Writer’s Block: Exploring the Cause and the Cure

Writer’s block—wanting to write and not writing—is a persistent problem that every writer (yes, every writer, even Stephen King) deals with. At its simplest, it manifests as a lack of ideas. What do I write about? At its most pernicious, writer’s block can convince you that you lack what it takes to be a writer. We’re here to tell you: that’s simply not true.

Writer’s block is certainly a tough problem to solve. If we all knew how to get rid of writer’s block, the world would be overflowing with books, completed effortlessly and ahead of schedule.

Nonetheless, writer’s block doesn’t have to be chronic, or debilitating. In this article, we’ll look deeply into what causes writer’s block, and describe how to overcome writer’s block—in whatever way it might be manifesting in your writing. But first, what is writer’s block?

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Starting to Write

Introduction to Writing the Lyric Essay

Every writer experiences different roadblocks on their writing journey. Some of those roadblocks are external: rejections from literary journals, disagreements with book publishers, a lack of time and resources, and the like.

However, far more of those roadblocks are internal: self-doubt, perfectionism, low motivation, etc. The internal roadblocks we face around our writing practice are what cause writer’s block.

In writer’s block, something internal dams the flow of creativity. Our internal worlds shape how we access our creativity, so getting rid of writer’s block means working through whatever psychological barriers are inhibiting us.

The secret to a successful writing habit is writing every day, without inhibition or prescriptive judgments. So, to overcome writer’s block, we need to work towards a productive writing mentality.

Build a solid routine

Author and dancer Twyla Tharp once wrote, “Creativity is a habit.” This might seem counterintuitive to some — isn’t creativity something that naturally ebbs and flows, not something you can schedule? But the truth is, if you only write when you “feel creative”, you’re bound to get stuck in a rut. One of the best ways to push through is by writing on a regular schedule.

You may already have a routine of sorts, but if you’re experiencing writer’s block, it’s time to switch things up. Figure out the days and times that really work best for you — if you feel most productive in the mornings, it could be worth waking up half an hour earlier to squeeze in some writing. Or if you prefer low-pressure writing sessions, you could try Sunday afternoons when you have no other commitments.

Whichever days and times you choose, be consistent. The only way to build a reliable routine is to actually stick to your chosen sessions! Give it at least 3-4 weeks and you’ll start seeing real progress.

Write it badly at first

“Blocks often occur because writers put a lot of pressure on themselves to sound ‘right’ the first time. A good way to loosen up and have fun again in a draft is to give yourself permission to write imperfectly.”

Writers often spend hours looking for the perfect phrasing to illustrate a concept. You can avoid this fruitless (and block-engendering) endeavor by putting, “In other words…” and simply writing what you’re thinking, whether it’s eloquent or not. You can then come back and refine it later by doing a CTRL+F search for “in other words.”

And if you’re truly paralyzed, you might consider the extreme solution of The Most Dangerous Writing App. Just set up a timed writing session, and if you stop typing for more than a few seconds, all your text will disappear. Needless to say, this app lives up to its name — but if you’re desperate to stop overthinking everything you write, it’s sure to get the job done!

How to get over writer’s block with AI

Not yet familiar with AI writing? It’s about time. Flowrite turns short bullet points into full-fledged emails and messages in seconds. And it can also help you to get rid of writer’s block! When you are completely stuck with an email or message, it will instantly give you an idea of what the final text should look like without you even typing the bullet points. See it how it worked for reaching out to a favourite podcast host of mine.

This is possible thanks to our templates. When we talk about templates, we don’t mean anything prewritten. Instead, they guide the AI to generate the type of text you wish. If you already have know what you want to say, but struggle with putting into writing, here’s what to do. Just jot down a couple of sentences as instructions, select a template for the type of email or message you are about to send, and watch our AI writer do its magic.

We hope that this blog post was able to help you to find out how to solve writer’s block. If it feels like it’s impossible to get around it, just remember that you are not alone. People throughout the time have managed to get over the block and found their words again.

Source:

https://writers.com/writers-block
https://blog.reedsy.com/writers-block/
https://www.flowrite.com/blog/how-to-overcome-writers-block

Finding & Securing Employment in Finland

Finnish Language Skills
The most important asset for entering the Finnish labour market is Finnish language ability. Whatever you do, show that you are willing to learn Finnish – indeed, you should learn some Finnish before you even start looking for work. There are sectors and companies where English is used as a working language but these are exceptions. Lack of Finnish is an obstacle even at the application stage because most positions are only advertised in Finnish. Knowing at least elementary Finnish helps open many doors; see the Finnish Language Courses section, which includes numerous free online lessons and courses.

• Analyse job ads thoroughly: Understand the formal requirements and assets for the job, and list those qualities you possess. Note the style of language used in the ad, and use the same level of formality in your covering letter.
• Call the employer: Unless the ad specifically says not to call, telephone the contact person for extra information; this opportunity to make a positive impression can help later in the application process. Introduce yourself at the beginning of the call. Prepare your questions in advance; they should be appropriate and pertinent. Do not ask what the salary is or whether they think you are a suitable candidate. Take notes, including the name of the person you spoke with, and refer to your notes when writing your covering letter.

What You Want Might Not Be What You’ll Get

What we are going to see is the reality of the US market as it is today. You might not like it, and unfortunately, if your profile and expectations don’t match this market, it’s not going to happen. Sorry to disappoint you.

If you don’t want to accept the reality and adjust your expectations, you have only your own decisions to fall back on. The choice is ultimately yours. You must remember that it’s your life. My choice was to live in the USA, and I now live an amazing life there. It’s not because I’m lucky; it’s because I reviewed my expectations and accepted the reality. That’s it.

If you are not ready for such a big step, it’s time to seriously think that you may misunderstand exactly what the American Dream is. And the United States might not be for you, after all. The choice is yours!

The way things are, you need to fit the mold, or you are out.

As unfortunate as this fact is, you need to understand it before going any further. I don’t want to waste your time. So, if you continue reading this post, I assume that you understand the implications of this process. 😀

What I Want

What kind of job do I want to get?

If you know what job you want in the US, that’s awesome! You already know what to search for, and you know exactly what type of job opening you want to apply to. Your career plan is clear for you, and you can skip the rest of this section and go on to “What I Will Get.”

If you don’t have a plan yet, please don’t tell me you are ready to do anything to be in the US. That is NOT a career plan! I have heard that too much for my taste. I know your goal is to be in the USA and get experience from it. But first, you need a CAREER PLAN!

I was in the same situation when I was looking for a job in the USA. At first, I was open to everything and not only jobs in my field. I applied for jobs in sales, marketing, etc., and I discovered that I was going nowhere.

How to get a job in the USA with a career change:

If you are tired of what you are doing right now, a career change plan may be the thing for you. But you need to figure out the journey you want for yourself to achieve your final goal. Switch to a position that requires your skills or something new you want to learn; this will help you to continue your journey until you reach your final goal.

You might need to focus on setting academic and work-related goals so that you can put your knowledge and abilities to good use. Although volunteering requires time, the commitment can be a fantastic choice when you want to master the skills you haven’t been able to make use of in your workplace.

Support while looking for a job in Switzerland

Swiss residents can claim unemployment insurance after five days of unemployment, however, you must have been working and paying contributions for at least 12 months in the last two years to be eligible.

Work visas in Switzerland

Switzerland is not part of the EU but citizens from countries which are part of the EU or EFTA (European Free Trade Association) can come to Switzerland without a visa, move between cantons, look for work for up to three months and work without the need for a work permit – although if you’re planning to stay longer than three months you’ll need to register for a residence permit with the canton in which you’re living. For even more information, see Expatica’s guide for EU citizens moving to Switzerland and the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).

It’s much harder for anyone else as there are strict quotas on jobs in Switzerland for foreigners. For example, employers have to prove the job can’t be done by a local, and permits are limited to managers, specialists, and those with higher educational qualifications.

Language requirements to work in Switzerland

Switzerland has four main national languages: Swiss-German is the most widely spoken, especially in the center and areas in the east; French is spoken in the west; and Italian in the south. While English is often spoken in the workplace, having some knowledge of these other languages will give you an advantage in the Swiss job market, as would being able to speak Russian or Mandarin.

A report in 2017 showed statistically that foreigners coming to work in Switzerland will find themselves in a German-Swiss working environment, which is the case for some 42% of Swiss residents. However, the multilingual Swiss are increasingly adapting to the growing international workplace: twice as many people in Switzerland speak Swiss German or English at work than they do at home. Additionally, since 2000, the number of residents who do not speak any official Swiss language has more than doubled, or tripled since 1990, according to the Swiss statistics office.

Qualifications to work in Switzerland

If you want to work in a regulated profession – health, teaching, technology, law and social work – in Switzerland, you’ll need to have your foreign qualifications recognised, even if you’re from the EU or EEA. If your occupation isn’t regulated you may still wish to get a ‘level certificate’ that provides Swiss employers with information about how your foreign qualification relates to the Swiss higher education system.

Academic qualifications (not for regulated professions) from some countries are recognised via the Bologna Process. University qualifications (bachelor degrees and above but not those related to regulated professions) can also be recognized for work purposes through ENIC-NARIC.

Tax and social security numbers in Switzerland

Since 2008, all Swiss residents have been issued with a 13-digit social security number (AHV number). The number is used for all social insurance purposed and you will need it, for example, to claim social security.

Source:

https://www.expat-finland.com/employment/finding_work.html
https://usponsorme.com/en/us-jobs/
https://www.expatica.com/ch/working/finding-a-job/find-jobs-in-switzerland-102375/

4 steps to the perfect work apology

1. Acknowledge what happened.

Acknowledging the event serves two purposes: It validates your team’s ideas about what occurred, and it defines the mess-up, so people know what you’re apologizing for. This is a simple first step, but it’s an important one to take.

Part of apologizing involves communicating empathy and assuring the other party that you understand how your behavior affects others. Mentioning the event sets you up for an empathetic apology.

“Own it, and don’t try to hide it or blame anyone else,” said Vicki Salemi, career expert with Monster. “It’s always best to be succinct; don’t ramble. ‘This is what happened, I’m responsible, this is what I’m going to do to fix it, and this is what I learned.’”

2. Admit your mistake, but don’t focus on your initial intentions.

After acknowledging the event, you need to own your mistake. This is the most important part of the apology. Often, people make excuses, blame others, or don’t appropriately take responsibility. Apologizing can be awkward, but if you take responsibility, your peers and manager may respect you more in the long run. A good apology exposes character, so treat the action as just that: an exercise in good character.

“Own up to your part in whatever happened,” said Tara Vossenkemper, founder of The Counseling Hub. “When you have an otherwise good relationship with your boss, employee, or co-worker, taking ownership of your role only serves to strengthen that relationship and build trust between the two of you.”

Vossenkemper said that a good apology doesn’t involve extensive explanations about why the event happened. Moving into this territory can bog down your apology – you don’t want to focus on why something happened and its lead-up. Instead, own your mistake and move on to how you can improve the situation.

Focusing on an explanation can also sound defensive. You may feel like you want to say your piece, and sometimes it’s justified, but often the person you’re apologizing to won’t care about your original intentions. The mistake happened, and it’s time to figure out how to remedy it.

“Just say you’re sorry for the specific thing you did and leave it at that,” Vossenkemper said. “The only thing the explanation does is dig a metaphorical hole and make your listener feel defensive, as though you’re trying to rationalize or excuse your behavior.”

Key takeaway: There’s no need to explain why you made a mistake. State what the mistake was, and move on to the next steps in your apology.

3. Concentrate on what you learned.

The best thing you can do during an apology is talk about what lesson the situation has taught you or your team. Mistakes happen in the business world; Salemi points out that some company cultures have a stress-free work environment that actually encourages mistakes because they’re growth opportunities. By prioritizing what you learned from the mistake, you can shift the discussion toward something positive.

“Bosses and colleagues want to know that we won’t make the same mistake again,” said Bob Graham, co-founder and CEO of Serious Soft Skills. “Show them you learned the lesson by explaining, in a sentence or two, what lesson you learned.”

Graham said managers and colleagues want to see their peers evolve and learn. By focusing on the lesson in your apology, you can communicate that you’re an intelligent, self-aware employee who can handle responsibility and problems with grace.

4. Suggest a plan or solution.

After talking about the lesson you learned, suggest a plan, talk through a solution, or mention how you can help rectify the situation. This is the second stage to shifting the discussion away from the mistake and toward a positive outcome. By communicating your willingness to help, you back up the lesson you learned from the mistake with meaningful action.

If you follow these steps, you’ll put yourself in the best position possible after a big mistake in the workplace. Every situation is different, but if you follow this plan, your co-workers, manager or employees will eventually come around.

What to avoid when apologizing at work

Apologizing when necessary is important, but apologizing in the wrong way – or at the wrong time – can be worse than staying silent. Here are some key things to avoid in your workplace apologies:

Apologizing too much

In general, it’s not a smart strategy to apologize for every little thing you do wrong. While appropriate in some instances, workplace apologies should occur after big mistakes or when your whole team or a group of co-workers witnesses a mess-up. Apologizing 24/7 can create the wrong impression in the workplace, according to Salemi.

Taking the blame for things that aren’t your responsibility

Instead of apologizing to whoever is asking for something to be rectified, say that you’re looking into it with the appropriate people. Don’t name anyone – you don’t want to throw your teammates under the bus – but do lay out an action plan without apologizing.

Continuing to make apologies that go unrecognized (or hearing too few apologies from others)

While apologies can be awkward, they also serve as a window into your company’s culture. If you find yourself issuing an appropriate apology that is still not well received, it can be a workplace confidence killer. If that happens, it may be time to analyze your current workplace and decide if it’s a good fit for you. This is also true when managers and co-workers apologize (or fail to apologize).

Tip: If your apologies fall on deaf ears – or if you don’t hear apologies from others when you should – you might not be the problem. Your current workplace or company culture might be the issue.

Viewing constructive criticism as a reprimand

Team members at all levels can, and should, receive constructive criticism from their peers. Research has found that constructive criticism delivered after a task is completed has a substantial impact on future performance. One way to sap that future impact, though, is to take constructive criticism as a reprimand.

When someone advises you on how to do something differently, they’re not doing so out of disdain or ill will. If anything, they want you to improve and are taking active steps to help you do so. That’s why you shouldn’t say “I’m sorry” when you receive constructive criticism. Instead, say “thank you,” and then act on the advice you’ve received.

Not taking corrective action

If something you did merits an apology, it’s one thing to say you’re sorry. It’s another to put actions to your words. So don’t just apologize– put forth a plan, as discussed above, and then act on it. This way, your apology doesn’t ring hollow, and you can rebuild any trust lost in whatever fallout you’re piecing back together.

Example apology when you’ve made a mistake you can’t fix yourself

You’re human, so you screwed up on something complex (think: green-lighting something you didn’t actually have the authority to OK). You realize that you don’t have the skills, resources, or authority to fix it on your own, and the only option you have is to admit this to your supervisor or someone else and ask them to help you out. This apology should be timely (since you need help fixing the error—fast). Try something like:

I made a mistake on the BumbleB account. I thought I was taking initiative, but I can see now that I should have run my actions by you first. I’m so sorry and it won’t happen again. However, in order to fix it, I’ll need your help. When’s the best time for us to discuss?

Example apology when you’ve promised something impossible to a client

You’re always striving to exceed your clients’ expectations. You go above and beyond, promising to give them everything their hearts desire. This works well—until you realize that something you guaranteed them simply cannot be done.

If you’re part of a team—even if you’ve been running lead—share your mistake with your colleagues or your manager. They may not be able to help you, but at the very least, they should know what’s going on. When you’re apologizing to your client or customer, make sure you come prepared with a solution.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to provide you with a dedicated account manager with the package you’re looking at. I’m sorry for my oversight. I said yes out of enthusiasm and a desire to give you exactly what you wanted, but I should have checked with our account management team before saying it could be done. Instead, I can set you up with a free one-time training session for our software for anyone who will be using it and a dedicated account manager for the first two months of your subscription to make sure you’re up and running.

Source:

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15110-how-to-apologize-at-work.html
https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-templates-thatll-make-saying-im-sorry-so-much-easier
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/when-and-how-to-apologize-at-work-2062679

What are the best and worst things about being a writer?
I really like that I don’t have to go to an office. I’m quite outgoing in my personal life, but I found it crippling [in terms of social anxiety] to be in an office setting. I don’t like the necessity of having to be a public-facing figure – which is going to sound unconvincing because I use social media a lot. But it feels quite a stressful thing to have to maintain.

Introducing our 10 best debut novelists of 2021

I t’s a tough time to be a debut novelist, with so many of the usual channels for promoting new writing suspended or curtailed. The Observer’s pick of this year’s first novels will be published in a country whose bookshops are closed, and whose literary festivals have been postponed or made virtual. It therefore feels particularly important to celebrate these books, to make sure that they receive the profile and plaudits they deserve.

This is the eighth year in which the New Review team has read through dozens of first novels, looking for books that leap out from the crowd, writers who speak with powerful, fresh voices. Our record is pretty good. Last year we were the first to champion Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain, which went on to win a host of prizes, including the Booker. Stuart says now: “Publishing your debut novel fills you with excitement and a fair amount of anxiety. We live in a noisy world, and it can be challenging for new writers to make themselves heard above the din. To be recognised as one of the Observer’s best debuts changed everything.” Previous luminaries selected also include Sally Rooney, Jessie Burton, Gail Honeyman, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Sara Collins.

This year’s selection of debuts (from writers in the UK and Ireland) is a particularly rich and interesting mix. We have novels that engage with contemporary British life, with questions of race and identity prominent. There are books that seek to explore occluded histories and contested narratives. It’s a list featuring several poets who have turned to the novel as a way of exploring ideas in a more capacious form. Several of the authors reflect either specifically or obliquely on the coronavirus pandemic, while others explore issues of systemic prejudice and social justice. There are a number of short, intense books that can be read in a single sitting, while others attempt to reshape the form of the novel itself. As always, we’re astonished and delighted by the range and ambition of the writers in this list. We look forward to following their careers in the years and decades ahead.

‘When I told my family I had a novel coming out, one uncle asked if I’d had a ghost writer’
Paul Mendez

They say write what you know – and 37-year-old Paul Mendez had plenty of material to draw on for his first novel, Rainbow Milk. Like his protagonist, Jesse, Mendez was raised in the Black Country as a Jehovah’s Witness, and “disfellowshipped” by the group at 17. Like Jesse, Mendez moved to London and became a male escort and sex worker, part of a journey of self-discovery that forms the core of his beautifully assured book.

He spent several years transforming his experiences into fiction: “There were times when to write something directly autobiographical would have simply been to bleed my heart out on to the page,” he says. “There are things that happened to me in it, but the details are far different.”

Rainbow Milk will be published by Dialogue Books, a Hachette imprint founded in 2017 to publish under-represented voices, headed up by Sharmaine Lovegrove. Mendez had met her at a party in 2012, but it wasn’t until he read about Dialogue that he followed up: “I sent her a sprawling 300-page manuscript on her first day,” he laughs.

What made you want to be a writer?
I was raised studying the Bible with adults – and it’s the greatest book ever, right? So my literacy accelerated at a very young age. Books have just always been the thing; I’ve never been able to escape words.

When did you start writing?
I was always encouraged by my English teacher to write, but Witnesses don’t encourage any kind of creative application, so it was a real conflict. I quit an engineering degree in 2002 to write. My family isn’t at all literary and when I told them I had a novel coming out, one uncle asked if I’d had a ghost writer. They’re wonderful people – just very different. They’re still Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they think I’m stupid: I was taught the “truth” and decided to go against that. I’ve tried to give up on them, but I really can’t. They may give up on me after this book comes out – who knows?”

What do you think about the world of books and publishing in 2020?
I think it’s our great hope! Dialogue Books, Merky Books, Jacaranda Books – all of these imprints are now around, looking for people with different and very valid voices. We’re in a good place.

Have you been mentored or particularly encouraged by anyone?
It was a fantastic leap of faith on Sharmaine’s part to say “I believe in you, you can write – go away and do it.” I needed someone to do that.

What’s the best and worst thing about being a writer?
There’s two amazing things: being part of a community of brilliant people, and always having the ability to put your thoughts into words. Therapy is great – but it’s also great to be able to open your laptop and talk to yourself. The worst thing? So far, nothing!

Give it to trusted friends to read

Agents are totally anal about it and most people just don’t bother getting it right. The wrong presentation, basically, puts an agent in a negative frame of mind before they’ve even started reading. Below is the advice that my agent sent me, after I sent her the first three chapters:

Once you’ve got your immaculately presented, completed manuscript, go out and buy a book called the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. This is an industry bible and contains comprehensive listings of every agent in the UK and US. Don’t send your work direct to publishers (unless you know someone there) as they don’t even have the time to read them these days.

There is a bit under each agent which tells you what sort of work they handle – be careful to choose only agents who handle the sort of work you’re sending them, otherwise you’re wasting everyone’s time. Send them the first three chapters and a nice friendly covering letter, telling them a bit about yourself and what inspired you to write. Don’t do a hard sell or try and tell the agent that you’re going to be a bestseller or the next John Grisham. This goes down very badly. If your work is good then they are skilled enough to know this within a few pages. If you’re attractive, it wouldn’t do any harm to send a photo as well. (But just one small one – don’t overdo it!)

For a more in-depth view of the publishing world and what you should be aware of before attempting to crack it, I’ve just read the best ever book about writing and being published. It’s written by an ex-editor and now agent and it’s essential reading. The downer is that it’s only available in the US and only in hardback, so it’s a bit pricey, but if you can afford it I really would recommend that you get yourself a copy. It’s called The Forest for the Trees – An Editor’s Advice to Writers and it’s published by Riverhead Books (an imprint of Penguin Putnam).

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/31/introducing-our-10-best-debut-novelists-of-2021
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/26/10-best-debut-novelists-2020-paul-mendez-abi-dare-anappara-elaine-feeney-beth-morrey-douglas-stuart
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2016/lisa-jewell-s-top-tips-for-new-writers.html
New writers

Accepted applicants will be paid $.50/word for pieces up to 2,000 words and will also be awarded an additional stipend for expenses. Because this program is intended for emerging writers, preference will be given, but not limited, to applicants under the age of thirty. BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and working-class writers are especially encouraged to apply.

New writers

Click here to register to attend any of the events, both in-person or virtual.

Readings will begin at 7:30 pm in the Roschel Performing Arts Center.

Or join by phone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 929 205 6099 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833
Webinar ID: 993 1007 5461

Or join by phone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 929 205 6099 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833
Webinar ID: 993 4898 9883

Craft Talks will begin at the times listed below and will be held in the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House

Closing events will be held in the Philadelphia Alumni Writers House

Dial by your location
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 984 6115 5817

7 New and Forthcoming Books by Writers Over 60

Jan 18, 2022

JR Ramakrishnan

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Time passes stunningly; perhaps never more so than in the last two years of the breakneck movement in global events, as well as the unending, stop-start pace of our collective anxiety and fear. Still even in normal years, you might wake up one day and find yourself past the age requirements for certain clubs, awards and/or lists. Maybe it’s 26 or 31. Perhaps it’s 46. Or 70. The literary world, much like the broader one, is obsessed with youth and genius, but everyone (if lucky) grows up (and arguably, writes way more textured books than they ever could at say, 22).

As someone who is deeply suspicious of peaking early and chronological age mandates, I was thrilled to discover these fully grown-up writers with thoughtful, diverse books out in early 2022. Their subjects are both fiction and nonfiction, and include outstanding women from other eras living well outside the society’s prescribed lines, difficult historical moments (Australia’s aboriginal family separation policy and World War II), and contemporary senior lives in Philadelphia and Covid-hit New York. Collectively, they’ve had careers in the literary world and out of it, some only got their literary starts well over the age of 30, and two are writing luminously in their eight and ninth decades! Age seems rather irrelevant and “it’s too late” might just be a fictional construct.

The Great Mrs Elias: A Novel Based on a True Story by Barbara Chase-Riboud

Sculptor, poet, and novelist Barbara Chase-Riboud has had a career that is mind-blowingly productive for just one lifetime. One of the first Black female artists to show work at the Whitney and subsequently showing at the world’s great museums, Chase-Riboud entered the literary world with a collection of poetry edited by Toni Morrison, and proceeded to win multiple awards. Her 1979 best-selling, first novel Sally Hemings came at a time when the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Hemings was still officially unacknowledged.

Now 82-years-old, Chase-Riboud’s latest novel The Great Mrs. Elias is based on a true story of a Black businesswoman in early 1900s New York City, which feels so palpable and jumps off the novel’s pages. I am hoping that Chase-Riboud is working on a memoir of her own expansive, transatlantic, character-filled life.

Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West’s Most Notorious Woman Bandit by John Boessenecker

A historian of the American West and in particular its criminal elements, John Boessenecker (68-years-old) narrates the story of Pearl Hart, who in 1899 robbed a stagecoach in Arizona, and became the most infamous woman in the country at the time. From her Tucson jail cell, she conducted interviews and crafted her image as “The Bandit Queen.” She smoked cigarettes, wrote poetry, knit, used morphine, and read books. In short, a total bad bitch of her time, when most women, with some exceptions, were rarely allowed outside the domestic sphere. In Wildcat, Boessenecker investigates the true stories behind the Hart myths, and offers a different portrait of the women of that era.

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer

If you’re worrying about being too old (a trap, and a voluntary one!) for anything, least of all, writing, then take note that the now 91-year-old Hilma Wolitzer wrote her first story at 36 and published her first novel in her 40s. Since then she’s published a bookshelf of nine novels and one craft book. A self-proclaimed “late-blooming novelist,” Wolitzer also created a novelist—Meg Wolitzer.

This collection includes that very first published story—and a new one “The Great Escape” which has the pandemic as its main frame. In real life, Wolitzer recovered from the illness, but her husband did not. The story will probably crack your heart in multiple ways.

Our Gen by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

68-year-old Diane McKinney-Whetstone’s novels have charted Black Philadelphia lives from previous historical moments, but in her latest, she takes on the contemporary—and how to live now, beyond a certain age. Cynthia enters Our Gen (short for Sexagenarian), a retirement community where she becomes friends with two Black residents and an Indian woman. They hang out, smoke weed, dance and talk politics, as if they were back at their college dorms. McKinney-Whetstone takes on the coming of (older) age trope in a humorous fashion, and moves back and forth between different eras of the women’s lives. Figuring out how to grow up is apparently eternal.

The White Girl by Tony Birch

In the rural Australian town of The White Girl by Tony Birch, Odette Brown tries to save her light-skinned granddaughter from the government’s forced family separation policy. It’s the 1960s and the policy would continue for another decade—in this time, Aboriginal Australians are not yet “recognized” as citizens. One of Australia’s leading contemporary literary voices, Birch, who is 64 and of Koorie descent, portrays the harshness of the time and intense racism experienced by the family in understated prose. An absolute (and unsettling regardless if you are unfamiliar with the country’s shameful recent past or not) page-turner, Birch’s novel, his third, gets its American debut in March. It was published in Australia in 2019 and bestowed multiple awards; read this review by Indigenous novelist Claire G. Coleman for an idea of the novel’s resonance there.

The Kurds

[W]hen we refer to all Kurdish fighters synonymously, we simply blur the fact that they have very different politics. . . right now, yes, the people are facing the Islamic State threat, so it’s very important to have a unified focus. But the truth is, ideologically and politically these are very, very different systems. Actually almost opposite to each other. —Dilar Dirik, “Rojava vs. the World,” February 2015

The Kurds, who share ethnic and cultural similarities with Iranians and are mostly Muslim by religion (largely Sunni but with many minorities), have long struggled for self-determination. After World War I, their lands were divided up between Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. In Iran, though there have been small separatist movements, Kurds are mostly subjected to the same repressive treatment as everyone else (though they also face Persian and Shi’ite chauvinism, and a number of Kurdish political prisoners were recently executed). The situation is worse in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, where the Kurds are a minority people subjected to ethnically targeted violations of human rights.

Iraq: In 1986–89, Saddam Hussein conducted a genocidal campaign in which tens of thousands were murdered and thousands of Kurdish villages destroyed, including by bombing and chemical warfare. After the first Gulf War, the UN sought to establish a safe haven in parts of Kurdistan, and the United States and UK set up a no-fly zone. In 2003, the Kurdish peshmerga sided with the U.S.-led coalition against Saddam Hussein. In 2005, after a long struggle with Baghdad, the Iraqi Kurds won constitutional recognition of their autonomous region, and the Kurdistan Regional Government has since signed oil contracts with a number of Western oil companies as well as with Turkey. Iraqi Kurdistan has two main political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), both clan-based and patriarchal.

Turkey: For much of its modern history, Turkey has pursued a policy of forced assimilation towards its minority peoples; this policy is particularly stringent in the case of the Kurds—until recently referred to as the “mountain Turks”—who make up 20 percent of the total population. The policy has included forced population transfers; a ban on use of the Kurdish language, costume, music, festivals, and names; and extreme repression of any attempt at resistance. Large revolts were suppressed in 1925, 1930, and 1938, and the repression escalated with the formation of the PKK as a national liberation party, resulting in civil war in the Kurdish region from 1984 to 1999.

Syria: Kurds make up perhaps 15 percent of the population and live mostly in the northeastern part of Syria. In 1962, after Syria was declared an Arab republic, a large number of Kurds were stripped of their citizenship and declared aliens, which made it impossible for them to get an education, jobs, or any public benefits. Their land was given to Arabs. The PYD was founded in 2003 and immediately banned; its members were jailed and murdered, and a Kurdish uprising in Qamishli was met with severe military violence by the regime. When the uprising against Bashar al Assad began as part of the Arab Spring, Kurds participated, but after 2012, when they captured Kobani from the Syrian army, they withdrew most of their energy from the war against Assad in order to set up a liberated area. For this reason, some other parts of the Syrian resistance consider them Assad’s allies. The Kurds in turn cite examples of discrimination against them within the opposition.

Sources:

https://www.fandm.edu/english/emerging-writers-festival
https://electricliterature.com/7-new-and-forthcoming-books-by-writers-over-60/
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/call-for-emerging-writers
New writers

Students will explore storytelling through movement. Understanding how characters, emotions, and relationships are expressed through movement helps students build richer worlds in their imagination and deeper bonds in the real world. During this workshop, students will explore the movements and messages in nature, popular culture, and nonverbal communication. At the end of two weeks, students will have both a written and performed experience to take back to their creative process.

My Advice To Young Writers

So many of you have been sending me emails asking me for writing tips. So I thought I would put some of my thoughts down here about writing and the writing business. This is what works for me. It might not work for everybody.

1. Getting Started
Before you begin to write your story or novel, write a detailed outline and character backgrounds first. So many unpublished first (or second or third or 44th) novels begin halfway through the book because the writer has spent the first 150 pages giving us the background story instead of starting with THE STORY. Know your characters inside and out, where they came from, where they want to go, so that when you begin writing the book, you already know how they will act/react to events in the story. I love outlines. I read somewhere that Stephen King said writers who like to write outlines wish they were writing masters theses instead of novels. For the longest time, I thought this was true. Now I think he was just exaggerating. You need an outline. Even just the barest outline so that you know the story’s beginning, middle and end. Sometimes, I don’t stick to my outline.

The story begins to take off in a different direction, so I chuck the outline. But when this happens, I write a new outline. Outlines are the blueprints of stories. It will also keep you working, since you will see how far along you need to go. In general I write 10-20 page outlines, with a paragraph for each chapter in the book, describing the action that will occur in that chapter.

2. Begin Writing and Don’t Stop
Now that I am a mother, I write on Monday to Wednesday from 10am – 3pm everyday at a writer’s office. On Thursdays I do revisions at home and on Fridays I spend time with my baby. When I’m on deadline, which means the book was DUE YESTERDAY, the schedule goes whacky, and I just work ALL THE TIME and try to see my family in between.

The three-day writing week usually results in a solid ten to twenty pages. The manic work that happens during deadline crunch can result in anywhere from twenty to fifty pages a day. This is when the novel really happens.

Before I had my baby, when I was not on deadline, sometimes I didn’t work at all. I went to the movies, I went shopping, I hung out with my friends, I tanned by the pool, I read a ton of magazines. But that only lasted for a week or two. Most of the time I’m banging it out. Which means I force myself to sit at my desk and write.

When I did not make a living as a writer, I wrote AT EVERY CHANCE I COULD GET. I was a computer consultant at a major bank, but I would say I spent six hours writing to the two hours I spent working on my computer programs. I also spent weekends writing.

3. Cliffhangers are Key
How do you write a page-turner? By making each chapter end with a cliffhanger. What’s a cliffhanger? A cliffhanger is when the action reaches a feverish pitch and then the chapter ends with the protagonist hanging on a limb or about to kiss the boy or about to open the secret safe—but not revealing what is inside. It has to keep people reading to find out WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

I got schooled in crafting page-turning cliffhangers because I used to write a serial novel in GOTHAM magazine called “The Fortune Hunters”. My story appeared every month, and every month I would end it on a cliffhanger to keep readers interested in reading the next story, which they would have to wait a whole month for. Apparently, it worked. The serial novel was very successful, and I even sold it as an adult novel. But I have not had time to whip it into shape for publication, so we will all have to wait for that for now. (I even had to return the money!)

But writing THE FORTUNE HUNTERS taught me how to write cliffhangers. Also reading Michael Crichton novels. Those taught me about cliffhangers too. And of course, the best advice to any writer is to READ. You can’t be a writer without being a reader.

4. Always Say Yes To Everything
Making a living as a writer or an artist means that some years, you can make a lot of money, and some years are very lean. One of my producer friends in Hollywood said that whenever he feels like blowing a lot of cash, he looks up at the Hollywood Hills at all those half-built mansions and reminds himself that sometimes, one hit is all you can get, so don’t get too cocky. The people who started building those houses didn’t have enough money to finish building them. Yikes!

All through my writing career, I have taken EVERY assignment offered to me. In addition to big-name magazines, I have written for obscure websites, shopping catalogs, health and fitness magazines, free newsweeklies, blogs, anything and everything. I have written about my family, my sex life, my staggering credit card debt. I have endured humiliation and good-natured ribbing. I have survived to write about it. Did I want to dress up as a man and crash my husband’s bachelor party? YES! Did I want to try out every position in the karma sutra and write about it? YES! Did I want to go around New York and ask men to tell me the length of their bananas and see if they could get women to date them if they wore their inches on a t-shirt on their chest? Um…er…do I really have to..oh well..YES!

COVID-19 Policy

We are following UNC Greensboro’s COVID-19 protocols. Face coverings are optional. Hand sanitizer will be provided for each classroom. Campers are in large classrooms and we will practice social distancing as much as possible. We ask that staff and campers who are sick, or if someone in their household is sick, stay home. If your child becomes sick in class, we will call you immediately to pick him/her up.

"I felt really nervous because I’ve never really shared my writing with anyone besides my parents before and I also just get nervous when I have to do any type of public speaking. I feel happy now because they liked my story. I’m most proud of the descriptions I used to describe the characters and the setting; the people in my group said they could visualize the story because of the imagery."

Why Choose this Camp

Why Write?

“When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we’re capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness. I’m trying for that. But I’m also trying for the language. I’m trying to see how it can really sound. I really love language. I love it for what it does for us, how it allows us to explain the pain and the glory, the nuances and delicacies of our existence. And then it allows us to laugh, allows us to show wit. Real wit is shown in language. We need language.”

Why do young writers choose this camp?

Why would parents or teachers recommend the camp for young writers?

What we offer

Advanced Courses

Campers will engage in a study of macro and micro aquaria in the UNCG wetlands and nature journaling around the UNCG campus. This will serve as inspiration for students to share the wonders of the natural world with others through the creation of virtual reality environments.

Writing and Robotics is an afternoon companion program for campers who are rising 3rd grade – 12th grade. This camp works in conjunction with the School of Education Young Writer’s Camp. In this robotics program, we will give students an opportunity to design and construct a working cardboard and craft robot based on the writing they create in the Young Writer’s Camp. The tool we will be using is called the Hummingbird Robotics kit. Students will also have access to 3D printers, laser engraver, sewing supplies, and other arts / craft materials.

Do you have a story to tell that doesn’t fit on the page? Through podcasting, we are able to tell stories using the power of our own voices, and then publish these stories for a wide audience. During our two weeks together, we will read widely, write creatively, and listen actively as we explore the connection between story and voice. We will become practiced in the art of active listening as we immerse ourselves in the ways podcasters use their voices to communicate to their audiences, and we will explore the influence of sound and voice on our own personal narratives. You will end the course with two finished podcasts and knowledge about how to publish your work for others to hear. Through this course, you will learn to engage with, reflect upon, and manipulate sound, developing proficiency in technologies for podcast production as well as confidence in your unique storytelling voice.

Spoken word poetry is a catalyst for young voices and the building of self esteem. Students will learn to create work that describe who they are and the things that make them unique. In addition to writing, students will also learn to present and memorize their work.

How do stories draw us in and make us want to keep reading? In this class we’ll discuss the things writers do to create a compelling story—like set up a potent conflict, develop complicated characters, and show us vivid details. Then we’ll learn how to bring these narrative elements to the page. The class will take you through the major steps of writing fiction: finding story ideas, drafting, revising, and editing. In the first week, we’ll do a range of fun activities and exercises to generate ideas. Then you’ll move on to drafting a story or novel chapter in any genre of fiction you like (realistic, fantasy, historical, science fiction, etc.). In the second week, you’ll finish your draft and practice revising and editing. You’ll have the opportunity to share your work in a friendly, supportive environment and to help your fellow writers take their work to the next stage. By the end of camp, you’ll have a polished work to publish on our website. And you’ll go home with some tools you can use to write your next great work of fiction.

Campers will explore simple circuitry as they build and create a puppet that can light up or make sounds. They’ll start with paper circuits and lil bits as they learn how electricity flows. They’ll learn simple sewing techniques and design and sew a puppet of their choosing.

Sources:

https://melissa-delacruz.com/my-advice-to-young-writers/
https://soe.uncg.edu/academics/departments/tehe/tehe-communityengagement/gate-city-writes/young-writers-camp/
https://www.creativenz.govt.nz/find-funding/funds/louis-johnson-writers-bursary

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Delivering sustainability through supply contracts

June 8, 2022 – This is the fourth and final article in this series. In earlier articles, we described rapidly emerging environmental, social and governance (ESG) legal and regulatory requirements. In this article, we describe ways for buyers to meet those requirements in their supply chains.

Doing so will be challenging. Supply chains are already optimized for least cost, including as to the manner of production. ESG change increasingly requires changing the manner of production. Buyers generally have limited data on the manner of production or its cost. For suppliers, changes to the manner of production may increase cost, violate other agreements, or create other risks.

There are, however, opportunities. Technology is increasingly making it easier for technical, operational, user and business stakeholders to collaborate across companies to develop new solutions. The analytical power of scorecard methodologies, which assess performance against a range of metrics, is helping to allow goals, such as ESG, to be part of a balanced analysis. Board-level and C-level support for ESG are facilitating the necessary collaboration across traditional silos. Supply chain contracts are steadily more adaptive, flexible and nuanced, allowing broad change.

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A first approach is to use accepted standards from laws and standard-setting bodies. Accepted standards are more credible and thus more likely to be adopted "as is" instead of being negotiated. Conforming to accepted standards is less costly and complex for suppliers than working with diverging standards from various buyers. Certifications may be available from reliable third-party audit or certification firms, avoiding the need for each buyer to do its own audit.

Accepted standards can be implemented using long-established contracting concepts. Supply contracts have long included clauses requiring suppliers to comply with designated standards, train their people in line with those standards, obtain third-party certification of compliance, and allow audits by buyers. Anti-corruption compliance is an early example of success at that approach in the supply chain, and privacy compliance is a more recent example.

However, accepted standards only take a buyer so far. They often are framed at the enterprise level, not the specific supply chain for a specific buyer as performed by a specific supplier. That may not satisfy regulatory or company requirements for the buyer because those requirements generally apply to the buyer’s supply chain specifically, not merely to the companies in the buyer’s supply chain. Also, audits at the supplier enterprise level may be unreasonably costly or intrusive and, in any event, it may be unreasonable for a single buyer to ask a supplier to modify its entire enterprise for that buyer.

As a result, buyers may seek to include contract terms beyond those typical in a supply contract. Typically, the negotiable topics are product, price, delivery time and delivery location. The manner of production – how the supplier will deliver – is generally left to the supplier.

In collaborative contracting, the parties negotiate about far more topics. In those negotiations, buyers may make operational, technical and financial commitments beyond paying the agreed prices. For example, the buyer might agree to fund investment by the supplier in changing its manner of working and the ongoing costs, or to change its product requirements to reduce adverse ESG impact for the supplier.

Collaborative contracting often requires a substantial investment. Done right, it requires considerable time for the operational, technical, user, business and legal terms to be negotiated and agreed. There may be new, and more complex, terms on commitment, contribution, control and sharing of risks and rewards. In the context of ESG specifically, those obligations may be designed to allow the suppliers to profitably produce on a more sustainable basis. Also, it likely produces contracts that are inconsistent across suppliers, which may cause difficulties in integrating the resulting goods and services.

In managerial contracting, buyers manage supplier operations through contracts. Buyers obtain contractual commitments to compliance with detailed process requirements and use boots-on-the-ground inspections to ensure those commitments are satisfied. They control critical decisions, such as subcontracting work and sub-component sourcing. They use scorecards, incentives, meetings, reports and other managerial tools like those that they would have used if the buyer and the supplier were a single enterprise. This allows buyer to control, to some extent, the manner of production.

Managerial contracting was developed for quality assurance, particularly for goods where quality is difficult to measure at delivery and thus engineered into the product. For example, cooling a component slowly and evenly may allow it to last 10 instead of five years. So, the buyer focuses on cooling speed instead of waiting five years to see what breaks.

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Tradewheel is a supreme leader among the B2B platforms. For renowned suppliers and wholesalers who are thinking of setting foot in the market with their export quality goods, our platform is providing you a one-stop shop where you can get your products the exposure they need. With Tradewheel, we promise you that the selling experience we provide you will be nothing short of spectacular. The exposure our site provides your products will bring profitable boost to your business and innumerous buyers will come your way from various international regions. Our directory of buyers and importers is vast and filled with authentic and reliable names of their respective industries, waiting for right manufacturers to jump on. Read More

Generated leads play an important role in the elevation of a business. With organized handling and right amount of effort, these leads become fruitful and provide revenue for your business in the long run. Tradewheel is the biggest B2B marketplace, where everyday millions worth of deals are being made with successful leads. Our platform is having massive global presence, with over millions of buyers and importers from various industries looking for goods in affordable rates and bulk quantity. Tradewheel gives you the perplexing perk of having direct and free access to international market place, this is the best kind of exposure which no other B2B site is offering. Using our site, your products will reach to the worldwide buyers’ market where you will be connecting with genuine and authentic buyers.

Our aim with Tradewheel is to provide magnified trade opportunities to small and big business alike. We are serving as a bridge between importers, manufacturers, buyers, distributors and sales experts to come along on a single podium looking for best discounted deals and impeccable service to clients. We are providing a free browsing atmosphere for our users, where buyers are gathered from every corner of the world. Our responsibilities include facilitating our users to every extent and thus enabling them to sign up to our website for free and taking advantage of the innumerous benefits we have stacked. Choosing Tradewheel as your business partner will be your first step towards the elevation of your business towards the right directions. Below we have mentioned some prominent perks which will benefit you, once you join hands with us.

Tradewheel provides you verified business leads:

If you wish to increase the number of business leads you get on a daily basis, then look no more as in the form of Tradewheel you have found the most reliable source for business leads which will prove profitable in the long run and establish business relationship with renowned importers and buyers from different regions of the world. With our platform, your business will skyrocket with the best profit rates. Our site is a home for authentic and reliable buyers who are in search of just the right deals by trusted manufacturers of the industry. Think you are a perfect match? Wait no more and join our site and be endowed with profitable leads which will guarantee you millions of profit.

Tradewheel open doors for you to new opportunities:

Our site is a well-known and reliable business phenomenon. The amount of trust and faith instilled in us by our users is what makes the buyers and importers from international regions to trust us. We are having a large number of buyers from United States, United Kingdom, UAE, Europe and Asia who are surfing the site daily looking for quality goods. Tradewheel is the simplest way for you to attract a plethora of Importers of your export quality goods which will result in elevating your business.

Cost effective and free access:

Tradewheel offers the buyers to surf our website freely and connect directly with the prominent and reliable manufacturers like you without any hurdle or payment to a middleman. With other B2B portals you have to pay to be able to access basic features, which is a huge turn off for buyers and importers However, with us you will see the buyer turn out is good because of no hidden fees of any kind. Tradewheel is a cost effective platform with no hidden charges and payments for you to worry about. Buyers are allowed to get access to International markets of US, UK, UAE and Asian countries and connect with authentic manufacturers who are famed due to their quality products and excellent services.

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/delivering-sustainability-through-supply-contracts-2022-06-08/
https://www.tradewheel.com/buyers/
https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/delivering-sustainability-through-supply-contracts-2022-06-08/

In real life, people tend to resist hard lines: “Isn’t there a win-win approach we can take? Let’s just get along!” When there is, excellent. Take it! But, sometimes there’s not a win-win option. It’s a zero-sum game, and someone’s going to prevail. In that situation, having been trained as a lawyer is hugely valuable. With years of experience objectively examining the facts, you’re likely to identify the reality of the situation sooner and to process the alternatives more accurately.

Was Law School Worth It?

Would you do it again? This summer, as graduates prepare for their next steps — whether they’re heading off to law school or studying for the bar or thinking it’s a good time for a gap year — it’s likely you know someone (maybe it’s you?) who’s wondering: Is law school worth it? In this Attorney at Work classic, JD Nation’s Annie Little reached out to ask 10 top J.D.s.

There’s no shortage of advice on whether or not anyone should attend law school. In most discussions, the prominent concern is money. Is the cost of law school worth the Juris Doctor? Is the initial debt worth the eventual (and increasingly unlikely) partner payday?

But after the money has been spent and the hard-earned J.D. hangs on your wall, the notion of monetary value becomes somewhat irrelevant. After all, it’s not like you can go back to your alma mater and obtain a refund.

But let’s say, arguendo, that you could return your law degree and get your money back. With the “Esquire” stripped from your name and a firehose-like infusion of funds into your bank account, would you find yourself back at square one? Without any job prospects or opportunities? Or would you make out like a bandit?

As a “recovering” lawyer myself, I’ll admit the idea of a tuition refund sounds like the ultimate equalizer. But even without that hard-earned prestigious piece of paper, you’d likely walk away with a valuable set of skills and experiences you wouldn’t have earned but for your legal education.

Was Law School Worth It? Where’s the Value? 10 Lawyers Weigh In

Below you’ll read accounts from five lawyers — practicing and non-practicing. Some who have no regrets about getting a law degree, and others who aren’t so sure they’d do it again. But, as you’ll see, each demonstrates their law degree is far from worthless.

1. Keith Lee — Outlet for Creativity.

Law degrees get a bad rap these days. Rightfully so for many reasons. Many people who attend law school either don’t know what it means to be a lawyer or discover they are not fit for the role. But for people like myself who made an educated decision to go to law school, knew what they were getting into, and wanted to be a lawyer, a law degree is invaluable.

Before addressing any of the myriad ways in which my law degree has benefited me, I think it’s important to note that the most valuable thing my law degree has allowed me to do is become a practicing attorney. That’s why people attend law school. That’s not to say that alternative careers may not become available to law students, but the reason the vast majority of students attend law school is to become a practicing attorney. I thoroughly enjoy my practice: the clients, colleagues, and work we do. Without my experience as a practicing attorney, I would not have had the other opportunities that came to me in my career.

Outside of being an attorney, my law degree has led to incredible creative outlets. While finishing my last year of law school, I started Associate’s Mind, a legal blog focusing on professional development for new lawyers. It quickly became one of the most popular legal blogs in the country. Associate’s Mind has led to writing opportunities in all types of periodicals and media outlets, as well as book deals with the ABA.

This writing and outreach, born from having a law degree, has also led to wide and deep relationships with attorneys across the country. Initial interactions on blogs and social media has led to phone calls and then to meetings with attorneys in person while traveling around the country. I count many people I have met as friends and mentors.

None of the above would have been possible without a law degree. And I don’t know if you can put a fixed value on the benefits I have received from having a law degree. But, I do know that given the choice, I would do it all over again without hesitation.

Keith Lee is the founder of associatesmind.com, a professional development legal blog for new lawyers and Founder lawyersmack.com He is the author of the ABA bestseller, “The Marble and the Sculptor: From Law School to Law Practice.” Keith formally practiced law with Hamer Law Group in Birmingham, AL. Find him on Twitter @associatesmind.

2. Vivia Chen — Intellectual Prowess.

I’m one of those strange creatures who actually liked law school — certainly much more than practice (but that’s another subject).

I went to NYU Law School, and I thought the students there were razor-sharp, outspoken, and sometimes outlandish (in good ways). They were New Yorkers — even if they weren’t from New York — which is to say they were edgier than the preppies at my undergraduate school or the Southern belles I went to high school within Texas. So what I got out of law school were interesting class discussions that often veered towards heated political debates.

My law school professors, I’m sorry to say, weren’t always as interesting or sharp as the students. Some were plain dull and couldn’t even make a subject like Constitutional Law remotely lively. And some subjects (like Property) were just inherently deadly and probably beyond anyone’s salvation.

Despite what I regard as an uneven legal education, I got an immense intellectual charge from those three years. It taught me to think more logically, to back my arguments with solid support. As an English major in college, I was used to a bit more “fluff;” I loved luxuriating in metaphors, the cadence of words, etc. Law school, on the other hand, made me more direct, more forceful. Plus, it made me more argumentative — which is not a bad thing. It gave me a different perspective on how to approach problems, language, everything.

Vivia J. Chen has been writing about the business and culture of the legal profession for over a decade. She is the creator and chief blogger of The Careerist, and a senior reporter for The American Lawyer. After practicing corporate law for five years in New York City, Ms. Chen worked as a headhunter, interior designer, and ghostwriter. She specializes in writing about careers, often focusing on women and diversity. Find her on Twitter @lawcareerist.

3. Alison Monahan — Keen Discernment.

When people ask what I really learned in law school, they don’t typically like the response: To be an unyielding a**hole on demand. I know we’re not supposed to say things like that when the profession wants to encourage civility and people I like and respect actively encourage lawyers not to be jerks. But it is what it is. Ultimately, it’s a very valuable skill — one that pays dividends in every area of my life … when employed judiciously.

Should You Really Go To Law School? Introducing The Ghost Of Legal Future

That $190,000 starting salary sounds pretty good, right? Or maybe it’s the prospect of doing good for society, especially in the current political landscape. Either way, you’ve found yourself at a crossroads wondering whether you should go to law school.

You’re hardly alone. The last few years have seen a steady increase in law school applications, whether it’s been due to the “Trump bump”, an RBG moment, or COVID-19. Just in this past year, statistics from the Law School Admissions Council showed that as of December 2020, the number of applicants to U.S. law schools were up about 35% and the number of applications submitted were up about 57%, each compared to last year.

Yet, a recent study conducted by the Florida State Bar found that about 60% of young lawyers are so discouraged with their jobs that they were thinking about changing careers. A 2018 survey conducted by job site CV-Library found that about 50% of lawyers disliked their jobs.

There are plenty of other reasons why you shouldn’t go to law school and plenty of reasons why you should, but I won’t share them right now. Over the course of the coming months, my goal is to help you decide whether you should or shouldn’t go to law school. I won’t try to do this by just sharing statistics of how much debt the average law graduate is in or what the bonus is for third year big law associates – I’m sure you could find all of those things on the internet yourself. You are, in fact, smart enough to be considering law school. I’ll help you make your decision by sharing stories, stories of lawyers of all different backgrounds and in different stages of their careers, lawyers who have excelled in traditional paths, non-traditional paths, and everything in between.

Like the Ghost of Christmas Future, I’ll paint a picture of how life might turn out if you go to law school (except much less intimidating, creepy and Grim Reaper-like). My goal is not to dissuade you from going to law school, but rather, like a “choose your adventure” style novel, share the different paths a career after law school can take. I will be your Ghost of Legal Future.

I went to Boston University School of Law a few years ago; I majored in Economics at Emory University, liked to read, was good at writing, and most importantly, I did not want to be a doctor. So, as a first generation child of immigrant parents, of course, law school seemed like the right choice. While I enjoyed many parts of law school – the friends I made, the legal theories I learned, and the critical and analytical thinking skills I developed, working as a lawyer was not at all like law school. I practiced for some time as a corporate lawyer, but it didn’t take long before I realized that it was not what I had expected. I decided that the traditional lawyer path was not for me, and I eventually switched careers into design. I now work as a designer and researcher. I enjoy learning about new technologies and using my problem solving chops to find strategic and innovative solutions.

My path to leaving law firm life wasn’t an easy one. Being a lawyer meant that for most of my adult life, I had been on a path that had been clearly laid out for me. I finished college, took the LSAT, applied to law schools, attended law school, and eventually ended up at a law firm, a path that most law school career centers generally funnel students towards. In leaving the law, I no longer had a clear path laid out for me. Instead, I had to finally do the hard work of figuring out my own non-traditional path.

Law school is often the choice for those who don’t know what to do after college (with the often false promise of a lucrative salary). Even in law school, most often, on-campus recruiting and joining a law firm seem like the path of least resistance (and the path offering the highest likelihood of paying off student loans). While this is the perfect answer for some, for others it leads to unmet expectations and a desire for something different.

Still, looking back, I learned a lot through law school and working as an attorney. The work ethic that I developed, the attention to detail that I honed, and the ability to write as clearly and succinctly as possible were all invaluable skills I gained in the process. I learned how to think critically, advocate fiercely, and negotiate effectively. As I juggled multiple deals at a time, I learned to better manage my time. All to say, that, whether or not I remember the rules for negligence (I do, by the way), I learned valuable skills as a law student and lawyer.

The interesting (or, interesting to me) thing about the legal field is that there’s a whole separate field that’s emerged devoted to helping lawyers leave the law. Studies after studies show that lawyers are unhappy and unsatisfied with their careers. In fact, a recent study conducted by the Florida State Bar found that about 60% of young lawyers are so discouraged with their jobs that they were thinking about changing careers. A 2018 survey conducted by job site, CV-Library, found that about 50% of lawyers disliked their jobs.

What are the cons of going to law school?

Alternatively, public interest attorneys may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which can potentially eliminate federal student loan balances for borrowers who make loan payments for 10 years while working for the government or certain nonprofits. There are also various refinancing options and a plethora of financial products that can help you withstand the weight of debt. No matter what plan of action you pursue, the financial burden of law school must be fully understood and taken into account.

The changing job market is also one to keep in mind when considering law school. Law firms are finding increasingly innovative ways to address the needs of their clients and building broader relationships with stakeholders, but those same changes could imperil your job prospects or make the field unappetizing to you. Legal jobs have a chance of being international outsourced, for instance, and billing models are shifting.

With that said, the traditional legal market has hopeful projections. 89 percent of 2018 law school grads found jobs within 10 months. The same study found that 71 percent of 2018 law graduates worked in positions that required a J.D. Litigators are in especially high demand, and will continue to be in the next two years.

Given these potential trade-offs, one’s decision to go to law school should not be driven by fear or the negative projections of debt or a changing job market. Instead, it is a decision that should be driven by self-assessment, and career goals. Find out what job market trends you want to follow. And if public interest is the path for you, seriously consider the debt balance you will have to maintain with your goals, personal financial situation, and long-term costs.

The bottom-line answer: if you can avoid considerable debt, laser focus on equipping yourself with practical skillsets, and remain flexible about future job opportunities—you can have a successful career in the legal field. Choose your law school carefully, consider the kinds of clinical experiences you want, the possibility of mentorship, and the employment history of recent graduates at schools you’re drawn to.

What is law school like?

When considering law school, many often overlook the sobering reality of the three years of grueling coursework, clinical experience, research, and two summers of internships. Law school is known to be an intellectually stimulating, and challenging experience.

The current style of legal pedagogy infuses the Socratic method, aka cold calling on students at random during classtime, and case-by-case analysis. The Socratic method is a form of teaching based on asking students questions on the spot to encourage students to think aloud and analyze difficult legal and doctrinal principles aloud with their collogues. This method is often intimidating to students; while the material may not be particularly difficult to understand, the methods their professors employ produces anxiety and stress in the student body.

Students are asked to read an average of several hundred pages of cases a day as a way to learn illustrative examples of judicial principles. The structure of the legal classroom is meant to give students practice thinking aloud and with public speaking.

In addition to weathering a rigorous teaching method, law students must immerse themselves in substantive clinical (i.e. mimicking the practice of law) and journal (i.e. writing about the law) experiences in order to graduate with marketable skills. Clinics and journals provide law students with ways to apply their doctrinal, and often theoretical, lessons to help the lives of their community members or in service of important causes nationally.

Hand-on programs and clinical experiences with the supervision of a licensed attorney, will provide law students with a look into the lives of attorneys, the daily challenges of the profession, and an opportunity to manage a real case load. Students might immerse, for instance, in an immigration law clinic, spending a few hours each week seeing how that branch of the law is applied in real life and providing help that’s permitted for someone who hasn’t yet passed the bar.

Clinics and journals will also provide students with lawyering skills, expansive networks that can be integral when entering the workforce, and a series of professional accomplishments and research opportunities that will help differentiate you from other law students.

Finally, all successful law students take advantage of their summers to get exposure in fields they hope to join, build their resume, and get a better sense of the kinds of offices they hope to work for. These internships are crucial, and some students tailor their coursework to the needs of their prospective employers. While internships in Big Law or at other commercial firms are often handsomely compensated, a majority of public interest positions are unpaid, and only a few schools provide students with financial assistance during the summer.

Prospective law students should be prepared for a rigorous yet stimulating three years. One must enter law school with extreme discipline in order to manage fairly challenging coursework, and clear road plan for the types of extracurriculars and internships that could help catapult one from a successful law student, to an employable one.

Sources:

https://www.attorneyatwork.com/is-law-school-worth-it/
https://tippingthescales.com/news/should-you-really-go-to-law-school-introducing-the-ghost-of-legal-future/
https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com/blog/should-i-go-to-law-school

Now that you have your outline or template, you’re ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.

Prepare for quality writing time

You probably need to get away from distractions or interruptions in order to write a good blog post. (Turn off electronic notifications, at least during your work blocks.) You probably have equipment you prefer. You might have a little ritual that gets your writing brain going.

For blog content, I like to start with some subheads. They form an inherent structure (kind of like the framework you’d grow a tomato plant on) that you can quickly eyeball to see if the final version will be relevant and useful.

You probably won’t be ready to complete the draft yet. (If you are, just move to the next step.) But capture any words or phrases that occur to you. Expand any points, make a few notes of stories or examples, and track down the links you’ll want to refer to.

Write an Introduction That Grabs and Seduces

Introduction Rule #1. Slip into Their Shoes

Don’t get me wrong — as a lawyer, I value solid research. But in the blogging context, this approach bores readers. If you want to captivate instead of bore, you must make readers feel like you’re reading their minds.

Example:

Do you feel that?

That little tugging sensation on your heart?

You’re not sure what, but something is pulling you to change. Not in a confess-your-sins-oh-ye-sinners way, but to shift directions, to embrace your calling, to finally do what you were put here to do:

Write.

You feel the ideas inside you. You sense them straining to escape. You know your job is to set them free, firing them like a cannon into a world in desperate need of them.

But you’re afraid.

You’re afraid of quitting your job and living without a safety net. You’re afraid of the concerned, disapproving looks your friends will give you when you tell them you’re giving it all up to write for a living. You’re afraid of not having enough money for food, of the power being cut off, of watching your family shivering and hungry, all because of your “selfishness”.

And most of all?

You’re afraid you’re wrong about yourself.

As writers, we all share the deep longing to embrace our calling and express our ideas, but we also share the fears that so often sabotage those longings — the fear that we don’t have what it takes, that we’ll crash and burn, and that our dreams are just that — dreams.

Note: You don’t need to open like this in every post. There are certainly other approaches, like telling a powerful story. But if you’re working on mastering your craft and getting the most impact for time invested, an empathetic opening is an approach you’ll want to use frequently.

Introduction Rule #2. Get into Character

So play with your emotions. Map out the emotional journey you’re taking readers on, and infuse those feelings into your writing. Feel what you want your audience to feel and your words will exude those emotions.

Example:

I told my three-year old daughter as we stood outside the car in her school parking lot, the rain pouring down on us as she sobbed breathlessly in my arms.

She didn’t want to go in the car. She just wanted me to stand there, holding her. And I didn’t want to rush her, or tell her to stop crying.

“I’ll hold you for as long as it takes.”

Introduction Rule #3. Lure Readers Down the Page

#1. Open With a Short Sentence or Question

#2. Take a Knife to Your Words

#3. Set the Rhythm

Example:

You’re not stupid.

You know what writing is truly about.

It’s a never-ending battle for your readers’ attention.

Every sentence is a link in a taut chain that connects your headline to your conclusion.

And you are just one weak sentence away from losing your reader forever.

Introduction Rule #4. Make Them Beg

By doing so, not only will readers feel a camaraderie with you (because you understand their fears, so clearly you’ve tip-toed through the dark side yourself), but they’ll feel more eager than ever for the solution you present.

Example:

In his introduction, Glen Long brilliantly taps into the fear of failure all writers experience by addressing the dream of making a living as a writer and then quickly smothering that dream with the doubts that creep up at the mere thought of it:

Introduction Rule #5. Hint at the Promised Land

Example:

How to Write an Introduction: Bonus Tip

Editor’s Note:

If they click a headline that reads “7 Easy Tips For Losing Weight Fast”, and the post begins with an amusing Nicolas Cage anecdote, there’s a good chance they will leave — never getting to read the rest of the post, which is filled with weight loss wisdom.

“At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

Search intent is a big part of SEO (search engine optimization). When we do keyword research here at Smart Blogger, figuring out the keyword phrase’s intent is one of the first things we do. It shapes our headline, meta description, introduction, word count, and more.

Taking the time to analyze the results in Google so you have a solid handle on why people enter the particular query your blog post will be targeting is time well spent. Figure out the intent, and then make sure your intro matches it.

Writing Your First Blog Post

You’ve got the technical and practical tidbits down — now it’s time to write your very first blog post. And nope, this isn’t the space to introduce yourself and your new blog (i.e. “Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I’ll be covering. Here are my social media handles. Will you please follow?”).

But that’s not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that’s been covered by major competitors or more established brands, it’s unlikely that your post will rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about.

1. Choose a topic you’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

Before you write anything, pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start. For example, if you’re a company that sells a CRM for small-to-enterprise businesses, your post might be about the importance of using a single software to keep your marketing, sales, and service teams aligned.

For instance, if you’re a plumber writing your first post, you won’t yet write a post titled “How to Replace the Piping System in your Bathroom.” First, you’d write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story you had rescuing a faucet before it flooded a customer’s house.

If you’re having trouble coming up with topic ideas, a good topic brainstorming session should help. In the post I’ve linked, my colleague walks you through a helpful process for turning one idea into many. Similar to the “leaky faucet” examples above, you would “iterate off old topics to come up with unique and compelling new topics.”

First Blog Post Ideas

The Difference Between [Niche Topic] and [Niche Topic], Explained by a [Niche Expert]

The 10 Best and Worst [Niche Tools] for [Niche Activity]

8 [Niche Activity] Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

9 Proven Tips for [Niche Activity]

Why We/I Switched from [Niche Tool] to [Niche Tool] (Comparison)

[Niche Tool] vs [Niche Tool]: Which [Tool] is Best for You?

The Ultimate Roundup of [Niche Activity] Tips and Tricks

2. Target a low-volume keyword to optimize around.

Finding a keyword with low searches in Google (we recommend sticking to about 10 to 150 monthly searches). These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.

When you run this term through the tool, a list of related keywords will appear. Scan the list and choose one with a lower search volume. For this example, we’ll use “under sink plumbing” (1.4K monthly searches).

3. Google the term to understand your audience’s search intent.

If someone is looking for “plumbing problems under a kitchen sink,” they might be looking for a tutorial, a diagram, an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they’re looking for the first three, you’re good — that can be covered in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and your blog post won’t rank.

Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, you’re good to go. If you only find product pages or listicles from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post.

Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides written by major publications. (You’ll also want to avoid topics that have been covered by major publications, at least for now.)

TLDR; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the keyword. Also, don’t forget to take a look at who’s written about that topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic.

4. Find questions and terms related to that topic.

5. Come up with a working title.

Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably “blogging.” Then the working title may have been something like, “The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic.” And the final title ended up being “How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”

See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.

6. Create an outline.

Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and the writer. The trick is to organize the info in a way so readers aren’t intimidated by length or amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms — sections, lists, tips — whatever’s most appropriate. But it must be organized!

Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

What makes a good blog post?

It’s not enough just to answer someone’s questions — you also have to provide actionable steps while being engaging. For instance, your introduction should hook the reader and make them want to continue reading your post. Then, use examples to keep your readers interested in what you have to say.

1. Include H2s to arrange ideas.

2. Center your images.

3. Add alt text.

Image alt text allows search engines, like Google, to crawl and rank your blog post better than pages lacking the element. It also leads readers to your blog post if the keywords included are what they searched for in the first place.

Besides SERP features, image alt text is beneficial to readers by providing more accessibility. Image alt text allows people to better visualize images when they can’t see them, and with assistive technology, can be auditorially read aloud for people to enjoy.

4. Keep your sentences short and concise.

5. Use media with a purpose.

How to Write a Blog Post, Step 5: The Editing Part

Actually writing a blog post is hard. Editing a blog post is harder. Many people mistakenly assume that editing is simply striking through sentences that don’t work or fixing grammatical errors. Although sentence structure and grammar are both very important, editing is about seeing the piece as a whole and, sometimes, being willing to sacrifice words (and the hours it took to write them) for the sake of cohesion.

I won’t explicitly tell you to check your spelling and grammar – you should be doing that anyway. I will, however, offer some self-editing tips and suggestions on how to tighten up your writing so that it packs a punch and keeps your readers scrolling.

Avoid Repetition

Few things are more jarring to read than repetition of certain words or phrases. Once you’re done with the first draft of your blog post, read through it and check for words that can be replaced to avoid repeating yourself.

BONUS: Every writer has a “crutch” word or phrase. This is a word that, no matter how carefully they might try, the writer simply cannot help themselves from including in their work. Identify what your crutch word is, be vigilant, and make sure it doesn’t appear more often than it needs to.

Read Your Post Aloud to Check Flow

This is a trick that many writers learn in workshops. If a piece reads awkwardly out loud, it will probably read awkwardly in your reader’s mind. It might seem a bit weird, but force yourself to read your post aloud to check for wordy bottlenecks or contrived sentences. Find yourself struggling with the flow of a sentence? Rework it until it rolls off your tongue.

Have Someone Else Read Your Work

This is crucial for inexperienced or casual bloggers. Asking a friend or colleague to check your work isn’t an admission of weakness or a sign of failure – it’s a commitment to making your work as strong as it possibly can be.

Ideally, ask someone with editing experience to proof your work. Also, be sure that they understand you’re not looking for help spotting typos or grammatical errors (but if they do, great), but that you want to hear their thoughts on the flow of the piece and whether it makes sense structurally. Do your points come across well? Is your position on a contentious topic clear? Does the piece prompt the reader to think or challenge an existing belief? Is the advice you’re offering worth following? These are all questions that having another set of eyes read your work can help answer.

Keep Sentences Short and Paragraphs Shorter

Sentences should be as short as possible. They’re easier to read, making your audience’s job easier. Shorter sentences also reduce the likelihood of going off on tangents. For example, I recently came across a sentence in an opinion piece in Wired that had no fewer than seven subordinate clauses, an editorial sin of almost unimaginable magnitude.

Paragraphs should also be short and sweet. The shorter the paragraph, the more likely your readers are to keep going. The “rules” of paragraph structure have been bent a little since web-based publishing became the norm, but try to keep individual ideas isolated to their own neat, short little paragraph.

Accept That Your Blog Post Will Never Be Perfect

I’m not advocating for publishing sloppy work, nor am I saying you shouldn’t be obsessive about the details. I am saying, however, that even the best blog posts could always be better, but time is always against us. Again, unless you’re Seth Godin, you probably need to publish more than one post a month, so agonizing over every post will sap you of the desire to write and waste precious time – not to mention likely to incur the wrath of your editor or content manager.

Don’t Be Afraid to Make Cuts or Adapt on the Fly

You may have forgotten, but I originally included a section in the example outline for this post that dealt with optimizing blog posts for SEO. I fully intended to write this section, but when I looked at how my first draft was shaping up, I realized this was too substantial a topic to tackle in an already lengthy post. As a result, I made the decision to cut this section from the post altogether. I purposefully left the outline intact to demonstrate that you shouldn’t be afraid to make editorial decisions like this.

That’s All She Wrote…

If there’s an aspect of writing a blog post that I didn’t cover, or you have specific questions about my process or anything generally blog-related, let me know in the comments – I’ll answer them as best I can.

Meet The Author

Dan Shewan

Originally from the U.K., Dan Shewan is a journalist and web content specialist who now lives and writes in New England. Dan’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications in print and online, including The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Pacific Standard magazine, The Independent, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and many other outlets.

References:

https://copyblogger.com/write-a-good-blog-post/
https://smartblogger.com/how-to-write-a-blog-post/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-start-a-blog
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/09/how-to-write-a-blog-post