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My great grandmother had a German Shepherd by the name of Śmigły-Rydz. The dog was shipped from Germany to Manatí, Puerto Rico, already trained and ready to be a helper in her house. The dog was named after a prominent Polish politician and army leader, who was also a painter and poet. When my mother told me this story, I found it to be a curious tidbit of familial folklore. Nothing more. But as I ruminated on the story, a German Shepherd arriving to a Caribbean town, a dog t

Some may say I have writer's block. Lately, I don't feel as inspired as I usually do. I spend more time reading than doing any other writing related activity. I attempt an outline and find myself intrigued by multiple directions a story could take. Perhaps she discovers her husband is having an affair. Perhaps she discovers her husband is having an affair with a python hunter. Perhaps her husband's python hunting paramour is actually someone trying to get close to the main ch

A writer's life can be a solitary one. Most, if not all, of our creative process is done alone. Our minds become a companion, a steadfast ally, or even, a more visceral adversary. With enough solitude, a writer becomes their own worst enemy. The inner critic starts bench pressing 250 and never misses leg day, dashing hopes and ideas with the quickness. So do we combat this foe made even more formidable with isolation? We need community. By community, I mean a group of writers

This week, I've been considering the origins of ideas. Where do story ideas come from? Do they emerge organically while buttering toast or doing some other rote action? Or do they require effort? A mining of earth, perhaps. Every writer is different. I know, I know. If I were some guru that knew how to do marketing very well and could easily wield hashtags and capcut in the same way that I approach metaphors and poetic forms, perhaps I'd be in a shifted position. Not theorizi

In this world, the more we do, the more we work, the more money we siphon into our bank account, the more accomplished we can feel. Writing for three hours straight. Working the day job, then writing. Waking up early, before the sunrise, just to write, then putting in a whole day of childcare or desk work or whatever work you need to get done--the more we do, the more we succeed. At least, that's the definition of success in this country. But I would posit that there are some

If you're a writer, you must be on a glorious mind vacation if you've never heard of AI. AI is everywhere. If it's not in the oddly specific, too-perfect, ranging into the uncanny valley advertisements, then it's in the all-hands office meetings in which stakeholders discuss a company's trajectory. It's in cautionary tales of employment seeking, jobs that seem too good to be true and, when the recruiter asks a candidate to complete an AI screening interview, one realizes it i

Imagine your favorite story (mine is a forever toss up between Jurassic Park-- book or movie-- Silence of the Lambs, The Empire Strikes Back, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, or The Catcher in the Rye ). To be honest, I could keep going, but I digress. Take one of your favorite stories, we'll use The Empire Strikes Back for this example. Looking at the story, it is firmly told from Luke Skywalker's point of view. Sure, there are moments where we drift into Princess Leia

There will be days when no words emerge. Writing is a walk, a pilgrimage through the crevices of existence (and learning where your own soul dovetails with them). The walk lasts your entire life, if you choose to accept the journey. So, therein lies that truth: there will be days when no words emerge. When all you have left to show at the end of the day is a blank page. This truth is one that holds nuance. If you battle against that truth, it can be frustrating. If you person

The idea strikes you in the middle of the night. Your eyes open, a faraway rhythm pulls you from sleep and you have to write. You are compelled to develop an idea, to create a choreography on the page from a sequence of words only you and the muse understand. Thus, the dance begins. The pursuit of an idea, to craft a story from an image or a line of dialogue that arrived with no provocation. Like the wind, you cannot see it, but you know it exists. Now, the journey becomes, h

Burn out is real. In America, our lifestyle is very go go go go go....then go some more. Five day work weeks that spiral into two day weekends when we attempt to pack in all the life we couldn't experience Monday to Friday. Then there's the day jobs, the responsibilities that we must attend to, the blessings we prayed for, the unforeseen circumstances that require immediate attention, and the side hustles that are either dreams or making some real money. So when do we rest? O

So, you've been thinking of a setting. Maybe it's a cabin that someone (you don't know who) built many eons ago, made from space wood. Wood that defies gravity, maybe. And the main character, an astronaut escaping a bad marriage (or trauma or a significant loss) back on earth, has landed on Mars and stumbled upon this cabin. But Mars is uninhabitable, so who could be living in this cabin. Is that smoke pillowing upwards from the chimney? Why is there a chimney? Isn't the air

This world is fickle. There's a new trend every week, a 24-hour news cycle, and ever-changing takes on what story should be, existence will be, and humanity currently means. What is good will be bad in a few months; what is a lie may become truth given enough time; what is considered success now could be amateur hour in the near future. But what does it mean to be steadfast in our writing amidst all that upheaval? It's no secret that this market can shift quicker than a catam

Have you ever been on those walks where you thought it was a stroll with a specific destination? It can't be more than 20 minutes, you mutter internally as you amble down the sidewalk, wondering if you should have brought a jacket. There's a cold wind and these shoes probably weren't right and you think 20 minutes was 20 minutes ago, so when are you actually getting there? Where's there? There is a location, an accomplishment, an achievement that feels like an ending. A punct

When I started the daily writing journey, I didn't think there would be much mystery to solve. Yes, it would take discipline. Yes, there would be days that I didn't want to write. Yes, there would be words that would inevitably get deleted, but for now, just focus on getting them down on the page. But on days like today, which of course is a Wednesday (when I wrote this post), I don't have the desire to write. Nor do I have anything in my mind to write. I usually can imagine