By Kristi Holl | On February 12, 2017 | Updated October 4, 2022 | Comments (0)
Do you have the dreaded cognophobia? It’s a Latin term that translates literally as “fear of thinking” or fear of facing your own thoughts. You may experience it as writer’s block.
“A writer must feel comfortable expressing herself in words, letting them flow before critiquing them or subjecting them to examination,” say Linda Metcalf and Tobin Simon in Writing the Mind Alive. “Many people who have an ambition to write are held back at the starting gate by some form of this condition.” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On February 6, 2017 | Updated May 3, 2025 | Comments (2)
We all know that writing, in its essence, isn’t about publishing. At the risk of stating the obvious, writing is a journey, one that, if you follow it with passion and heart, will take you where you need to go.
But admit it — you’ve fantasized at least once about what it would be like to be a famous, bestselling author. I’ll admit that I’ve daydreamed about it at least once or twice—per day, that is.
Fame has its pleasures and advantages, but has its down side, too. Many of the classic authors on this site admitted to craving recognition — and the financial independence that was rare for women of their times. Few were “overnight successes,” though it may have appeared so to the world. Hard work, setbacks, and disappointments most often preceded their breakthroughs. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On February 1, 2017 | Updated May 17, 2026 | Comments (0)
It’s not easy to accept that success and failure for writers are intertwined, and it’s hard to achieve our dreams without taking risks.
Most of us would rather not fail at all, gloriously or otherwise. That’s why we’re content to settle for modest success, instead of taking bold steps needed for resounding success. To fail at that which we most long for seems like a terrible fate.
In a 1928 letter to her friend Virginia Woolf, British author Vita Sackville-West pondered, “Is it better to be extremely ambitious, or rather modest? Probably the latter is safer; but I hate safety, and would rather fail gloriously than dingily succeed.” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 23, 2017 | Updated November 20, 2025 | Comments (2)
For writers and other creatives, it’s a tough task to gain the kind of self-acceptance that allows them to feel deserving of using their talent and reap the rewards of hard work and perseverance.
I used to have a cartoon tacked on my bulletin board, showing two caterpillars creeping along on the ground and a butterfly hovering above them. One caterpillar eyes the butterfly suspiciously, and says, “You’ll never catch me going up in one of those things!”
Maybe it isn’t what the cartoonist intended, but I see it as a metaphor for the sad state of self-regard. It’s so hard to feel worthy, both before and after achieving any kind of success.
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By Nava Atlas | On January 15, 2017 | Updated May 6, 2026 | Comments (0)
In exploring the challenges faced by women writers, a questions that often comes up is why it has always been (and still is) so difficult to master the work / life / motherhood and writing balance. Note that this question is rarely (or more like never) applied to men who write.
Being a mother and a writer was grueling for Harriet Beecher Stowe in the nineteenth century; and while it may have been somewhat easier for Madeleine L’Engle in the twentieth, it was just as guilt-inducing. For women who write today, there are still no easy answers.
I’m not one to bandy about gender stereotypes, but it’s hard to dispute that in traditional, heteronormative relationships, women still bear the greatest share of childcare and household management. Read More→
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