Erica, I treasured this as much as I treasured Wolfish. Embracing our mediocrity at certain tasks is so liberating - I’m so grateful for this perspective. As a wannabe-writer, I get so much out of your presence in my inbox. Thank you for sharing what you do!!!
Erica, having taken your writing workshop, your prompt about “reframing [our] so-called achilles heel into [our] so-called superpower” was enormously helpful for me getting a handle on the book I’m writing. I’m so glad you wrote about this topic and it’s no coincidence that most of the examples of people working on this issue of feeling mediocre, thinking we need to be perfect, and laboring to mother are women and women-identified people. (You can’t have climate collapse caused by capitalism without the two sides of that shiny, independent coin: racism, and patriarchy.) May just have to show up on June 29….🙏🏼❤️
Ok this one was most certainly worth the wait! So excited for everything you're doing and also being mediocre at (which, I believe is certainly not much!)xoxoxo
Can't wait for your next book, sounds awesome and I've been thinking a lot about those topics, especially community — the lack of which I think is at the root of a lot of our problems (that and increasing income inequality, of course). As a fellow childhood perfectionist — I actually remember feeling like I had to write letters perfectly when I was learning to write, and feeling annoyed at myself but not being able to stop myself — I can so relate to all this. And it also reminds me of Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, a kind of anti-time-management polemic, where he counsels to list your top 25 priorities in life and then cross out the bottom 20, because those are the things that will distract you from the top 5.
So well said! And I actually think one of the people in my writers group was basing the exercise on the Burkeman…I forgot about that extremely beautiful and sobering exercise. My heart goes out to your childhood self with the little letters 🤍
Erica, thank you so much for this. I started reading Wolfish because I am a dog nerd—I will devour anything about canids, anything at all—and stuck around because it was so much more than "just another wolf" book. (I felt like I'd read them all, and your take felt properly fresh: broader, more compelling.) I'm thrilled to have found your Substack, thrilled to be trying to embrace my own mediocrity more, and thrilled to steal your writing group's "three things we are not focusing on this month" exercise.
Yessss, steal away! Will be curious to know how the “letting it slide” month exercise goes. Delighted to hear how the book found you, and kept you. Thank you for being here.
Erica, I treasured this as much as I treasured Wolfish. Embracing our mediocrity at certain tasks is so liberating - I’m so grateful for this perspective. As a wannabe-writer, I get so much out of your presence in my inbox. Thank you for sharing what you do!!!
I am so so thrilled to hear this resonated in your brain. Thanks Emily!!
This is wonderful.
Erica, having taken your writing workshop, your prompt about “reframing [our] so-called achilles heel into [our] so-called superpower” was enormously helpful for me getting a handle on the book I’m writing. I’m so glad you wrote about this topic and it’s no coincidence that most of the examples of people working on this issue of feeling mediocre, thinking we need to be perfect, and laboring to mother are women and women-identified people. (You can’t have climate collapse caused by capitalism without the two sides of that shiny, independent coin: racism, and patriarchy.) May just have to show up on June 29….🙏🏼❤️
Ahhhh i am so glad to hear this, Nancy! Will be curious to hear any more revelations that have come from it when I next see you 🌱
Ok this one was most certainly worth the wait! So excited for everything you're doing and also being mediocre at (which, I believe is certainly not much!)xoxoxo
Youuuuu!!! Inspired by your prolific novel-ing.
Can't wait for your next book, sounds awesome and I've been thinking a lot about those topics, especially community — the lack of which I think is at the root of a lot of our problems (that and increasing income inequality, of course). As a fellow childhood perfectionist — I actually remember feeling like I had to write letters perfectly when I was learning to write, and feeling annoyed at myself but not being able to stop myself — I can so relate to all this. And it also reminds me of Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, a kind of anti-time-management polemic, where he counsels to list your top 25 priorities in life and then cross out the bottom 20, because those are the things that will distract you from the top 5.
So well said! And I actually think one of the people in my writers group was basing the exercise on the Burkeman…I forgot about that extremely beautiful and sobering exercise. My heart goes out to your childhood self with the little letters 🤍
Our collective imagination is so atrophied :(
Thanks for the reminder to keep thinking bigger!
You said it perfectly.
<3
Erica, thank you so much for this. I started reading Wolfish because I am a dog nerd—I will devour anything about canids, anything at all—and stuck around because it was so much more than "just another wolf" book. (I felt like I'd read them all, and your take felt properly fresh: broader, more compelling.) I'm thrilled to have found your Substack, thrilled to be trying to embrace my own mediocrity more, and thrilled to steal your writing group's "three things we are not focusing on this month" exercise.
And, of course: Congrats on selling book #2!!
Yessss, steal away! Will be curious to know how the “letting it slide” month exercise goes. Delighted to hear how the book found you, and kept you. Thank you for being here.
So excited to see you in my substack inbox! And congrats on selling your second book--I can't wait for it! See you on campus next semester!
Eeee I can’t wait!
Looking forward to a world where more living rooms are full of the joyful squeaks of violins!