These opportunities are everywhere. Notice them, pick them up, and all of a sudden, your description of yourself gains strength.

Revision requires you to have faith in your own ability to improve your work. ​ Try something else. What if you give yourself that reward immediately, as a way to coddle your writer brain and help it along? If I let myself go sit outside with a seltzer and a book for 20 minutes (so decadent), it helps me feel like a functioning, healthy person who can sit down and read her terrible draft. ​ If I can forgive myself for being imperfect,