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Blog
“Il faut cultiver notre jardin,” —Voltaire
For those of us who don’t do fancy French, this means:
“We must cultivate our garden,” says Pangloss at the end of Voltaire’s Candide.
No sentiment could be truer for women who write. Stop focusing on the whole wide world. Instead, maintain a space that is your own and encourages the fruits of your labors to blossom.
But the process of growing our garden requires the right tools. Reading this blog and learning how to revise your own stories could help you cultivate your garden, obtain peace of mind, and establish your writing legacy. Happy reading and writing!
Looking for a specific writing topic? Search the entire blog below.
How to Write About (and Work Through) the Most Hidden Emotion—Humiliation
Writing about your emotions is never easy. But you, Sassy Scribe, are so dedicated to your craft, I bet there are a few feelings you’ve gotten the hang of penning to paper.
But what’s with humiliation?
It rarely gets talked about.
If we do a Pixar Inside Out roll call there’s Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger, and finally Sadness in the lineup. Nope, no Humiliation there at all.
Why I Quit Social Media—It’s All About Knowing Your Audience
I still have social media icons on my website.
And you can look up my social presence. Weeeeelllll, you can find an older version of me on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but I don’t update my social media much these days. Maybe that will change. But my writing pause during COVID caused me to rethink my social media identity. Not only did I have less time to post with a toddler at home 24/7, but I also needed to clarify my audience.
How to Tell Your Ghost Story
Back in 2010, I made a promise to a ghost.
I laid in my bed at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City and promised a ghost I’d write about her if she’d let me sleep.
She immediately stopped bothering me.
Learning the human side of ghosts stories has been a priority for me ever since.
Me and My Shadow(s)
No, I’m not being called into the bowels of the Paris Opera House by a demon lover… despite my secret goth girl fantasies.
My shadows are often my brushes with chronic illness.
Other times—motherhood.
Get Your Selfie Stick: It’s Memoir Time
Sure, you run a greater risk of being seen—and judged—when you write about yourself, but is memoir really just the smatterings of a self-involved sociopath? Can anything literary actually be gleaned?
For a genre believed to be rooted in navel-gazing nonsense, there sure are a lot of memoirs getting published—and purchased.
“What is memoir? Is it the same as autobiography?”
When it comes to writing memoir, we’ve much to unpack. Buckle up.