why fall can bring up lots of big feelings

• An essential question to ask during this transition time

• 6 ways to embrace the new season

• The calm that comes from cleaning

• The one ritual I recommend to everyone (and it only takes 10 minutes a day)

Linkable Mentions

As much as we long for time to rest and afternoons to daydream, the reality can sometimes be… uncomfortable. After taking the summer to pause, I’m sharing four lessons I came away with, including why I almost thought this experiment was a bad idea, the project I dusted off and completed in a single weekend, and more.

Episode Highlights

• On creating pauses any time of year

• What to do when new ideas come rushing through

• How much work it really takes to create white space

• Why white space can feel uncomfortable 

Linkable Mentions

Nature expands and contracts, and so do we. It’s normal to experience periods of needing more rest, longing for time off after completing a big project, or craving the freedom to write in our journals without worrying about what the words might (or should) become. But because we’re conditioned to link our productivity to self-worth, we’re not always practiced in the art of releasing.  Join me as we explore what it looks like to offer ourselves more spaciousness, how to take intentional pauses, and why it’s essential to honor our personal and creative needs in any season. 

Episode Highlights

• White space on the page vs. white space in our creative lives

• A personal update on why my life was put on pause this spring

• Why nature isn’t productive 24/7 (and we shouldn’t be either)

• Struggling with resistance when taking time to rest

• My 4-step process for cultivating white space in any season

Linkable Mentions

Cheryl Wilder and I met four years ago at a writing conference, and I'm so excited to share our conversation to celebrate National Poetry Month! Cheryl’s collection, Anything That Happens, centers around the aftermath of a car crash that she caused in her early twenties. From spending the night in jail to becoming a mother, these poems explore relationships in all their forms—with parents, friends, and ourselves—through the backdrop of shame, self-worth, and forgiveness. We’ve all had moments in life when we’ve made a mistake or wish something turned out differently, and this conversation proves it’s possible to move from the depths of shame to the redemption of self-forgiveness. 

Episode Highlights:

• How a set of car keys changed the trajectory of her life

• Why she didn’t feel she deserved to write for 7 years (and how she found her way back)

• How writing a memoir first became another step in the writing and healing process

• A writing mantra she lives by

• The both/and of denying herself joy while simultaneously wanting to help others

• The decision to shift from writing a memoir to crafting a collection of poetry

• How her body informs her daily writing practice

• The secret to writing while raising young children

Meet Cheryl:

High sensitivity is a term coined by Elaine Aron who wrote The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You, and refers to how deeply you perceive and respond to the world, both your physical and emotional environments. The more deeply your brain processes information, the more sensitive you are. Sensitivity is a fundamental human trait (we’re all sensitive to some degree), but those with a higher degree of sensitivity experience and process the world differently. As creatives, this can be powerful, but it also means we need extra tending, rest, and recovery time. Tune in to learn more about thriving as an HSP writer, and how to support yourself along the way. 

Episode Highlights:

• The acronym that makes it easier to understand the HSP trait

• How much of your sensitivity is genetic vs. the environment you were raised in

• 8 signs you might be an HSP

• My personal journey to embracing sensitivity

• 5 ways you might encounter sensitivity in your writing life (and how to work with it)

Linkable Mentions:

Anger. Disgust. Shame. Envy. These are the kinds of shadow emotions that today’s guest, Jennifer Arnspiger, loves to explore through the embodied practice of somatic journaling. As she shares in the episode, “so many sensitive people grow up feeling faulty somehow, or like they’re broken” when in fact, the opposite is true. This is the kind of journaling practice that helps you write your way back to worthiness, peel back layers of buried feelings, and release them from your body so you can relate to the stories you’ve told yourself about them in new ways. At its core, somatic journaling is a practice that helps cultivate self-trust and self-love, and break the cycle of self-abandonment that exists when we deny ourselves the truth of our experience.

Episode Highlights

• How a lifelong love affair with words (and ending a narcissistic relationship) led Jennifer to discover the power of somatic journaling
• The connection between high sensitivity and somatic journaling
• The difference between somatic writing (that comes from behind your belly button) versus cerebral writing (that comes from the brain)
• Suggestions for titrating between different types of writing styles when working with trauma, and recommendations for getting the most out of the experience
• Why you never need to be afraid of what you’ll find when you start journaling
• Metaphors involving lobsters, swimming pools, and onions
• How somatic journaling helps unravel our shame stories and cultivates self-trust
• 4 prompts to get you started with somatic journaling today

Meet Jennifer:

Jennifer Arnspiger is the author of the memoir Dark Pretty, short story collection Pretty Piece of Flesh and @highlysensitivehealing, the thriving Instagram community for the intense and sensitive. She specializes in helping deeply sensitive women resolve old trauma stories so they can find their peace and their power. A somatic journaling coach, shadow worker and writer, she is the creator of Body Story, a self-paced shadow journaling program that helps sensitive women liberate repressed emotions and resolve old trauma energy so they can finally feel peace inside their skin. She dreams of living in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Links:

It’s estimated that we make approximately 226 decisions every day on food alone, and the average adult makes 35,000 decisions daily. So what’s a writer to do when she has 30 minutes to herself and fourteen different ideas, or she’s too tired to focus on any of it? Today we’re exploring a listener question about decision fatigue and how to be responsive to your life and energy without undermining the work you hope to do.

Episode Highlights

• The relationship between decision fatigue, indecisiveness, and burnout
• 1 simple question to help clarify your writing priorities
• How larger systems around productivity, time, and urgency influence decision fatigue
• My favorite exercise for getting to the heart of where to put my time and energy
• Getting back to basics in our writing life

Linkable Mentions

Do you use December 31 as a deadline for planning your hopes and dreams in the new year? Me too. But I didn't get to it over the holidays, so instead of being hard on myself, I'm believing that my reflections are right on time. Plus, instead of focusing on what didn’t work in 2022, I’m sharing what did. Turns out, New Year’s Eve is entirely arbitrary and rituals like this one can happen anytime.

Episode Highlights

• 9 things that worked for me in 2022
• Why I made specific choices around my newsletter, my weekly planner, and even my library holds
• The movement that makes me feel grounded and energized
• How to do this reflection practice yourself (it only takes 5 minutes)

Linkable Mentions

“It’s helpful to remember that I can look to the natural world at any moment, on any day, and see that nature doesn’t skip any phase, any season, any step of the cycle—and that I have permission to do the same.” Winter is the season we’re most likely to resist, yet it’s an essential part of the creative process. Whether you’re tracking your menstrual cycle, following the earth’s seasons, or turning towards the phases of the moon, winter is all about rest, integration, and slowing down. In today’s conversation, Sister Seasons founder Rebecca Magee shares how embracing winter can help heal yourself (and the world).

Meet Rebecca:

Rebecca Magee is a creative entrepreneur, facilitator, and teacher focused on the intersection of gender equity and climate justice. Her background blends the study of women’s leadership and health with an extensive career in environmental sustainability, social impact, and philanthropy. As founder of Sister Seasons, Rebecca guides women and menstruators to restore their well-being and our planet’s through cycle awareness practices, and partners with organizations seeking to empower menstruators to lead on climate without burning out.

Welcome to Season 4! We’re starting the new year with conversations that embrace rest, winter, and taking it slow. 

Episode Highlights

• How I’m producing the podcast differently this season
• An update on my memoir project (including why I cried and laughed at the same time)
• How I’m embracing flow even though I resist it
• Themes we’ll be exploring in Season 4
• Five words to remember as we start the new year

Linkable Mentions

In our very last episode of Season 3, I’m actually combining two seasons: The Season of Beginnings and The Season of Finishing. The reason I mashed these two together is because I’ve noticed that in the pandemic, beginnings and endings have been a fluid, permeable experience. The lines aren’t as defined, and in order to get from the beginning to the end of a project, it requires a lot of time floating in the messy middle, which is mostly what we’ll be talking about today.

There’s a real difference energetically between what’s required to do the work of writing and what’s required to share and expand that work. Today we’re talking about The Season of Visibility not only in the most obvious ways (like pitching your novel to an agent or spending time on social media) but also more subtle variations. Plus, what it’s been like to watch authors promote their books on Zoom for a year and a half.

We’re continuing our exploration of the creative seasons viewed through the lens of the pandemic. The Season of Retreating has been an interesting season one to both observe and experience throughout the last couple of years, in part because there are a variety of permutations and ways to interpret what retreating means. Today, we’re chatting (mostly) about social media.

At the beginning of the pandemic, many of us bought home gym equipment and doubled down on exercise as a way to minimize stress. The Season of Listening to Your Body showed up in big ways, but beneath the surface, our nervous systems were on overdrive. This episode explores how the nervous system impacts your writing life and how to partner with it in new ways.

Today’s conversation explores The Season of Liminal Space. It’s a vast topic, and in the context of the pandemic, I’m sharing four elements of the season I’ve noticed most profoundly in the past two years:

1. Recognizing and making space for grief
2. Adopting new schedules and routines
3. Being comfortable with discomfort (or at least trying to be)
4. Re-Entry and considering a post-liminal space experience

If you’d told me I’d be writing a memoir during a global pandemic, I wouldn’t have believed you. But that’s what happened. I had big plans at the beginning of 2020, and then we all know what happened. Today we’re talking about The Season of Going Back in Time, which can take on different shapes depending on where you are in your writing life. Today we’re talking about how my original understanding of this season shifted during the pandemic, and how to thoughtfully approach memoir.

Every writer is intimately acquainted with The Season of Self-Doubt, and one of its biggest triggers is comparison. We’re so good at comparing our writing journeys, our book sales, our successes, and turning our own narrative into one of not doing enough. This self-induced shame cycle is perpetuated, in part, by social media, but what if this shadow side has something to teach us? Today I’m sharing my own experience with this season, the benefits of understanding your creative process (plus ideas for how to get started), as well as a favorite exercise for cultivating self-trust.

Our exploration of seasonal creative living through the lens of the pandemic begins, so it feels appropriate to start with The Season of Discontent. Writers can arrive here anytime, but the covid era is perhaps the most obvious manifestation of how discontent—marked by one defining trait: blaming outside forces for your inability to create—can impact our writing life. Today we’re talking about what the season of discontent is, how to move through it, and ways to support yourself when experiencing creative burnout.

The Wild Words Podcast is back! After a two-year pause, today’s episode serves as an introduction to Season 3’s theme: seasonal creative living through the lens of the global pandemic. We're discussing how a routine doctor’s appointment reminded me why it's important to tell our pandemic stories and what the film Under the Tuscan Sun has to do with reviving the podcast. Plus, I’m sharing four important boundaries I implemented that allowed me to produce the show again.

Welcome back to the Wild Words podcast! In Season 3, we're exploring the seasons of a writer's life through the lens of the global pandemic. 

It’s not an understatement to say that the past two years have changed everything. Most writers I know, myself included, had to make drastic changes to their routines and expectations, and most of us are still trying to find a way back to ourselves and our work. 

I’ll be sharing insights from my own writing life these past couple of years, as well as observations from the collective, plus encouragement for navigating the ebbs and flows of creativity with plenty of self-compassion along the way.

I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to record this episode, but I snuck in some time to share my thoughts about how to navigate creativity during coronavirus. Spoiler (although it’ll be no big surprise if you’ve been around long enough): my suggestions include doing a lot less, releasing expectations, wrapping up projects, and clearing the decks. This is all temporary, but we have to support ourselves in *this moment*.

If you’re a blogger, can you blog less frequently? Sending a weekly newsletter? Make it every other week (or monthly!). Producing a podcast? Maybe end the season early. Drafting your novel? Keep going, but remove the pressure. Writing 1,000 words per day? Try 250.

Basically, it’s time for a radical reorganization of our time and energy. Some of this will force our hand in ways that are endlessly frustrating. We won’t be able to meet the page as frequently, or give our characters undivided attention. Yet within these daily discomforts, we might have the opportunity to feel out what we truly need, step away from a piece, only to return with fresh eyes, make way for something new we might not have expected.

• An update on what’s working for me (and what’s not)
• Three important questions to ask yourself right now
• Which creative seasons are most present in this period
• Why I decided to end Season 2 of the podcast early

What happens when you achieve a dream, then want to change your life? Writer Sonia Ruyts answered this question—and waded through liminal space—when she decided to close her brick-and-mortar yarn shop to pursue writing. On today’s episode she shares fresh ideas for establishing consistency in your writing practice, how she navigates self-doubt, the exercise she always starts her writing day with, and the intersection between slow fashion and creativity.

Sonia Ruyts holds a BA in Theatre from the College of Idaho. She is a former pastry chef and yarn shop owner who has returned to her first love: writing. Sonia explores themes of identity, loss, and transformation in her nonfiction writing and is currently at work on her first collection of essays. Sonia lives with her wife and two children—and their ever-expanding collection of pets—in the Pacific Northwest.

Connect:

Did you know what you wanted to do after college? Neither did writer Kate Spring. My guest today took a winding path to becoming a farmer in Vermont, and today she’s running a farm, raising a family, and figuring out (through trial and error) the grounding practices that make it possible for her to return to the soil and the page year after year.

Kate Spring is a writer and organic farmer at Good Heart Farmstead.  She’s here to help you grow the organic farm or garden you dream of, and cultivate a flourishing creative practice.  Because creativity is as essential as food.

Connect:

Have you ever wanted to write a children’s book? Heidi Fiedler has worked on more than 300 titles, and she’s an approachable and insightful resource on both the magical and business elements of writing for children. In our chat, Heidi shares the unique relationship between stories and illustrations that you only find in children’s books, the most important practice to build into your writing process that will help you grow (besides writing, of course), and how she quiets her inner editor.

We’re conditioned to do more—more blogging, more guest posting, more podcasting, more newsletter writing, more publishing, more speaking—but what if there was another way to get where we want to go? In 2016, a stack of sticky notes and an empty wall helped me decide what to do next creatively. Today I’m walking you through this simple exercise, and sharing how an essentialist mindset (aka “less but better”) can improve your writing life.

• How a stack of sticky notes and an empty wall helped me decide which creative project to pursue next
• An exercise to get clarity on what to write (and why)
• Why the popular  question “Where do you see yourself in five years?” is the wrong approach for navigating your writing life

Do you really need an MFA? No, but you do need a framework for making progress. DIY MFA is a book and community created by author, speaker, and entrepreneur Gabriela Pereira. We chat about the key pillars—write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community—and tackle topics like self-doubt, guilt, and how to survive conferences as an introvert.

Gabriela Pereira is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur who wants to challenge the status quo of higher education. As the founder and instigator of DIYMFA.com, her mission is to empower writers, artists and other creatives to take an entrepreneurial approach to their education and professional growth. Gabriela earned her MFA in writing from The New School and speaks at college campuses and national conferences. She is also the host of DIY MFA Radio, a popular podcast where she interviews bestselling authors and book industry professionals and author of the book DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community.

Connect:

Big dreams are popular these days. Write the bestseller! Speak in front of thousands! Get 1 million downloads! How about we take a hard pass and focus on our inner knowing instead? The fear of missing out (aka FOMO) is a powerful force in our creative lives, but when we intentionally choose small (like serving the audience we already have) and focus on staying present, it’s a lot easier to weather self-doubt when it arrives.

• Two writing dreams of mine that have never materialized (and why I’m OK with it)
• A quick exercise to figure out what you really want
• The self-doubt spiral I experienced a few months before Wild Words was published

Every book, story, or poem has a point of entry. What are yours? Inspired by Jane Hirshfield’s poem “The Envoy,”—“there are openings in our lives of which we know nothing”— we’re starting Season 2 with an exploration of origin stories. I’m sharing a few of mine, with suggestions for accessing even more awareness in your own writing life.

• How Jane Hirshfield’s poem “The Envoy” inspired a trip down memory lane
• Why we should write down the thoughts we have in the middle of the night
• A story that didn’t make it into the Eat This Poem cookbook after all
• How to cultivate awareness in our writing life

Every December there are two things I like to do to support my creativity in the year ahead: conduct a writing annual review, and choose a word for the year.

• How I adapted a corporate ritual for my creative life
• Why writers need to become their own director of HR
• The #1 thing I recommend doing when trying to make space for writing
• How to choose a word for the year (and why you should)

Media bombards us every second of every day. With so much noise stimulating our brains, nervous systems, and hearts, how might we return to ourselves? The answer, in part, is rewilding. My guest today is writer Lily Diamond, who shares her take on the essential practice of remembering who we are, and offers suggestions for how to cope with the world around us.

Today’s guest is Andi Cumbo-Floyd, a writer and editor from Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. She’s written 11 books—10 are self-published—so we talked about the learning curve, self-publishing tips, how to promote your book, what to share in a writing newsletter, and what Andi would do differently if she were just starting out today. Andi also shares a big life decision she recently made that helped her make more space to write.

My work isn’t good enough. No one but me cares about what I have to say. People will think the story is true. I’ll be judged. I’m not original. These are real fears from real writers, and on today’s episode I’m tackling them one by one, offering suggestions for how to reframe our thinking when self-doubt holds us back.

• 5 fears voiced by writers in my community
• What Ruth Reichl can teach us about imposter syndrome
• How a bookstore in Maine helped me see the bigger picture
• How to play out your worst case scenarios

If you’re an introvert with a book to promote (hello, Season of Visibility!), how can you share your message without burning out? That’s the question I’ve been working to answer for the past several months. Learn the three areas I’m focusing on this time around, plus recommendations and reminders for the introverts among us.

• The three areas I’m focusing on for book promotion
• How I approach book launches so I don’t burn out
• Why I haven’t scheduled any out-of-state events … yet
• Something I used to believe about publishing (that I don’t anymore)
• What finishing a book is really about

Writers like to stay behind the screen, but part of our work requires getting out there and embodying The Season of Visibility. If you’re feeling unsteady, Sonja Overhiser is a writer worth knowing. She’s built a creative business with her husband, Alex, and today she’s sharing tips for surviving live television spots, why she hired a publicist (even though she had a traditional book deal), and how writing helped her cope with a difficult adoption journey.

If sending your work into the world makes you feel simultaneously elated and anxious, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, rejection is par for the course in the writer’s life, but I believe there are some tangible ways we can navigate it with more grace and less of an impact to our sensitive writer’s heart.

• My reaction to a 1-star book review
• How to view our fear from a more expansive vantage point
• 6 things to do when your work is rejected

LINKABLE MENTIONS

After finishing her manuscript for Motherland, author Elissa Altman posted a hard truth about the writer’s life on Instagram: doing this work can take a physical toll on your body. Our conversation explores this important topic, including how she’s putting her body back together again after finding it left in shards from the emotional writing process.

ELISSA ALTMAN is the critically acclaimed author of Poor Man's Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking and the James Beard Award-winning blog of the same name and Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The New York Times, Tin House, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, LitHub, Saveur, and The Washington Post, where her column, Feeding My Mother, ran for a year. She has been anthologized in Best Food Writing six times. A finalist for the Frank McCourt Memoir Prize, Altman has taught the craft of memoir at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, The Loft Literary Center, 1440 Multiversity, Ireland's Literature and Larder Program, and has appeared live on stage at TEDx and The Public, on Heritage Radio, and NPR. She lives in Connecticut with her family.

Navigating a love/hate relationship with social media? You’re not alone. This episode explores how you can use social media intentionally to enhance your writing career without draining your creative energy. I’m sharing some of the benefits of using social media for your writing life, what prompted me to take a 30-day social media break, 10 questions to help you understand the heart of your social media use, and five tips for showing up while still keeping your sanity.

• My social media origin story dating back to 2006
• 4 benefits of using social media as a creative
• The book that reframed my thinking around social media
• Permanent changes I made in my social media life after taking a 30-day break
• 10 questions to ask before taking a social media break
• 5 ways to be more mindful about your relationship to social media