A recent milestone: I fleshed out a complete plot line for my novel! And it’s awesome and messy and written by hand (don’t worry, I immediately took photos of the curling pages so that it’d be preserved somewhere). It’ll probably all change around in another month or so, when I’m frustrated by the middle scenes […]
A snippet of Lynda Barry‘s inspiring book What It Is. If you’re curious what the best way is to announce your already-obvious absence, I would recommend writing a journal-style blog post. Here’s my take on it. Working two jobs came to a head for me this month; when my body was in one place, my […]
I have recently been entertained by a phrase my friend Jess told me, quoting another poet, “If you are too consumed by grief and have to watch bad TV shows, then you are with your ancestors.” Glad to know that my ancestors are not disappointed in me for watching days and days of House on […]
“How do you honor people in your pieces?” I asked two different poets these past few weeks. I’ve been struggling with this question as I think about writing and publishing more publicly. I always have ownership over my own stories, even when they include other people – family members, friends, and people who look suspiciously […]
When you’re a kid, you cherry-pick the best stories about your family to make them seem grand. I’m still seduced by the tales of immediate family having hijacked trains and defected from the army, given the first contraception lessons in the village or immigrating across multiple continents. As a result, some of my own life […]
Yesterday, I mentioned that one method of celebrating the day-to-day is to take notes. This advice was first introduced to me by Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird. The first time I read it, the message didn’t necessarily sink in – what was I going to do with the mountain of notecards/notebooks/computer files […]
Yesterday, I watched a lot of TED Talk. TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design) brings me many inspiring videos of their conference speakers, such as the ones I’ve posted below. But I wanted to take this post and talk about something that I often overlook when seeking inspiration: finding things in myself that are inspiring.Oftentimes, I […]
In the last week or so, I have decided.Yes, decisions were made. Big and small, long-term and short-term… but all in the name of rejuvenating my motivation. And, thankfully, it seems to be coming back (yippee!). So let’s see what some of them are… 1. Junk food detox – currently, I am on day 3 […]
The messages from The Universe really keep me going.I get them in my email and I think that everyone else should too – because they’re just alternative to what you often hear with the little “words of wisdom” you see once in a while and just stop believing. Today the message was: ‘See through the […]