Writing

I Contain Multitudes

i contain multitudes
Image via B-Metro.com

Sometimes I feel as if I’m caught in a love triangle—writing and teaching both tugging at my heart. I was born to teach, but I didn’t realize this until after working in education for seven years. When I was a girl, I named all my dolls and other toys, arranged them in nice, neat rows in alphabetical order, and then launched into a lecture on whatever struck my fancy at the time. The classroom called me early in life, but I didn’t know it.

But I was also born to write. This I’ve known since the day I wrote my first poem. I was only 7 or 8 years old, so it was terrible, and I’m sure it included the line “Roses are red, violets are blue.” But it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the written word. And it was this love that led me to study journalism. I had dreams of working for Essence magazine and one day starting a print magazine of my own.

But a career in education was still whispering in my ear, flirting with my future plans. In graduate school at UC Berkeley, I was a graduate student instructor, or GSI, and taught a communications class for undergraduate students. I was charged with breaking down the complicated concepts and theories the professor discussed in her lectures. I did such a good job that students assigned to other GSIs would ask to come to my class, willing to sit on the floor or stand in the back if there weren’t enough desks.

I applied for Teach for America. I was accepted by Teach for America. I turned down Teach for America. I had also been offered a job as a features reporter in a city that I loved with the man whom I love. Writing won my heart again…

Read the entire article at B-Metro.com. 

Stop Being a Writer Who Doesn’t Write

writers write

Stop being a writer who doesn’t write.

I first heard those words from blogger and journalist Alexis Barton in July 2014 at the first Bloganista Mini-Con, the annual summer blogging conference I organize and host through See Jane Write. Alexis, who blogs at Same Chic Different Day, was the morning keynote speaker at that year’s conference. Her words stuck with me. I’m still hearing them a year and a half later: Stop being a writer who doesn’t write.

Lately, I feel as if I’m failing to answer this call, failing to meet this charge. Lately, I feel as if I am a writer who doesn’t write.

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Resolutions for Women Who Write

resolutions for women who write
Image via B-Metro

If you are a woman writer, this year resolve to write—by any means necessary. You are a writer and perhaps you are also a wife, a mother, a sister, or a career woman. You are a writer and most likely you are also a daughter, a lover, and a friend. Last year there were probably very few days when you failed to mother or to love or to be the best employee, boss, or homemaker that you could be. You may not have been perfect, but you always gave it your all.

But last year there were probably many days when you failed to write. You didn’t go to that workshop you wanted to attend. You didn’t write that poem, story, or essay in your head. You didn’t jot down those ideas you had for a compelling new character or a captivating new blog post. You didn’t write because you just didn’t have the time, because you were busy being a good mother, lover, wife, sister, daughter, or friend. You were busy being the best employee, boss, or homemaker that you could be. You couldn’t carve out time to write, you told yourself, because that would be selfish.

But you were wrong.

Maybe you’re hesitant to call yourself a writer because it’s been so long since you did spend hours at your favorite coffee shop writing in your journal or working on your blog. It’s been too long since you’ve spent a day at your computer drafting the next chapter of your novel. Perhaps you’ve never done these things.

But you are a writer. So this year, resolve to write…

Read this entire article at B-Metro.com. 

Gift Guide for Women Writers, Lady Bloggers, and Girl Bosses

badass-blog-planner
From the Badass Blog Planner by Sarah Morgan

Allow me to be transparent.

I’m calling this a “gift guide” but here’s what happened: My husband asked me to make a list of things I wanted for Christmas, and I needed a blog post for today because the one I’d originally planned didn’t work out. So…today I’m sharing with you things from my holiday wish list that I think other women writers, lady bloggers and girl bosses would also enjoy.

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