You can read all the writing advice in the world, but in the end, it all comes down to how YOU approach the page or the screen. To help illustrate how we’re all just a little bit different, I’m taking a standard list of questions about writing and posing it to dozens of different writers. As you scroll though their answers, I think you’ll see we’re all as individual as fingerprints or snowflakes. And if you’re a writer who’d like to participate in this questionnaire, please email me.
Reading time: About 2 minutes Josée Bergeron says that spending time outdoors every day is essential to her creative process…. Josée Bergeron is a French-Canadian Indigenous Métis mother of five (ages two to 17) and the founder of Backwoods Mama, a nature-based parenting community. Originally from the northern interior of […]
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Reading time: About 3 minutes Kristi Spence strongly believes that writing is not linear. All writers have good days and bad days — and that’s the gig, she says. The writing doesn’t do itself. Kristi Spence is a mom, learner, scientist, writer, runner and philosopher. In her weekly Substack newsletter,
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Reading time: About 2 minutes A.H. Kim says that having an accountability partner helps her to get her butt out of bed and into a chair every day…. A.H. (Ann) Kim is an immigrant, mother of two sons and a rescue pup, long-time cancer survivor, community volunteer, and happily retired
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Reading time: About 2 minutes The motto Michelle Yang used when writing her memoir was: “It’s not about what happened to you; it’s about how you survived.” Michelle Yang is an advocate whose writings on Asian American identity, body image, and mental health have been published in NBC News, CNN,
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Erin Zimmerman says you don’t need to be inspired or wait for inspiration to come to you in order to write. Instead, you just need to put in the work to shape it into something better…. Erin Zimmerman is an evolutionary biologist turned science writer
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Nadia Froese says that writer has a different writing process, and part of developing your craft is getting to know yours…. Nadia Friese is the author of the chapbook Something Spectacular, which was published by 845 Press in 2021. Her poetry and fiction have previously
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Melissa Sevigny says no one — apart from the writer — should be able to dictate how or when anyone can write…. Melissa L. Sevigny is a science writer and poet, living in Flagstaff, Arizona. She is author of Brave the Wild River, winner of
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Reading time: About two minutes Thomas Harrison says that the first draft of any piece of writing is often terrible. “But it’s always easier to edit, and to polish a found diamond in the rough,” he adds. Thomas Harrison is a teacher, lawyer and creative multi-disciplinary artist who lives on
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Mackenzie Thornton says that parts of writing are fun, but other parts of it are like banging your head against a wall… Mackenzie Thornton is an author, editor, and book reviewer. A graduate of the Humber College Book Publishing program, she has loved books since
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Reading time: About 2 minutes Becky Blake says that new writers are often too hard on their early drafts. They haven’t yet learned to trust the process of release and revision…. Becky Blake is a creative writing instructor at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Her essays and
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