By Katrin Schumann

I sat down to write this post and have now written four openings and ditched them all.

What do writers need to hear in times like this? How can I be helpful to others when that which binds us--our obsessive love of words, books, writing--is overshadowed so universally by our fear of the unknown? 

Do I tell you how to make lemons out of lemondade?* Do I reveal that I'm writing page after page despite the uncertainty and boredom

GrubStreet will be hosting all of our classes remotely from now through the month of April. We’ve decided as an organization that the best thing we can do for our community is to follow the advice of public health experts and participate in the social distancing that’s recommended to help slow the spread of Coronavirus. 

By Katrin Schumann

How long does it really take to write a book? From beginning the first draft to seeing it on bookshelves? It's generally accepted that more books = more success/ happiness. But what does being "productive" really mean, and does it make you happy as a writer? 

I used to think the solution to almost all writerly problems lay in having more time—a comforting thought since I had so very little of that particular commodity. Simple, I thought: when I have more time, I'll do more writing, and I'll be happy and productive.

On some level ...

Last year, I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. Frankly, I was tired of pushing myself so hard, and I thought: hey, how about I just try my best this year? It felt like a gentle enough goal given that I had just started a new job and my first novel was about to be published. While I knew quite a bit about what was ahead (I'd published nonfiction before), I had very little idea about whether the outcome for this book would be good, bad or indifferent, and how I would end up feeling about it all

If your New Year's resolution is to write a lot more than you did this year, then don't miss out on these January 3-hour seminars and 6-hour weekend workshops:

Friday, 1/10 & Saturday, 1/11

• Personal Stories for Public Change: Election Year
• Touchy Feely: How to Get Emotional Without Making a Mess
• So You Want to Be a Writer in 2020? Section A
• Overcoming Writer's Block

Friday, 1/17 & Saturday, 1/18

• Interior Landscapes: Creating Depth in Fiction
• Novel Essentials: Pacing
• Building a World from the Ground Up
• The Mechanics of Powerful Prose
• Jumpstart ...