3 questions for the center of the year
reflecting on the year so far in writing and strategies for writing through the fractured time of summer, plus discount codes for the Writing Co-Lab's Summer Camp and Blue Stoop's Summer School
Hello there! Welcome to Write More, Be Less Careful, a newsletter about making space for creative practice in a busy life. I’m a poet and an essayist, and my most recent books are the poetry collection Pocket Universe and the anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, which I edited with the poet Emily Pérez. My next book, The Good Mother Myth, will be out in January 2025, and you can pre-order it now!
This is the monthly intentions email, which goes out the last Sunday before a new month starts. It’s a chance to pause and set some goals for our writing practice in the coming month.
Hello there! It occurred to me recently that we are now in the very center of the year, which feels like a good time to pause and reflect. If you’ve read this newsletter for more than a minute, you can probably guess that I love planning—and, as a result, am much less likely to spend time on reflection. But this feels like a useful moment to look back a bit and think about what we’ve been working on and how it’s going. Because I always have my sights set on the horizon—the next project, the next deadline, all the things I want to do more and better—it’s hard for me to stop and look backwards and feel proud of what I’ve done and how hard I’ve worked. But I’m going to spend a bit of time this afternoon doing just that, and I hope you will, too, and let me know how it goes.
![bulletin board with kids art, sign that says "writing is awesome" and another sign that says "it is ok to make bad art" bulletin board with kids art, sign that says "writing is awesome" and another sign that says "it is ok to make bad art"](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7aedd580-6dd1-4355-be53-0509a7855f52_2195x3654.jpeg)
three reflection questions for the center of the year
questions to consider as you reflect on your writing life so far this year:
What are you proud of this year?
What risks have you taken? How have you challenged yourself?
What help do you need, and who can you ask?
previously, on writing in the summer and asking for help
on strategies for writing in the fragments of summer time
on ways to write when you can’t write
on how to ask for what you need in your writing life
❤️️ if Write More has given you helpful tips and encouragement for sustaining your writing life amidst the chaos, click the little red heart at the top or the bottom to help other busy, dedicated writers find us! ❤️️
if you’re looking for a little structure and encouragement in your writing practice this summer, two great options . . .
☀️Writing Co-Lab’s Summer Camp ☀️
I’m a big fan of the work the Writing Co-Lab is doing (you might remember
’s great recent post on how to maintain a lifelong writing practice) and their summer camp is starting soon! The Writing Co-Lab’s summer camp runs Saturday, July 13 to Saturday, August 3 and includes generative classes, panels, a weekly accountability group, Saturday sharing sessions, and daily motivational emails. They’ve got a truly knockout roster of instructors, and all their sessions are live and recorded, so you can participate in whatever way works best for your schedule. And you can get 10% off with the discount code SOLSTICE-SALE!☀️ Blue Stoop’s Summer School ☀️
Blue Stoop, Philadelphia’s amazing literary organization, is hosting its first Summer School, a series of workshops, office hours, and masterclasses. You can read all about the summer school offerings at Blue Stoop’s website. (I think Julia Phillips’s August 8 masterclass, “On Giving Up (Or Going On)”, and Carmen Maria Machado’s August 22 masterclass, “Stories That Stand Still”, sound especially amazing. And if you’re querying agents, I bet the Query Letter 101 workshop Eric Thomas, an agent and writer, is leading on August 14 will be super helpful.)
Use code BSFRIENDS10 for 10% off masterclasses and workshops.
the UGA Press sale! half off on The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood
UGA has extended their summer sale through June 30—today! So you can get yourself a copy of The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, an anthology I co-edited with poet Emily Pérez, for 50% off with code 08SALE. It’s a collection of poems, essays, and writing prompts about the fraught and fruitful relationship between mothering and writing. If you’ve been enjoying the good creatures interviews here, I think you’ll really love the anthology. Katherine Indermaur, in a review at Colorado Review, called it “a necessary text for every mother laboring to make space for her writing in this world.” (And for 50% off, you could buy one for yourself and one for a writer-mother friend, and you could read and write together!)
![The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood anthology cover The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood anthology cover](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F895dae05-c70f-447f-ae8c-3b451d87b217.avif)
this month in Write More
✍️ Housemates author
on writing "housemates and roommates and strange uncategorizable friendships and mentorships," plus a writing prompt inspired by Craiglist roommate ads🌟 “Caregiving has made both my heart and my work stronger and more expansive” says
, author of The Leaving Season and the new newsletter The Magpie🌟 “Becoming a mom gave me the strength, confidence and passion I needed in order to become a writer,” says Barrie Miskin, author of Hell Gate Bridge: A Memoir of Motherhood, Madness, and Hope
✍️
offers “candid strategies for perseverance”, author of the new book BOYMOM and the newsletter I Blame Society, whose new book Sandwich (🥳️an instant New York Times bestseller!🥳️) I am hoarding for my vacation at the end of this week✍️ “you need less time to write a book than you think,” argues novelist
, and her piece gives a whole bunch of practical tips for planning your writing and getting it done, even with kids and a day job🌟 “I also feel a lot more ambitious in my career since becoming a parent,” says Margo Steines, author of Brutalities
Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. You can find my books here and read other recent writing here.
If Write More has helped you in your creative life, I’d love it if you would share it with a friend.
This newsletter is such a treat; I wait until I have time and then dive into it. I'm excited to journal these questions!
I love this newsletter so much. Just what the doctor ordered every single time!