At the beginning of October, while packing to walk a section of the Via Francigena, Alexia Wdowski looked at her notebook and decided to leave it behind. As a compulsive note-taker this felt like a risky decision. She wanted to experience being in the moment, not walking along, pen in hand, jotting down thoughts and impressions. However, as many pilgrims discover, the trail had other ideas. 

This November, we ran a 30 Day Writing Challenge. Unlike some other writing challenges that happen in November (ahem), the goal wasn’t to write a novel, 50,000 words, or even 5,000 words. The goal was to get into the habit of writing daily. 

In this 3-part series, Hillfire writers offer insight and encouragement, like how to persevere in your writing when you start thinking and stop doing.

In this 3-part series, Hillfire writers offer insight on your basic writing questions, starting with: How can you start writing? Are there any tips to help?

Wren offers two different points that will hopefully feed at least one person’s confidence when it comes to reading your work out loud. Don’t worry: Your literary heroes get nerves like crazy, too.

Hillfire poet Hanna is scared of essays and nonfiction, but that shan’t stop her. After all, aren’t essays a little bit like poems?

A reflection on the creative process and creative aims behind The Selkie’s new anthology, Stories of Rebellion.

Critique and Perfection are inherent to a strong writerly practice. But we need access to other realms too—ones that allow our ideas to take root and grow into incredible things.