Stretch, Run and Cheer the Murakami and Tudor Way: “If Only Virginia Woolf Had Done Yoga”

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Stop thinking about others as competition. It’s hard sometimes to ignore what others are doing, but nobody’s path is the same. Continue reading →

Post-MFA Writers Facebook, Hobbify and Goof Off

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Join Facebook even if it scares the living hell out of you. Keep in touch with your lit gang. Make some new lit and non-lit friends. Let people into your writing life. It makes it less lonely. Continue reading →

Got My MFA. Now What?

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I did it because I didn’t just want to be someone with an MFA, I wanted to be someone with a shelf of books and short stories and screenplays with my name on them.

The fact is you will be much grumpier if you don’t write than if you do. You’ll feel better after you’ve written. Continue reading →

Writers Write, Submit and Make Nice with Rejection

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Sure, you’re going to submit work before you’re ready, but that is okay. Keep submitting work. New work. Re-revised work. Whatever. Work on it, make it the best you can, have more than one piece going out, and GO. Continue reading →

Post-MFA Survival Guide Part 1: Read Lit Mags

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It does make me want to get a little smacky-smacky when I hear writers say, in whispered tones, “I don’t really read literary magazines.” Well, that’s a problem. The fact is there is a lit mag for everyone—slipstream, genre-based, anything and everything. Continue reading →