Out of all the events in NYC, this is one of my annual favorites. — New York City is the kind of place where if one set of plans falls through, there’s always something else you can find to do. It’s a wonderful thing — but since there is so much to do on any given weekend, it can get hard sometimes to find the…

I thought I’d write interactive fiction, but instead, I ended up diving headlong into exploring past traumas and mental health. — In September 2021, I started working on my first master’s thesis. I knew it was going to be rigorous; the process for my program required both a thesis paper and a creative project. Many students opened to put most of their effort into the project and a notably smaller percentage…

A few thoughts and psychology-backed resources on changing toxic thought patterns for writers — One of the biggest parts of my personal development and therapy journies has been tackling the ugliest beliefs I have about myself. And that’s my identity as a writer. After a year of therapy, well, I can see where for a lot of us, the journey is more complicated than…

Creating a sincere meditation practice is hard, but we all need moments of stillness. — I’ve had a hard time writing about my journey with mindfulness. I started out as the anxiety-ridden soul on a steady IV drip of hustle fuel and exhaustion glorification. …

Musings on moving a lot, climbing the career ladder, and keeping a personal life along the way — I’m getting married next year. My fiancé and I just celebrated our eight-year anniversary; it’s an exciting celebration of our relationship that has been a long time in the making. Since we have been together for so long, we’ve changed jobs a lot, lived in three different states together, and…

A short story from the perspective of the walls that see us at our best and worst. — We see this girl in all her most grim moments. We pay special attention to how she doesn’t sleep nearly as much as she should. And oh, the things she does in this bed — she desecrates this sacred resting place with so much work. Working on the folding bright…

I spent the weekend with highly attuned creatives who helped me recognize a few things about myself. — I spent my weekend at the New York City Poetry Festival and had two dear friends come in from out of town table there with me. Another dear local friend joined us on Governors Island just between Brooklyn and Manhattan as well. …

While there’s a huge range of love poems, many glamorize unhealthy relationships. — I read a lot of poetry. If you also read a lot of poetry, this might be a question that’s struck you too. I was recently listening to a poetry craft talk from the poet Brenda Shaughnessy where she discussed phenomenology in poetry and intergenerational trauma. …

But the most painful writing prompts often have the most potential to make us think. — Writing prompts can have a lot of different roles in our creative lives. They can nudge us to broaden our creative horizons, get us out of feeling stuck with our craft, or nudge us to take a closer look at ourselves. …