In her essay titled “A Practical Memoir about Writing and Life,” Ann Patchett compares the creative process to pinning a butterfly specimen into a collection that will be mounted on the wall and displayed. I love this metaphor for creative writing. It all starts with a beautiful idea. Then, you attempt to put the idea…

When I’m writing and/or editing (I know, I’m not supposed to be doing those two things at once, but I never did like following directions), it can be difficult to cut out that less-than-perfect sentence, paragraph, or quip. I’d like to share my solution for this unique form of separation anxiety. I have a “Kill…

Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month, is an event in which writers challenge themselves to write an entire novel in one month every November. That’s 1667 words per day. It can be torture, but we’re writers. We like torture. I made a couple of failed attempts at Nanowrimo in 2015 and 2016 before finally succeeding…