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 […]
Tag: writing
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 […]
Creative roundup, 2020 version
2020 has felt like the proverbial flaming handbasket. No one needs a tragedy-porn recap of the catastrophic and apocalyptic-level trauma we’re still enduring. I will just say: Black lives matter, the pandemic is not a hoax, and I’m not about to forget how many (white) Americans saw hate/lies/open sedition and dismantling of our democratic republic […]
Writing plays (yes, more theatre)
Lately there’s been a theme around here. A theme involving theatre. And apparently it’s not enough to be in a play (now closed) or workshopping Shakespeare scenes via Zoom (potentially upcoming). I’m writing plays, too. This isn’t exactly a new development. I wrote my first play when I was about ten, then my sixth grade […]
Writing Dad, a decade on
For the last year and a half, I’ve been working on a novel. It’s not a terribly serious novel (a vampire romance with an intentionally ludicrous premise, which had no hope of marketability until the announcement of the newest Twilight book) born of a fun dream and the thought of what it might be like […]
Swallow my Pride and Buckle up for the Ride
My adult life keeps making me eat my words. I’m not. I can’t. I don’t. I don’t sew; I don’t knit. (Spoiler: I now do both of those.) So, so many I-can’t’s locked up in theatre, in being onstage. So much fear of being asked to do something awkward, embarrassing, uncomfortable when those described everything […]
Thoughts on New Year’s Eve
Pausing work on another, longer blog post about what I’ve been up to in order to acknowledge the changing of years. Of decades, even. This time of year makes me extra introspective and saying good bye to an entire decade? Yeah, I’m in deep. This has been a decade of loss. My dad, an uncle […]
‘Tis the season…for all the Help Wanted and Now Hiring signs. Welcome to tourist-land! Each sign and job posting I see makes me wonder: could I do it? Would I want to? I’m approaching an entire year of this “full time mom and creative” gig life and while Western culture has a greater awareness now […]
Nostalgia Stories
Nostalgia can be good. But it can also be bad. Like cheap hot cocoa mix with the tiny dehydrated marshmallows: I want it for the nostalgia, but invariably the marshmallows either have the crunch of chalk or dissolve into air like the illusions they are. My husband and I had this conversation tonight and it […]
Alliteration is Overrated
Who had the bright idea to make November National Novel Writing Month? I mean, four months out of the year have 30 days. So. Why November? No, this post will not explore the origins of NaNo. I just need to gripe. And, you know, reassure you that I’m still here. (Still figuring out how all […]
Melissa Burkart 