I’m so glad you’re here.

Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard and how to do it anyway. If you’re looking for help making space for your writing in a busy life, you’ll find lots of tips and support and community here.

Before my first kid was born, I was afraid that the pressures of parenting would get in the way of writing—but I found instead that motherhood cracked me open and transformed my creative life. This newsletter is for anyone looking for writing encouragement, inspiration, and practical guidance—and it’s especially attuned to the ways that caregiving of all kinds can be both a challenge and a boon for creative work.

in my heart, I’m in this dreamy studio at the Vermont Studio Center, but in reality, I’m probably at home in gym clothes, with my lovable enormous greyhound farting beside me (📸 Alannah Sears)

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!

pre-order The Good Mother Myth for all the excellent moms in your life, including yourself!

🎁 pre-order bonuses: bookplates and a party🥳️

Minna Dubin, author of Mom Rage, called The Good Mother Myth “a gift to all mothers,” and it would literally make a great gift for all the awesome moms in your life. (Including you!) When you pre-order, you’ll get a signed bookplate and an exclusive invitation to a zoom party on caregiving and creativity I’m hosting with Maggie Smith, poet and NYT-bestselling author of You Can Make This Place Beautiful. (And if you order a copy for a friend, you can attend the party together! I love a gift that’s an 🎉event!🎉)

Order your copy anywhere you like, and enter your info at this link to claim your bonuses.

when you subscribe, you’ll get—

🌿 a monthly intentions post on the last Sunday before a new month that’s designed to help you think about your priorities for your writing life in the month ahead

🐙 interviews in the good creatures series about caregiving and creative work

✍️ essays and interviews about craft and writing process in the tending series

🌟 and an occasional writing prompt, piece of writing I love, or a question to chat about

We also have an occasional zoom party where we gather to create vision boards and make writing goals. (If a 🎉planning party 🎉 sounds like your kind of Sunday afternoon, you are in the right place for sure.) Stay tuned for more upcoming fun.

A few fun things about this newsletter:

You can check out my Bookshop site for a curated selection of great books on writing—and great books that will make you want to write.

you can buy all my books at Bookshop or wherever else you like to shop for books!

About Nancy

I’m a writer and a writing teacher. My first book of narrative nonfiction, The Good Mother Myth, is forthcoming from St. Martin’s in January 2025. I’m the author of three books of poetry, most recently Pocket Universe, and the co-editor of The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. I’ve recently written pieces on the damaging mythology of the “golden hour” after birth for Slate and making mom friends for Romper, as well as review-essays on the whiteness of the motherhood memoir and the political nature of motherhood at Electric Literature.

I teach at Stockton University in New Jersey, and I also lead community writing workshops and lifelong learning courses, most recently at the Cooper Street Writing Workshops at Rutgers-Camden, the Stockton Institute for Lifelong Learning, Blue Stoop, and Murphy Writing.

You can find me on instagram (@nancy.o.reddy) and read more at my website or see recent clips here.

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why writing is hard & how to do it anyway

People

obsessed with making space for writing in a busy life & helping you do that, too. up next: THE GOOD MOTHER MYTH, St. Martin's 2025. essays in Slate, Romper & other places. author of Pocket Universe & The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood.