If you’re experiencing writer’s block, take a look at what you’re reading. Instead of exciting you, is it slowing you down, confounding you, frustrating you?

If you’re not completely taken by a book you’re reading right now, that may be your answer.

Planting seeds for a quiet summer routine. Walking, writing, and quality time as a grounding practice.

How do you change up your daily routine to prepare for summer?

marissadechant.substack.com/p/summer-rou...

Eating delicious things at restaurants and remaking them at home for cheaper. 🤠

Evening walks with my husband where we meet new friends. 🐱

Sunset on lavender.

I call this one “Mom’s Green Thumb.”

The privilege of working from home - I did groceries and laundry the Friday before, though something I didn’t include in the article - my dad called me on Saturday morning when I was meant to start writing and I answered the phone to a 90-minute call. 😆Life is imperfect.

I’m gonna eat all that popcorn with my bare fingies and then clack away on my computer

Me, currently experiencing shame around my body size and determined to lose some pounds over the next few months.

The communications conference I’m at for the week:

Read at an open mic over the weekend. I had so much fun! I read a humorous piece I wrote recently and enjoyed hearing the laughs it produced, as well as hearing fellow great writers and friends read their works. Can’t wait to do it again.

How to create your own at-home weekend residency. It might not be as dreamy as the real thing, but it's an affordable alternative.

Ever imagine attending a residency without leaving your house? A couple weekends ago, my husband and I held an at-home residency to focus on our personal projects.

It was fun! It was productive! It included good food!

marissadechant.substack.com/p/at-home-re...

Yay, congrats!

“A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.” - Jane Austen telling everyone to get off social media

I always love reading a party scene.

I get to be in the middle of fun and whimsy without having to put on real clothes and lessen my social battery, and I can still be in bed at a reasonable time.

I am completely sane, grounded, and not at all overwhelmed by the number of incomplete stories in my folders.

Writers often swing between feeling like absolute geniuses and absolute dunces.

Right now, I feel like a raccoon scratching in the dirt with a stick.

Thanks for sharing! 💚

The "I will make you love me" approach to writing rejections. How to keep going when you shout into the void and void responds, "Thanks for entrusting me with your work, but you're not the right fit."

New Substack article about dealing with writing rejection, from me, someone who’s in a nine-month rejection streak. 🥰

marissadechant.substack.com/p/handling-w...

One slice of cake for each rejection I received this week. 😇