Jaya Saxena, The Creative Independent, 6/17/2026

• One of the things I always do when I find myself stuck, realizing my writing seems a bit flat, or that I’m just explaining something and not really breathing into it or letting it have life is, I pull away from the computer, and I tend to just pace around my room and try to literally talk it out as if I’m speaking to a friend. I’m not always trying to be conversational, but it helps me shake out in my head, what is the actual point I’m trying to make? And then, I can add the language on top of that.
• Maintaining your voice is an act of trying to build and keep confidence whenever you can — which is a struggle, which is difficult — and trying to remind myself, I have built a career, or I have a specific voice, and it is worth it to try to do what I can do the best that I can instead of trying to mimic anyone else.

Mason Currey, The best book on writing I've ever read, 6/17/2026

• Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story
• In the book, Gornick provides an insightful and convincing answer to a question that has always nagged at me, namely: Why do certain pieces of writing “work” while others emphatically do not, despite the author’s best intentions and maximum effort?
• Gornick begins with a simple observation about selves: that all of us contain a variety of them. One person might be, for instance, “a daughter, a lover, a bird-watcher, a New Yorker,” among many other things. And a piece of writing succeeds when the writer invokes the best self to tell the particular story at hand.
• Gornick argues that every work of literature has a situation—“the context or circumstances, sometimes the plot”—and a story—“the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say.” The persona is like the bridge between these two: the vehicle for transforming a situation into a story.

Dig Site, Where'd all the time go?, 6/12/2026

• being an artist online is accompanied by this sort of present-tense anxiety... like if I’m not posting, I’m disappearing. The timeline moves so fast, and sometimes I fear that if I’m not contributing enough, then I’ll fall behind.
• I propose slowness as an act of resistance in reclaiming platform time. It’s alright to let things simmer, and maybe not be in the hyper-present online—in fact, I find it really helpful to refill my creative reserve. Now, I love social media, I love memes, and heck I love my Spotify daylist. And, I think it’s important to be intentional about where we give our undivided attention. Maybe reckoning with platform time is an opportunity to find joy in all the fleeting online moments, and an invitation to slow down and create where it feels right.

Roopa Vasudevan, The Creative Independent, 5/30/2026

• “Well, we’re in a really bad situation. But look at this artist, they can show us the new way forward.” That started to really frustrate me. That view treats artists almost as if they are exempt from all of the problems that plague everyone else in their relationships with technology, when in reality they’re just as susceptible to all of this. We really have to start reckoning with that idea rather than thinking of ourselves as somehow exempt.
• The whole idea of strategic transparency came from observing that tech companies use artists as a kind of clout. I really go into depth in my book analyzing the way that Google utilized the Arcade Fire project, the interactive music video they did for “We Used to Wait” in 2010. It was a really innovative, amazing project, but it was also a launch of Google Chrome, meant to show all the things Chrome was capable of that other browsers weren’t. The tech industry frequently utilizes artists as a way to legitimize or popularize their projects. I make parallels to gentrification—the first thing that real estate developers usually cite is, “Oh, look how many artists live here.”

Queer Writers of Queens, 5/27/2026

• "draw the house" - when you are describing something, think of if someone could draw it
• "over-editing" - can avoid this by viewing your work in different formats (using a different word processor, putting it in a spreadsheet)
  • handwriting is also important

Avigayl Sharp, The Creative Independent, 5/19/2026

• I felt like everything I wrote was wonderful, but [my teacher] was like, “there’s a lot here that needs work.” There’s a moment when you decide to do something for the good of itself. You’re like, “okay, maybe I really want to see what I can do. Maybe I’m really willing to work. Maybe it’s not going to come easily to me and that’s okay.” That was the beginning of my love of working, instead of just loving the praise.

Caro Claire Burke, 4/10/2026

• It's not nothing to make a decision that reinforces your own sense of legitimacy.

Min Jin Lee, Queens College reading/lecture, 3/25/2026

• I believe in throwing away drafts
• I like the idea that we are infinite, so you don't have to worry about losing something forever if you throw it away.

can't remember where I heard this, 3/5/2026

• respect for your own memory and specificity as a way to connect with other people

can't remember where I heard this, 2/10/2026

• Narrative writing where you create an ending is helpful for healing (even if you don't actually have closure with the person)