aMissingSignal asks: How can one afford to be a writer?
I’m not trying to be twee here, I promise, or give that greeting-card-sweet writing advice that causes me to twitch and strike my teeth together, but I honestly believe that you should go “into” writing only if you feel you have no choice—like you can’t afford [...]

I have conveyed my hatred of graduation speeches before, but there was one graduation speech I heard that actually meant something to me. When I was at the School of the Arts at Columbia, the great philosopher Bill Murray came and spoke to us.
The gist of his speech was: “Look, people thought I was [...]

Michelle asks: What’s a query letter, exactly, and how do you write one?
The truth is, Michelle, this is not something I really have to do very often. I mean, I wrote one or two a few years ago, but I don’t really remember what I said. I’m no expert.
I can tell you what they [...]

I am sorry about not posting for a few days. This is partially because I have been traveling back to New York (missing the YA prom in the process–I was supposed to be there), and partially because I thought it would be really smart to step on my computer. It wasn’t a huge step. Just [...]