A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Online friends are GOLD. They’re often your heart to heart people.

BUT there’s nothing like having a person in your life that you can call to go on a hike or to make baking soda volcanos with you. That in-person comrade may or may not be “best friend” material—and they don’t have to be. They bring their in-person energy! Precious!!

Be Brave

It takes courage to initiate with a human you don’t know. In the pre-internet days, there were no other options! Take a little of my chutzpah—be brave and ask someone you know a little (neighbor, soccer mom, person on the treadmill next to you at the gym) if they are interested in doing family-style stuff with you.

Pick one low stakes event. Trade phone numbers (for texting obvz—not scary TALKING), make it happen, see how it goes!

You’ll get some polite “no’s” but eventually, you may find just enough of what you need to stop feeling so alone and lonely outside of the internet.

You deserve in-person friends! (Psst: and they don’t even need to be homeschoolers…though after knowing you, who knows what might happen?!)

This post was originally shared on Instagram.
Watch the accompanying reel for more.

Your kids hate writing because they don’t know that the words that live in their heads are the ones that need to be on the page. They think they have to find the words the teacher has in mind or the words that the assignment expects. They sometimes think they have to find the words that they can spell or punctuate.

The Secretary for Your Brain

But writing is merely being the secretary for your brain. Your kids need lots of room to simply hook up the hand with the mind and scribble it onto a page. That’s it!

Can you trust that messy process to grow a writer? YES!

Today: set a timer for one minute. Everyone (including you!) writes! Keep that pencil going at top speed, no regard for errors. Just write. At the end, pencils, down, and give a big exhale. No need to even read the writing! Just do it.

Writing is hard when we think it’s a performance. Writing becomes easier and easier when we see it as a skill that hooks up a brain with a hand. Nothing less, but nothing more either.

Everything in the writing life starts with the confidence to put the pen on the page and write what you think.

This post was originally shared on Instagram.
Watch the accompanying reel for more.