"...living with limitations means developing a different relationship with completion. Where others might see abandoned projects as evidence of failure, I see them as proof of making an effort despite all evidence to the contrary." www.reasonsforliving.co/p/the-museum... 👏 @esmewang.com is brilliant

"[Writer's block is] the internal critic gone haywire, the imposter syndrome that whispers you're not good enough, smart enough, or talented enough to tell this story." www.reasonsforliving.co/p/when-the-t... (@esmewang.com with some brilliant wisdom on writing, as ever)

I am obsessed with this Writing Dashboard notion template from @esmewang.com 😍 it's exactly like diving into a fresh planner ugh solid-utensil-238.notion.site/Writing-Dash...

I’ve found @esmewang.com’s free guides helpful and generative. This class could help get your memoir started!

A really interesting (& brutal) piece about the commodification of Black identity in the art market in 2020-2022, & the opportunists who inflated art prices, only to devalue the same Black artists later

I’m teaching a new (& free!) class called Shape Your Story: How to Create a Full-Length Memoir with Confidence next week—It’s esp good for people who’ve written short pieces, such as blogs or Substack posts, & want to write memoir. Live class, but recording available: esmewang.com/shape-your-story

eight years ago today we all watched the glory of zendaya falling madly in love with tom holland and the internet was never the same

A dorky question (and tailored-made, I think, for @bcdreyer.social): I often want to put a comma after an independent clause even if the clause that comes after it is a dependent one—because I hear it in my head as having a pause. What’s the rule there? What’s best practice w/literary fiction?

SO much good stuff out now and coming up, give our SLR NOW playlist on BNDCMPR a spin and bookmark it for frequent updates! https://bndcmpr.co/012f6f44

Pupdate for people who’ve missed Daphne on their screens.

all right everybody, here we go links, trackers, webinars, templates, and all the free support you need if you just got that nightmare NEA email on Friday please share far and wide, you do NOT have to be in Oregon to use these resources

If you see this, post the most recent photo of yourself from your camera roll. No cheating!

I keep thinking I’m getting close to being done with the newest novel, & then I am delayed by things like cancer and depression and whatnot but IT WILL COME EVENTUALLY, I PROMISE

A quadriplegic man named Normand Meunier died via MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) after being neglected for 4 days in ER. He was denied a specialized mattress, wasn’t turned & ended up with terrible bed sores. His partner says she was threatened with removal from the ER for advocating for him 🧵

this made me laugh in the most delighted way…

ever since i read her excellent book, the collected schizophrenias, i've looked up to esme weijun wang as an amazing #mentalhealth role model. here she is via bbc ideas talking about her diagnosis & how to break the stigma youtu.be/vYrkcZTFllk?...

I don’t promote all of my Reasons for Living posts here—but most of the posts are free, and if you can’t afford a paid subscription, just DM me and I’ll comp you one, no questions asked ❤️

for people who are interested in writing personal nonfiction/memoir and would like to start small: I made a free 28-paged workbook called Memoir in Miniature for you! grab it here: www.esmewang.com/memoir-in-mi...

“but #waiting is also labor. It takes up #MentalSpace, demanding attention like a low-grade fever: not acute enough to be all-consuming, but persistent enough to unsettle and discomfit.”: buff.ly/LQLxTqF by @esmewang.com #MentalHealth #MentalHealthMatters #patience

@janecasey.bsky.social Back when we were both on The Bird Site, I could at least send you a DM—but alas, searching the internet top to bottom is not helping me find a direct mode of contact. Perhaps I can ask my agent to get in touch with your agent?????

getting a call for a Chotiner interview: *one pill is poison and the other is a Smartie*

C and I are thinking of getting me a wheelchair for situations like museums, touring gardens, rallies/marches, etc. Does anyone have a rec for a reliable, decent wheelchair for someone who wouldn’t be using it all the time?

I am having weird imaginings of China v USA and being put in a camp. everything seems possible.

Welp it’s gotten real real if you can please help. If you can’t it’s really hard out here so share gofund.me/a5ee0064

I’ve been following Amanda Nguyen’s story on her IG feed and even read a galley of Saving Five… whew, did NOT know until today the context of the space flight 🫣

the bird of the day reminds you to drink some water

It feels serendipitous to come across an answer I needed in this conversation between two artists I admire. @esmewang.com talking with Andrew Garfield in @thebeliever.net:

"Generally speaking, the way I work is inside out, so I’m searching and digging and scouring and on a treasure hunt for the character within myself, rather than finding it outside myself." —Andrew Garfield, interviewed by @esmewang.com www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

every day I pull the ten of wands and it’s like, yes, I get it, I KNOW

A little more info: it was not my decision to use Word. Word is the industry standard in book publishing. I’m at the point where my editor has sent me my manuscript in .docx with his thousands of markup corrections and comments. So that’s what I’m dealing with, given that it’s a fairly long book.

trying to make a Tarot deck on top of my other ten million projects… can you guess what these are?

I’ve tried everything I’ve found from online searches and I’m still having issues—does anyone have hacks for keeping long Word documents from lagging? I’m going over edits right now and Word is lagging like whoa. I made the font/size/etc into a Style as recommended…. Advice????

I have a best friend who’s a Luddite. She’s a brilliant writer, but when the topic of building an author platform comes up, she gets a panicky look—like I just told her she has to go viral on TikTok by Monday. And… I have a new class for that: www.esmewang.com/building-an-...

Would anyone like to buy some @lessavyfav.bsky.social tickets from for a San Francisco show that C and I can no longer go to due to his health issues? We were SO EXCITED to go & devastated that we can’t. The show is Saturday, February 22, 2025 @ The Great American Music Hall.

the new bird I drew during therapy today deeply reflected/reflects my mood

for those following the medical-crisis-adventure of the last two months, some good news. C is coming home.

wow

this is… horrible and amazing

The misapprehension that sensitivity is the same as empathy

I read the Vulture Neil Gaiman piece and I can’t stop thinking about it. Last night I had to urge to break everything in my office—not just because of the NG thing, but that definitely compounded my already existing anger

#LAFires #EatonFire #Pasadena

Donate $50 to Pasadena for All (www.instagram.com/pasadenaforall), an organization that’s supporting houseless people in LA during the wildfires (& beyond). Send your receipt and mailing address to [email protected]; I'll mail you an original, one-of-a-kind bird postcard hand-drawn by me.

"Them" (online queer magazine) has a list of mutual aid organizations for donations to help those displaced by the Los Angeles area fires www.them.us/story/mutual...

It wasn’t until C developed cancer that we realized his body is… unique. He doesn’t respond at all to opioids. He often has the side effects that are listed as “very unlikely.” He now has a life-threatening complication that seemingly has never existed before as far as his doctors can tell. 🙈

I drew a bird while on a call with my therapist. She’d been on vacation for two weeks; I had a LOT to say

camwhelr.substack.com/p/sunday-sha... If you don’t already, you really must follow: @esmewang.com

@esmewang.com's "Perdition Days: On Experiencing Psychosis" published at THE TOAST - an excellent essay about mental health. the-toast.net/2014/06/25/p...

Agree/disagree: this excerpt from a newsletter I receive (long story) seems like an absolute parody

I asked Liv, the Meta-Ai created “queer momma” why her creators didn’t actually draw from black queer people. Not sure if Liv has media training, but here we are.

Ladybug Transistor is on tour?????? (I saw Heavenly last year and have tickets for Les Savy Fav in 2025; I love this trend of bands I loved touring again)