For a lot of bookish peeps, autumn means cozy sweaters, warm drinks in your favorite mug, and curling up with a good book, but for a lot of writers, it's a season of creativity with a hearty dash of chaos. I'm talking about none other than National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, an event that takes place every November and challenges writers to draft 50,000 words across 30 days. I realize it's only September when this post is going live, but this is the time of

Receiving feedback on your writing can be exciting, but it can be just as intimidating—especially in a workshop setting. Instead of perusing through comment-laden copies of your WIP one at a time and at your own pace, workshops can feel like you're in the hot seat in the middle of a coliseum because you've got several people voicing their opinions at once. It can be a lot to take in. I've been in my fair share of writing workshops, albeit limited to structured classroom setti

Receiving feedback on your writing can be exciting, but it can be just as intimidating—especially in a workshop setting. Instead of perusing comment-laden copies of your WIP one at a time and at your own pace, workshops can feel like you're in the hot seat in the middle of a coliseum because you've got several people voicing their opinions at once. It can be a lot to take in. I've been in my fair share of writing workshops, albeit limited to structured classroom settings and

Like I've done every year for the past however long, my blog went on a partial hiatus for the summer because of my day job going into extended hours and my desire to prioritize my fiction projects in that time. But even though I was doing my best to put my writing first in my free time, there were plenty of spans where it got pushed aside. But now September is here, and it's time to get serious again. I'm putting myself on a PIP. AKA, a Performance Improvement Plan. PIPs are

If you have ever interacted with me on an average Sunday, I can all but guarantee you know the following: I am a Bengals fan. I take fantasy football a little too seriously for someone who knows next to nothing about football. My fantasy football team is inexplicably, unconditionally, and irrevocably cursed (or whatever Bella Swan said). That is no exaggeration, I assure you. Since pretty much my first season, my fantasy football team has suffered a long streak of injuries, s

I didn't have a typical high school experience. Sure, I had the standard classes, homecoming and prom, extracurriculars, SATs, and my fair share of the teenage milestones one might expect. But my school wasn't your typical high school. It was a technical high school. Sometimes known as vocational high schools or trade high schools, tech schools offer your standard academic classes like English and math, but also allow students to enroll in a trade. At my school, these include