Sarah's Blog

Yes, you read that correctly — Wednesday night Create-Alongs are back! And I’m also introducing a second weekly Create-Along on Fridays! So grab your pen and notebook, your laptop, your Gutenberg printing press, your art supplies, or whatever it is you use to create...

(Doubles as a gift guide if you like to give hugs)

Whether you’re doing NaNoWriMo or not this year, it’s a good idea to have an honest conversation with yourself about what you need to thrive as a writer.

What do we do with those irritating things about ourselves that we can’t change?

On making money from your work — and… not.

A letter about seasonal change and beginning when it feels right.

What is it that’s REALLY toxic here?

Like all marketing, social media is only a means to an end. Let me explain…

No matter how sophisticated it gets, A.I. will never replace you — and here’s why.

Is there value in admitting that we’re bad at something? Must we improve ourselves in every way?

In defense of writing slowly, and thoughts on the blurry line between “writing to sell” and “writing to survive”. (Content warning: Death and dying)

Writing — or any creative act, really — is just a chain of beginnings, one after the other. (Does that make you feel better, or worse?)

We tend to talk about being brave as this positive, empowering thing, but… is it?

We’re not machines, as much as we sometimes wish we were (or maybe that’s just me). What do we do as creators when our brains and bodies fail us?

Back in 2019, I signed a deal with Netflix for a “Girl In Space” TV show. So… whatever happened to that?

The story of one time when I called someone a bad word (it rhymes with “ditch”). You’ve been warned.

The social consensus seems to agree that social media is bad for us. But… is it?

A gentle reminder that suffering is not a virtue, even when society tells us it is.

The twelve days of a possibly terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Christmas BUT ALSO HOPEFULLY SOME INSIGHTS.

On creative flow, creative guilt, and why we give into distractions. (Or, if you’re the kind of person who easily resists distractions, please tell me your secrets immediately.)

Maybe you’ve heard before that perfectionism is a form of fear. So… what should we be aiming for instead?

I returned from speaking at the Austin Film Festival two Mondays ago, and then promptly went into hiding. I don’t necessarily think I did it on purpose, thinking to myself, “Ha ha! Now no one will be able to find me!” At least, not this time.

I’m really struggling with what to write to you in this week’s letter. Not because there’s nothing going on in my life, but because I keep telling myself that I can’t tell you what’s going on in my life.

I don’t know where this impulse is coming from, even though I’ve been sitting here mulling it over for a while. So maybe I’ll tell you the things, and in doing so hopefully figure out why I’m so resistant.

Can you believe the Write Now podcast has been running for seven (7) years?! Because I can’t!

After speaking about the merits of failure, I was left wondering — what exactly was “failure”?

For the first time in my life, I have been writing consistently, habitually, every day.

I’ve been traveling the past several weeks for family and work, and everywhere I went, I took a dedicated carry-on piece of luggage that contained everything I needed to operate my business (and write).

I just realized it has been a while since I last talked about my favorite writing tools — and by “a while”, I mean more than seven years. Whew! Suffice to say a lot has changed since then, including the tools and processes I use to write.

Is this you? “MARCH 11, 1915: How time flies; another ten days and I have achieved nothing. It doesn’t come off. A page now and then is successful, but I can’t keep it up, the next day I am powerless.”

Oof. It feels like “something came up” for me every day this past week, and I hardly got any writing done at all. Family stuff, life stuff, calls, obligations, meetings, errands, even meals — things seemed to crop up as soon as I decided I should probably go write. …Or DID they?

I didn’t mean to, but this morning I started listing out my core values. I didn’t think a lot about “core values” before I started my own business, but I think that, despite its corporate icky-ness, it’s a great exercise for anyone seeking clarity and direction in their life.