• Writing

    Amsterdam Part Two

    My heart is bigger and brighter in walkable cities. Ones with cobblestone streets and gray skies and brick buildings. Even in the cold and wind and mist, it’s full of life. Or maybe that’s just the espresso talking. I’ve loved this city since I was twenty-one. I’ve dreamed of her when I’ve felt lost, and I’ve missed her sparkle when I’m missing the friends I knew there. She is always in my back pocket when I need her. I am so lucky to have been able to meet her again, to reintroduce her to the woman I’ve become since we last saw each other. Somehow I am exactly the same…

    Comments Off on Amsterdam Part Two
  • Book Reviews,  Writing

    The Most Annoying Writer You Know: A Preliminary, Non-Sponsored Freewrite Alpha Review

    Hi!! Writing you this review from my Alpha itself, while I’m watching Groundhog Day. This is a very important day for my college friends and me. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about this very fun writing tool I got for myself in an attempt to become someone who actually finishes her writing projects. Now, many moons ago, in one of my first posts on this website, I wrote about all the things I love about handwriting drafts as opposed to typing them on the computer. I am very much a pro-handwriter. I love it, and it’s really the main reason I have finished as many…

    Comments Off on The Most Annoying Writer You Know: A Preliminary, Non-Sponsored Freewrite Alpha Review
  • Uncategorized

    Time for a Little ✨2024✨ Tomfoolery

    Happy January! ‘Tis the season for setting unrealistic expectations for myself. Every year–for the last handful of years, at least–I’ve set a small list of goals. I prefer to see them as GOALS and not as RESOLUTIONS. Resolution implies I need to be fixed, and we all know I’m perfect. Kidding, obviously, I’m far from it, but the notion stands. Resolutions sound like something to repair, while goals are something to work toward. All about your wording! I post these goals on my Instagram stories every January 1st. I love it. It keeps me accountable, and to me, it’s simply fun. I love setting these things up for myself, and…

    Comments Off on Time for a Little ✨2024✨ Tomfoolery
  • Writing

    real or not real?

    Today I turned down all the lights, shut the buzzing air conditioning unit off, laid on the white duvet I once found comforting and safe. I used to love the empty promises and quiet monotony of hotel rooms: beige walls and confusing light switches, dry soap bars, and thin carpet. On the inside of the blackout curtains, I could have no idea where in the world I was. It was once my favorite feeling. Long days, short nights, and seeing you in the dimly lit hotel bar, waiting for me. I never knew where it’d be, or how often. The mystery made it fun. I’d come back from a panel…

    Comments Off on real or not real?
  • Writing

    Amsterdam

    Summer was my season until I turned twenty-one. The warmth of the sun, the freedom of my daylight hours, and time poorly spent sleeping in. I loved the heat and getting sunburnt, lying still, covered in aloe until I could go around and do it all again. August Baby rules say summer is supreme. I’ve seen snowfall before, flurries and iron chill. Footprints marking my path in the powdery ground. Leaning over the back of a couch, getting lost in the swirling snowflakes as they find somewhere to stick themselves. I’ve seen April showers bring a May super bloom, a sea of orange and yellow in middle-of-nowhere California. Sunshine and…

    Comments Off on Amsterdam
  • Writing

    The Evil Jean Shorts

    TW: eating disorder She couldn’t see them. She’d buried them at the bottom of her drawer for a reason. At first because winter had fallen, and she no longer needed them. But now, they just laughed at her. They were once her best friend, through and through, these jean shorts. When every other article of clothing snickered behind her back or threatened their seams, they stood by her. Hugged her in the worst of times. But then last summer came, and she found out that they’d turned on her too. It couldn’t have been that bad of a winter, could it? What had she done to make her trusty favorite…

    Comments Off on The Evil Jean Shorts
  • Uncategorized

    Milestones are for People Who are Good at To Do Lists

    If you know about my job, you’d know that I’m pretty good at following up. Are people good at getting back to me? No. But I don’t care if I have to follow up with you six times. I will. I can be annoyingly persistent. ((Side note: dear all boys I’ve ever matched with on Hinge…not for you, sorry.)) But anyway, I’m great at the follow up. Except, I’ve been looking at some of my posts from last year, and I have a few “halfway check in” posts that never saw a part two. Most have stayed in my drafts, but there are a few plain old “recurring” type posts…

    Comments Off on Milestones are for People Who are Good at To Do Lists
  • Writing

    In This House, We Love a Good Trope

    Tropes. Tears. Tattlestar Galactica–wait, that’s not right. Look, we as writers all want to be edgy. We don’t want to lay into tropes and archetypes and the same old, same old. Things are tired, and they’re not fun because we just feel like copycats. There are so many books and movies and stories and art out there that all feel the same, but there’s still somehow so much that’s new and fresh. Honestly, how do those creators do it? Of course, there’s the whole “subverting” tropes thing. Stories exist without those kinds of things. I suppose it’s not that hard, but also…it is. That being said, you’re lying if you…

    Comments Off on In This House, We Love a Good Trope
  • Writing

    Halfway Through NaNoWriMo Check In

    Well, folks, we’re halfway through National Novel Writing Month, and I must say: what a ride it’s been so far. Not to brag but definitely to toot my own horn, I’ve hit 42,000 words as of today. Do you know how wild that is???? I do. Because let me take you on a journey of how long it’s taken me to write my other novels: 1. A little over 3 years. Started my second year of high school and finished some time in my first year of college. 2. About 2 1/2 years. Started my first year of college and finished toward the end of my third year. 3. 2-ish…

    Comments Off on Halfway Through NaNoWriMo Check In
  • Writing

    Pros and Cons: Handwriting First Drafts

    There are many different ways to write a book—I think that was clear in my Pantsing vs. Plotting post. That’s more on the process side, but there’s also what kind of devices you use to write with: computers, various programs within computers, handwriting in notebooks, an Alphasmart (thanks, Ally Carter), etc. I’ve started a few stories on my computer, but I’ve only ever finished novels (the first draft) by handwriting them. For me, it’s easier to keep track of certain things, write notes in margins, and quite frankly, it’s pretty therapeutic. I’m not opposed to writing on a computer, of course, but it’s not the long-game for me the first…

    Comments Off on Pros and Cons: Handwriting First Drafts