Interests 54 through 58

I am interested in:

54. What other people eat for breakfast

55. Chesterfield sofas

56. Trees and their leaves

57. Fictional kidnappings

58. Cultivating a growth mindset.

Would you like to hear some of My Opinions about writing?

1. You can’t push through writers’ block.

If writing is a labyrinth, writer’s block is a dead end. You can’t go forward that way. You’ve taken a wrong turn. The block isn’t going to move. What you can do is go back. Pick a new path—maybe it’ll take you out of the maze, maybe it'll just take you further in. (Good luck to anyone in the twisty, uncertain middle.)

2. Bon Iver makes great music to write to.

“For Emma, Forever Ago” specifically. There’s so much space for writing in between all the vibes.

3. The best thing you can be is your own biggest fan.

My Interest #22, Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself begins: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.” What else is there to say? Put that energy in a crystal and call me Spencer Pratt. (This is a very niche reference, almost as niche as the F1-inspired-romance-novel podcast I co-host, Racy Books Podcast, which IN NEWS: is now back for a second season.) Please know how much I have over-thought this paragraph. (I scrapped a lengthy Victor Frankenstein metaphor.) But My Opinion is: not only are we allowed to enjoy ourselves, we’re supposed to. 

Okay! Thanks for reading another very Earnest email disguised as a questionably managed marketing mechanism,

Hanna