Write Things Newsletter

Last week, I wrote about what I think might be one of the greatest challenges we face in this life: honouring what is within us despite everything happening outside of us. For many of us reading this newsletter, one of those things is writing. There's a story we want to tell. A book we want to fi...

Aug 20, 2026

On the Life We Want to Live

A couple of weeks ago, I was flying home from a conference in Pennsylvania. I was supposed to travel through Chicago and back to Winnipeg, but a storm rolled through and my flight was cancelled. Instead of getting home that night, I ended up flying out the next day. On that flight, I sat beside a...

Aug 14, 2026

Write Things: On Not Knowing

Hello writers! One of the hardest things about writing is accepting that there comes a point where we simply don't know anymore. We can take a story a long way on our own. We can write it, revise it, cut scenes, strengthen dialogue, and spend hours searching for just the right word. But eventuall...

Aug 06, 2026

On Stories That Matter

One of the things I love most about this work is that we never really know where our stories will end up. We don't know who will read them. Or hear them. We don't know which sentence will stay with someone, which memory will remind them of their own life, or which character will make them feel ju...

Jul 30, 2026

On What Your Readers See That You Don't

In all my years of working with writers in group settings, there is one thing that has happened every single time without exception. Every writer has been surprised by what readers found in their work. Every one. Not occasionally. Not most of the time. Every writer, every session, without fail. S...

Jul 23, 2026

On What Comparison Is Actually Doing

Of all the tricks the inner critic plays, comparison might be the most effective. It's subtle. It doesn't announce itself the way procrastination does, or show up as obviously as the voice that says you're not ready. It arrives quietly, usually while you're reading something you admire or hearing...

Jul 16, 2026

On the Story That Asserts Itsef

A writer I worked with some time ago came to a workshop series writing fiction. For three weeks she brought imaginative, visual, deeply engaging work — the kind of writing that pulls you in and holds you there. Then, in the final session, something else showed up. A personal story that had appare...

Jul 09, 2026

On Discovering Your Story

Last week, during one of our coaching calls in the Write Things Community, we did something a little different. Many writers are working on the first draft of their manuscripts, so we spent the session exploring their endings through a series of reflective prompts. Rather than trying to think o...

Jul 06, 2026

On Coming Back

I want to tell you about a writer I've known for some time. She's talented. Thoughtful. The kind of writer whose work stays with you. And for a stretch, life pulled her away from the page. Not dramatically — just the way life does sometimes. Other things needed her attention. The writing became s...

Jun 25, 2026

On What We Can't See in Our Writing

We're wrapping up another round of Enhance Your Storytelling, and this time, we approached the material a little differently. Instead of starting with technique — here's how to build tension, here's how to plant a detail — we started as readers. Before learning to write these moments, writers spe...

Jun 18, 2026

On Growth & Resistance

When writers first join the Write Things Community, they arrive with all the things you'd expect. Uncertainty about their writing. Nervousness about sharing it. A quiet fear that what they've created isn't good enough — or that they aren't good enough. They come in carefully, testing the water. W...

Jun 11, 2026

On the Importance of Permission

There's something worth marking this month. The founding members of the Write Things Collective are closing out their first year — a full year of showing up, of putting words on the page, of doing the quiet, unglamorous work that writing actually requires. The change I've witnessed has been genui...

Jun 04, 2026

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