Please note: I made some decisions and drew some parameters in this personal essay. The generally and stylistically preferred terms/constructions are Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and person-first language,. In this essay, I use “ASD” and “autism,” and “people with autism” and “autistic people” interchangeably. I also lean on the crappy…
Writing programs. MFAs*. Workshops. Classes. Paid mentoring. If you want to write, or already, hopefully do, there are a million ways to spend your time and money on instruction.
But should you do it?
A binary answer is…imprecise. I say: yes, but. I also say: no, and.
You’ll see what…
I cannot write my novel.
Not can’t write. I’m physically capable of the act of writing. I mean, I wrote this.
Not don’t wanna write. I wanna. I wanna hard. And, even if I didn’t wanna, that would not be the issue. I’ve done this long enough to know inspiration…
A few years ago, I wrote a blog post for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) on professional envy.
I made two embarrassing errors:
~ I called it jealousy, when I should have called it envy. Jealousy is when you fear someone covets what you already have. Envy…
“The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn’t one.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
Hi. My name is Caren Gussoff Sumption. I’ve been a professional writer for more than 20 years. I’ve published 5 books. I’ve been anthologized more than 100 times. I’ve won awards…
I’ll never win the lottery. I’m not going to space.
And probably, though not definitely, I don’t have a future as a tenured professor nor a lighthouse keeper.
All my life, I’ve planted little seeds, marvelous dreams, some statistically unlikely. …
I started writing, in earnest, because I thought I had something special to say.
I made it my career when I realized I didn’t.
The writer’s way is rough and lonely, and who would choose it while there are vacancies in more gracious professions, such as, say, cleaning out ferryboats?
The New York Times, 1957
When I was a tender, young writer, this quote offended my tender, young sensibilities.
I was a cocksure ingenue…
Difficulties with personal relationships, emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Two pillars of two disorders, with a particular, peculiar manifestation in girls and women, cisgendered or trans. Two diagnoses. Two sides of the same coin.
I was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in my 20s, after a difficult childhood and adolescence…
Note: I wrote this guide in 2019 to fill, IMHO, a serious gap in individual education around mental health. There’s tons of info on finding therapists, but very few directed for when we already feel overwhelmed and horrible, when doing the thing we need most is hardest.
This is a…
