GrubStreet Instructor, Ben Berman, discusses how we must learn to shift between different mindsets throughout the writing process.

My five-year-old is obsessed with Kung Fu Panda – though the scratches all over my neck are not from her best impersonation of Tigress but because every time we try to watch the movie she gets so scared that she clutches onto me for dear life.

What's launching your book really like? 

By Katrin Schumann

Your first event is with a panel of authors in front of a crowd of 200 people. You buy new lipstick and pray your voice doesn’t quiver.

The alarm rings at 5am. The Uber doesn’t turn up. On the road late!

Within three days of your book launch, you catch a cold and lose your voice. It's so bad that you have to postpone your big radio interview.

Ahh, April. The birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and new short classes are springing up at GrubStreet. Take a look at some of this month's exciting offerings:

April 8th, 12th & 13th

• Pieces of Me: Writing about Gender

“Poetry is to prose,” wrote Paul Valery, “as dancing is to walking,” and in this post Ben Berman previews his upcoming Muse and the Marketplace session on what kind of dance moves prose writers can learn from poets.

A couple of summers ago, I decided to take a break from writing poetry in order to try my hand at penning a screenplay.

In this post, GrubStreet instructor Ben Berman considers the tension between the pleasures of writing and the pressures of being a writer.

The other day we were at some friends’ house when I found myself in a conversation with their six-year-old son.

My dad told me that you’re a writer, he said.