That is, you are stuck. Whether you’re stuck because you got yourself in that situation or because of life circumstances… Being stuck is kind of horrible When Winnie-the-Pooh found himself stuck halfway in and halfway out of Rabbit’s front door (because he ate too much honey) he wasn’t thrilled: “Oh, help!” said Pooh. “I’d better go back.”...

Do you worry, as I do, that you’ve frittered away your best years and are coming to your real work too late? If so, consider the examples of two nineteenth century scholars, Jean-François Champollion and Thomas Young. Champollion and Young started out with similar educational backgrounds that pointed them toward the decipherment of ancient languages....

I’ve been working on a new novel for a while now. After two years of steady work, I completed the first draft of the manuscript in January. Since then, I’ve been spending nearly every minute of my writing time revising all three-hundred-plus pages of it line by line. I’m currently working on my fourth round of these revisions, after which I might*...

As a painter who has been at it for almost a decade now, I realized recently that I’d stopped trying to imitate other painters. I’m influenced by many, all my great loves—O’Keeffe and Matisse, Turner and Constable; illustrators Sempe and Juarez– but somewhere along the line, I started interpreting the world of paint and shape in my own way. And yet,...

The question should’ve been easy to answer and yet it left me thinking for days. Writing this post was my way of sorting it out. I blame Terah Shelton Harris, and her thought-provoking essay here on WU earlier this month. In which she asked, “What’s your definition of success?”  In the essay, Terah describes being taken aback when she was asked whether...

There are many hot takes on social media about how to write a book, what traditional publishers like, and what you need to do to make your novel a bestseller. There are some kernels of advice that are very useful, but others make you want to scratch your head and wonder where on earth they come up with that one? Below are some of my favorite myths...