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 February 16, 2020 | 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 February 16, 2020 | Comments (2)
It’s a tough task to attain the kind of self-acceptance that allows a writer to feel she deserves to own her talent and reap the rewards of hard work.
There’s a cartoon on my bulletin board of two caterpillars creeping along, with 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 women’s self-esteem.
We’re destined to become glorious butterflies, yet we persist in perceiving ourselves as caterpillars, opting for crawling the safer but less exciting ground, instead of allowing ourselves to take flight. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 15, 2017 | Updated May 5, 2025 | Comments (0)
When discussing the challenges faced by women authors, one of the questions asked with startling regularity is why it has always been so difficult to master the work / life / motherhood and writing balance.
It 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 those of us 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 relationships women still bear the greatest share of childcare and household management. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 7, 2017 | Updated December 27, 2019 | Comments (1)
Writer’s block is a subject that writers try to avoid thinking about, let alone experiencing. Conventional wisdom on what to do when one hits that proverbial wall is about as much fun as the malady.
For example, “try thinking of writing as a job,” or “set deadlines and keep them” are two common ideas for unblocking. The first one is about as inspiring as doing laundry (especially for writers who already have a job); and if you could set and keep deadlines, then you wouldn’t be blocked in the first place, would you?
Learning how to deal with writer’s block is a critical component of the writer’s toolbox, though, so here’s a brief survey of what the women whose shoulders we stand on have had to say on the subject of writer’s block. Read More→
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