If you’re a writer, developing your voice is an important part of your craft. It’s a process. It takes time to cultivate it, and the only way you do is through writing. The more you write, the more your voice emerges. The general writing advice around voice includes: How to find your voiceHow to use your voiceBe clear in your writingInfuse your writing with your personalityYou should sound like you It seems obvious: our voices should be clear, strong. We don’t want to sound weak or …
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How to Measure Happiness: January Recap
I don’t think I’m a very happy person naturally. It’s not a word I’d use to describe myself, and I’m always surprised when someone uses that word to describe me. I think it goes back to my Christian upbringing, which placed a higher premium on contentedness and joy than happiness. Happiness was fleeting, but joy could endure. I wonder now, as an adult and still a believer, if that’s true. Can we feel other emotions and still be happy? Can we feel the darkness and still be filled with joy? …
The Importance of Being Flexible
Let’s talk for a minute about flexibility. I’m not very flexible. When I was a kid, we had to do sit-and-reach to measure the flexibility of our hamstrings and I always barely passed. I watched other girls, ones who could fold themselves up into pretzels, reach past their toes effortlessly. And I just couldn’t. I’ve done yoga regularly for years and can now fold forward and touch the bottoms of my feet. It feels like a minor miracle, but not without years of practice—stretching and …
How to Balance Deep and Shallow Work Online
I spent about ten months last year off social media. I heard a podcast where a woman described how freeing it was for her to be off it for nearly two years, and something inside me clicked. I wanted that. I wanted freedom, less pressure. I wanted off the merry-go-round. I found myself journaling more than ever. I was piecing together what life could look like when I wasn’t constantly worried about what I had to post. Did I still have anything to say? If I did, how would I go about saying it? …
Rules for Literary Happiness
When the idea for the Literary Happiness Project came to me, it was filled with so much energy that my mind was spinning. That’s how all ideas should come: swiftly and with some life to them. I’ve heard the advice over and over again, if it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no. And this idea was a h-e-double-hockey-sticks yes. But all that excitement and energy was just the beginning. I quickly realized I needed a framework, so I brainstormed all the ideas I had about happiness, literature, and what …