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Moving

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Writer Therapy: Rainbow Sparkles and Unicorn Fairies

Dear Sonal, I’m a writer who hates writing. That’s a terrible cliche, I know. But I’m exhausted. I’m angry at myself for thinking that this was something I should do. My story is, I’m a recovering journalist turned corporate communications writer. Writing is how I pay the bills, but of course, like an idiot, I had some kind of dream that I could do more. So I did an MFA. I spent twenty…

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Coming soon: Writer Therapy

It’s Dear Abby, but for writers. I love giving people writing advice. Not necessarily, how do I fix my story type of advice, although that can be fun. But more, why am I stuck in my writing process? It’s my favourite part of teaching writing, and also writing group, conversations among writers. (I’m not fun at parties.) I like trying to figure out, what is the thing in your head that is getting…

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#Dear Abby for writers #Writer therapy

Pandemic: February

It’s been almost a year. You remember all the plans you had at the beginning for getting through what you were told was going to be a few weeks, and also how all those plans had to be cancelled and how the weeks stretched into months. It got harder, and then it got easier. Then it got harder. Maybe it’s getting easier again, who even cares anymore? In the beginning, you fought with your mother…

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Pandemic: May

I wonder when going to a restaurant is going to feel normal again. It was such a nothing thing before, to pop into a place and grab a bite. Now it feels momentous.

We had talked about travelling more with the baby, getting on a plane sooner than we had with our preschooler. I’d never quite had the energy to drive that forward, and now it seems like we’ll be waiting a few years anyway. There’s…

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Pandemic: April

The smell of bleach is comforting. Early in the pandemic, I left the fancy Lysol sprays to the hoarders and started mixing my own 10% bleach solution in a spray bottle. Used it extensively at first, then not much, now again. Like hot sauce, I use that shit on everything.

Every day is a long Saturday. The kids are home, they are young enough to be happy, but the oldest is old enough to remember…

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Writing? Writing?!?!

New Blog Post || Writing? Writing?!?!

Welcome to the pandemic, where half of my social media feed consists of people extolling the virtues of staying in and working on new projects (didja know Shakespeare wrote King Lear while quarantined?) and the other half of my feed have young children.

I apparently have an introvert-heavy feed, as no one gives a shit about going out, except to bring children to daycare or school.

I am home, as…

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The Year of the Habit

New Blog Post || The Year of the Habit

Judging by the articles popping up lately, the latest thing is about forming habits. We’re over mindfulness, we’ve decluttered everything, we’re resilient as fuck. Now we need habits. (Good ones. Bad ones are easy.)

I’ve never been good at habit. I start almost all of my writing classes by proudly announcing that I do notwrite every day and that I have no writing routine. The relief is palpable:…

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Writing Forgives You

New Blog Post || Writing Forgives You

Many years ago, I wrote a love letter to Writing. I dug it up recently, and it’s so terribly maudlin that I refuse to share it lest I destroy my cool image. (Uh, Sonal? You are not cool.) (Shh! Don’t destroy my fantasy!)

But the takeaway is that as lovers go, Writing is a master of unconditional love. And very forgiving. You’ve been ignoring Writing forever? It’s cool. Writing is patient. Writing…

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Somebody I used to know

New Blog Post || Somebody I used to know

(Is that Gotye song stuck in your head now? It’s stuck in mine.)

Now that I have a newborn, I figure it’s the perfect time to take on a massive and long overdue declutter of the house. (Read: It’s not the perfect time.) But I watched that Marie Kondo show on Netflix while rocking a baby to sleep, and, well….

I decided to start with my books. Knowing that this would be difficult (so many old…

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I can't possibly be expected to write

New Blog post | I can't possibly be expected to write

In February, I decided my novel was dead. In March, my father suddenly died. In July, I gave birth.

Needless to say, I haven’t written much. In fact, given the struggles with my novel, I haven’t written anything in nearly a year.

I tried. In the beginning, I set deadlines. I made pacts. I kept fizzling out. Then, I was pregnant and was too focused on both staying awake and also not vomiting to…

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Letting Go

New Blog Post | Letting Go

I’ve been stuck on this novel revision, which is genuinely not a lot of work and could be wrapped up in a month, for over half a year now. It’s not a question of not knowing what to do next or being stumped by a creative problem. I know what to do. I have a plan beautifully laid out in multicoloured sticky notes on my wall. I’m just not doing it.

It’s not that I don’t have time, although…

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Out of Time

New Blog Post | Out of Time

It always feels like I’m running late, that I have missed my opportunities, that if I don’t succeed right now, I never will.

Every novel that comes out makes me think, by the time mine is done, will the world have passed it by? “Sorry, but we’ve had too many of these lately. If only you’d sent us something a year ago.”

Every time a writer friend gets a book out or signs an agent, I’m happy for…

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Nemesis

New Blog Post | Nemesis

I believe in spite as a motivator. Nothing has worked better for me than to prove myself to some entity who probably couldn’t care less about me. (NB: This is bad relationship advice. Ask my therapist.)

But spite is what got my through my undergrad in Computer Science. Fuck you, programming! You think I can’t do this? I’ll show you! And then I did it, even graduated with distinction and promptly…

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Fear of Success?

New Blog Post | Fear of Success?

Things have been going really well with my novel, except for the actual writing part.

I have agents (plural!) who said they’d like to see a revision. I have worked with a story editor and I think I have figured out why it hasn’t been working. I have a plan for fixing it and it’s not an overwhelming amount of work. I have time. I’m even kind of excited about the changes, which is a rare thing when…

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#personal #publishing #revision