I knew this kid would be trouble from the very first day in the hospital because he refused to sleep without at least a hand on him. It’s a small hospital. No nursery like you see on TV where visitors can look through a window at the babies all swaddled in their plastic tubs. He […]
Tag: writing
Unlearning
As a kid, how to make people like me–or at least not dislike me–was a constant calculus in the background hum of my brain. I learned how to read the expectations of people around me and how to contort, to fit myself to them. Even when I came home from college, I still made a […]
2021 Bingo
Last year, I made a bingo card out of all the things I wanted to accomplish. I knew they wouldn’t all happen. I knew a baby would throw a wrench in my best laid plans. So I played bingo with it, instead. I met almost half my goals. Somehow. A few things that did not […]
Ego saga
Oh hey, this is new. I’ve never worried about the ego in a story before. I wrote a short story partly to challenge myself, to try different things with narrative and words. It’s what the story demanded but also something I know will make me a better writer—make me more the writer I want to […]
‘Scary’ is just another word for ‘challenge’
I’m back! Or trying to be. Since my last post, we welcomed our second kid and as always this is a rough transition. Anyway, the post… Ok. Ignore that these are different parts of speech and let me run with this. ***Quick disclaimer: this is all my personal experience and your mileage may vary. It […]
Writing+new parenting=utter chaos
Kid #2 could arrive at any time and I’ll admit I’m panicking just a little. Can I do this and still write? Yes, I’ve been here and done this, but not with a three year old who needs me to be at least somewhat functional. And that first time around? I basically existed in trauma […]
Submission stories: a rejection roundup
Submitting stories has been my kryptonite for a long time. For years. At first, this was because I didn’t have any short stories to submit and novels just take so damn long to finally have a piece ready to go. Then I started writing short stories and still didn’t submit anything. They weren’t good enough, […]
January writing prompt: Death Ship
I’ve been needing and wanting more writing prompts and exercises in my life–something to practice and get words flowing that I don’t have to treat too seriously. So I signed up for Susan Dennard’s Story a Month Challenge (follow the link if you’re curious or want to sign up–it’s not too late!) where she sends […]
Shop talk: writing ideas beyond your skill set
Someone asked me on Twitter the other day how I got past all the “I can’t write this yet” story ideas. I answered briefly there, but there’s only so much I can cram into a couple tweets and I have more to say. **Note: the usual caveats apply! This post is all my experience and […]
What the hell, world*?
All this big, depressing bullshit is getting in the way of getting shit done. Ok, yes, that’s basically been the last year in a nutshell. Most of the time, the pandemic and people insisting on life as normal (aka: might literally kill my family) can get shunted from panic-attack-inducing to we’ll-just-stay-hunker-down-and-keep-on-as-best-we-can. But here in the […]
Melissa Burkart 