Welcome to the archive of wayward writings, mostly curated from my newsletter.

There's a conflict of realities I've noticed most of my life. We are taught how to write from a young age, as part of our basic communication toolbox. So people enter a project in adulthood, whether it's a creative project, a work assignment, a letter, or anything else, with the expectation that they should be good at it and therefore shouldn't pay someone to do it for them, and yet don't really have the skills necesary to complete the task. This breakdown is because we were

I originally wrote the following post in late 2014/early 2015 for my old blog, Roadside Fires. Or was it Lifting Weights at Midnight? So much in my life has changed, it's practically unrecognizable except for the running theme against perfectionism and toward taking risks for the sake of listening to our deepest needs and instincts to be great in the process of being bad.

It's a little awkward to finish something, if I'm being honest. A body in motion and all that, so when there's no more target to be...

After that 2002 trip down the Pacific Coast , I lay on the couch outside our house for weeks. I watched the traffic go by along West...

Reading – and Writing – the Stories that Shape Us “If you didn’t have your bike, we could squeeze you in,” the United Airlines agent gave...

As writers, we have the power to change the thoughts of our readers. It's important to not make a mess of things while we're in there.

A slideshow to showcase how to find what should stay and what should be cut from our story.

A volunteer shift for a women+ bike race has me pegged... under my bike A moody sky set the scene the night before the race. I headed up...

Had he just been a bit more kind, it wouldn't have taken me have a lifetime to truly absorb, appreciate, and implement his feedback. I'll be honest: there are still parts of storytelling that hold me up when it comes to my own writing: why is that necessary, who cares about my tragedy, who would want to hear me whine? These echoes of doubt haven't come from writing instructors, but from those characters in the story of my life who have the most to lose from me telling my s

Everyone can write — I'm even in a college textbook alongside Michelle Obama and Roxane Gay called Everyone's an Author (3rd Edition with...

At its best, a stinker gives you good information on how to make your message heard. Maybe you need more precise language; perhaps you allowed yourself to go on a sidequest in your own story and lost the thread (Psst, I'm teaching a workshop on how to avoid this and still have fun!); or maybe you need to find your target audience. On my old desk at Adventure Cycling, I had a post-it note that said, "Try being brave maybe." To be brave means to risk the stinkers, to make somet

Are You Hearing Your Voice or the Voice You've Been Trained to Use? The best feedback I received from a participant at last year's Pedal...

As fellow writers, I'm sure you each understand the bliss in getting into the flow, and agony of getting flushed from it by stress, distractions, or a secret third thing. But I wouldn't be a successful writer and editor if I didn't find workarounds. One of the reasons I host my retreats in the most beautiful landscapes I know is because it can help break through those blockages. Movement and creativity go hand-in-hand for me and for many others, and nature can be our greatest

Three simple considerations for stronger storytelling, plus some melted plastic

Nine years ago, almost to the day, I huffed up Red Meadow Pass with two friends and we were so swarmed by mosquitoes we ran for shelter and I left my phone and our matches out in the rain. This past weekend, I tried again with two other friends. Again on my Salsa Fargo I bought back in 2015 to ride on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in 2016. Again, mosquitoes. Here's a summation of my travels this year, and my diary entry from 2016.

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As writers, what stories can you tell, what voices can you help broadcast, what curtains can you pull back? Whether it's exposing an injustice, giving a hero their flowers, or bringing humanity and perspective to a polarizing or under-considered human condition, we can be agents for good.

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