If you try, you win

My son is having a little bit of trouble making it through early schooling. When he encounters something that is challenging, he will sometimes shut down and stop even trying because he gets so frustrated he can't do it perfectly. So one day, I came up with the phrase "If you try, you win." It …

Killing Your Darlings or Saving Your Favorites

I've read the phrase 'killing your darlings' quite a bit lately. For writing, it basically means you often have to get rid of your favorite things to make something work. The thing is, the phrase itself doesn't really work for me. The word 'darling' feels a little archaic. And I don't really feel like I …

Beating Resistance

Every morning I sit down to write, I feel resistance. But today, the resistance feels less like a background hum and more like an impenetrable wall. Like a massive fortress where all my words are inside and I am stuck outside trying to scale the wall. Resistance is a feeling I have been aware of …