Writing Practice

1.26.25

Welcome to Writing Practice. The idea is simple: I send out a prompt, often with links to related published pieces to help fuel creativity. Then you write. (Confused? More about Writing Practice can be found here). Free subscribers get the Sunday Writing Practice emails; paid subscribers get all of them.

Write as much or as little as you like. I would recommend not over-thinking this, and just using it as an opportunity to jot down some words. I would also recommend just writing through – don’t try to make it perfect (that’s for later).

Some of these prompts may resonate, and you’ll find yourself writing paragraph after paragraph. Others will fall flat, and you’ll roll your eyes, or come up empty and feel frustrated. This, too, is part of having a regular writing practice. On those days of frustration or blockage, try to write something down anyway – even just one sentence, even just one word. And then take heart in the reality that, if we are lucky, there is always tomorrow.

WRITING PRACTICE DAY TWENTY-SIX

Welcome to the final week of writing practice! The very fact that you’re reading this email is an accomplishment, however much or little you’ve written this month. You’re here; put pen to paper today and you’ve done something pretty great.

In this final week, we’re going to work on building out more complex pieces by writing pieces of pieces (ha ha). One of my favorite genre of long-form essay is the meditation on a word or concept (a few of my favorites are linked below). Your task today is to come up with the concept you want to focus on this week. I would start by considering what is heavy on my mind at the moment, and go from there. For example: I am feeling overwhelmed / enraged / despairing over US politics right now. The list of what’s upsetting me is long, but going through it, I’m finding myself more appalled by the cowardice around the bad actors than even the bad actors themselves — the capitulation, the way surrender feels contagious. So maybe my concept is courage, or conviction, or cowardice. Maybe thinking about politics is making me realize my brain and soul need a break, and so my concept is “boundary” — what does it mean to draw one; where are boundaries real and physical or invented but still enforced; and so on. One of my favorite meditations on a word is about the concept of loss; maybe I write about what it means to be found or to find.

So: Jot down a series of conceptual words that are somehow tied to what you’re feeling or thinking about this week. Pick one. And do a brief brainstorm of what comes to mind around that word: Stories from your life; scientific facts; formal definitions; art or literature or poetry that feels connected to it; really anything at all that comes up. Make it as sprawling as you have time for.

Here’s a great piece to read today (concept: loss), and here’s another (concept: trauma).