Memoirist ethics, aka how to write your story without being a dick about it
A reader asks Ariel: “As you write your memoir following your divorce, how do you write about it honestly while also protecting your son and (if you even want to) your ex-husband?”
Locate and log your joy: How tracking positivity can help with depression
From therapy I learned how powerful positive self-talk and mantras can be, but only if they are a constant part of your self-care routine. I already kept a journal to help let go of my haphazard thoughts, so I decided to add a few sentences each day to document the positive parts of my day. Ultimately, finding the positive in every day wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated, but I pushed through and gained both a powerful new perspective on my life and some solid coping mechanisms that I could put into place…
How writing on a typewriter helps this modern writer
I finally made a special trip with Other Husband (Legal Husband was working) into New York City to Gramercy Typewriter. And it was just like being in Ollivander’s wand shop: the right one was going to choose me. I viewed this moment as a rebirth of my busy, writerly self. But why? Why would a typewriter make any difference at all, especially to a lady who got her start on Microsoft Word? Well, I’ll tell you, and it’s not just because it looks cool…
How to communicate with your partner when you’re bad at expressing yourself
I’m bad at communication (like really, really bad). Even if I can bring up the courage to talk to someone I never know exactly what to say and I struggle to figure out how to express what I’m feeling. That’s when I started to write letters to my partner.
Finding the value in being a part-time creative person
I now hold a very normal job. I work in the finance industry in the city, and I love it, but there always has been (and I suspect always will be) part of me that wonders if I should have done something more creative… Am I wasting potential talent? What if I’m withholding some grand work of literature from the world because I didn’t take that route?
Nested cards: Extreme(ly organized) letter writing for your loved ones
The first year that each of my sisters were at university, I sent them a letter every single week, without using the post office. I got the idea from my mother. When I was small she didn’t go away often, but when she did she would leave a trail of notes that Dad would help us follow every day. As my sister started preparing for university I started wondering how this idea could translate to someone who was themselves going away. I finally hit on the idea of nested envelopes.
Meditation doesn’t work for me, and that’s okay!
I am thoughtful, open-minded person who believes in the values of calm and stillness, who understands the neuroscientific studies on the way meditation massages our grey-matter, and who really wanted to be a Jedi when I grew up. But mediation doesn’t work for me…
How writing erotic fan fiction changed my sex life
Since the beginning of my sexual awakening (or when my high school boyfriend put his hands down my pants), I loved sex. Along with sex, my other interests are TV shows, movies, and books. There is a particular workplace sitcom that I adore and almost exclusively write for. The bridge between these interests is not a long one, and soon I was writing erotic fan fiction. And yes, after (a little) personal deliberation, I told my husband that I was a fan fiction writer. But I don’t think the switch in our sex life really happened until he read My Really Long Fic.