Meet Betsy
Welcome to my virtual studio. As both a writer and designer, I’m driven by a curiosity about the world. In my studio, I take that curiosity and use it to create new worlds. I write for kids and adults as well as a good deal of freelance non-fiction. Explore to find out more about me, my books, and my thoughts on writing as well as the thoughts of friends who stop by the studio. If you’ve got something you’d like to share reach out to me through the contact form. I’d love to hear from you. Scroll down to read what’s been happening in the studio.
Weeding Your Creative Garden
By mid-summer of this year, whenever I went into the creative garden in my mind the sun had become so blocked out by dark clouds of deadlines, commitments, worries, and lists that nothing would grow. The only solution was to . . .
The Joy Percentage
Life gets difficult. Writing sometimes feels like work. Guest author Hadi Dhaliwal asks herself: “How much time do you spend on the thing you truly love?”
Wise Words
I think of this poem often. This week I was thinking of it and the way it relates to the creative life. The work of creation is sending out piece after piece from ourselves. Waiting and hoping for one to catch hold.
Jumping Into The Right Critique Group
Building your writing community is like throwing a stone into a pond. You, your work, and the act of putting yourself out there is that stone. The outgoing ripples are the connections you make with the world.
Often, finding a reliable critique group is more of a journey than a quick, one-stop transaction. Critique groups are not one-size-fits-all. To find the right group for you, you’ll need to look inward and ask yourself what you want to get out of the collaborative experience. You might need to try on a few groups for size before finding the one that fits you best.
Cut the Should
Years ago I was rattling off a list of worries to my therapist when she said, “Stop shoulding all over yourself.”
In shock, I said, “But I want to do all these things. They will help me succeed. They will make me happy.”
To which my very patient therapist asked “Will the happiness they bring outweigh the miserable feeling of carrying around a giant pile of should?”
Pick Any Direction
“It doesn’t matter what you pick, just choose a definite direction and go with it until you realize it’s wrong. Then go in a different definite direction.”
If the idea of picking a direction seems obvious, consider the hours you’ve sat staring at a blank screen trapped between whether your main character opens the door to the basement or not, says yes to the date or slaps the guy, breaks down into tears or throws a plate at the wall. Maybe you try to do both and end up with something middling and half-baked. Maybe you chose, then waiver. You write a page, second guess, delete back, make the other choice, waffle, delete, go back to the first. Then you think of a third choice and the cycle begins again.