Essays on Writing Craft and Mindset
by Maggie Frank-Hsu
Change Fatigue: Flip Teams From Burnout to Buy-In
M client, Jenny Magic, who just published her first book, Change Fatigue: Flip Teams From Burnout to Buy-In, with her co-author Melissa Breker. I was lucky enough to edit the book, a fascinating take on small-scale change management, available here. Feels so good to hold it in my hands!
Writing Feedback: Dos and Don'ts
As you work on your piece of writing, you probably crave feedback. Feedback can be very helpful! But, this post isn’t about that. :p This post is about whom NOT to ask. Yes, there are so many ways to give terrible writing feedback that is unhelpful or worse, discouraging.
Writing Accountability (without the shame)
How do I do what I say I’m going to do? Without: beating myself up for missing a goal, comparing myself to other people who seem to be “on track”, quitting… again
No head, all hands
Sometimes I read somewhere about the importance of play in our lives, and I think a bit sheepishly that even when I was a kid, I didn’t really… play that much. I was asthmatic and unathletic, and I was indifferent to the outdoors. (Don’t worry, I learned to love being outside later.)
Hello, Time to Write Members!
I self-published my first book, Be About Something in 2020, which I wrote to help people who wanted to write but needed help figuring out what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it.
That time I appeared on Jeopardy!
What losing on Jeopardy! taught me about my work and myself.
On writing: Allowing the magic to unfold naturally
Once I told a French person that we keep our Camembert in the fridge. That, ahem, actually, you can’t buy unrefrigerated cheese in any grocery store in the U.S. (None I know of, anyway.)
Writer, are you taking time to listen to yourself?
I was dawdling in my inbox when I came across this line in Esther Perel’s newsletter: “We have to remember,” my peer told me, “that when people aren’t listening, it’s because they don’t feel heard.”
The right place to start your book
“Alex wheeled the Range Rover into the parking lot of MNY Bank. He grabbed his portfolio from the backseat and sprinted to the doors. A quick check of his watch made it official: 9:06 a.m. He was late—again.
So you're thinking about writing about your life
Here’s a questions I get a lot from clients who want to write books about their lives: “What should I do if I have stories that will make some people in my life look bad? Can I write about my memories without hurting other people’s feelings?