A project fell through that I needed financially, so I’m scrambling right now. Every freelance writer reading this knows the feeling: I’m not good enough. Is it always going to be this hard? Hell, many staff writers have similar feelings when a big story collapses. Will I find another one…

It’s also the ONLY goal you should have as a writer. So let’s start by saying something bold: The lesson of Barnes & Noble is the lesson for every writer. The jazz critic and music historian Ted Gioia has a great piece on Barnes & Noble. It’s expanding. In 2023. …

What if I fail? What if I have modest success but never write for dream publications? What if I write for dream publications but never quiet the inner voice that says I’m inadequate? I’ve posed these questions. Maybe you have too. How do you stop them? Well, I’m not sure…

How to write and how to live. This quote comes from Steven Pressfield, the historical novelist who has a new book out: Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be. It’s another way to say what Emerson has before him: “God will not have his work made manifest by…

On Medium and any other platform. Everything I read and consumed in this week fit into one theme: How everything is useful for you, fuel for. So let’s talk about that. In particular let’s talk about how: You Will Use It All. I found this idea in Stephen King’s On Writing, which I read this…

One book has transformed how I think about what I do—and why A friend of mine, for my birthday, got me Warren Bennis’ classic On Becoming a Leader. I thanked him for the book but it sat on Mount Nightstand for five months. …

The less you do creatively, the more you do. I’m taking it easy today. And because I’m taking it easy let’s talk about one of my favorite movies, which has at its core a very easy-living message that you and I find super-hard to live by. I love Forgetting Sarah…

Judd Apatow has a good line in his latest book, Sicker in the Head. There’s a feeling that you get when you get older, where you realize, like, kids don’t remember M*A*S*H. They don’t remember Cheers or Family Ties. And pretty soon, they won’t remember Friends. You feel everything is…

How idleness can dramatically increase output for creative types. Maybe because it’s August, or maybe because I’m reporting a magazine piece around the idea, but these days I’m thinking a lot about idleness. I come from its opposite. I come from a long line of farmers who lived the Protestant…