Glimmers from the year's longest month

A round-up of writing resources for January

Jan 15, 2025

For the past year, I’ve published a monthly series called Path to Publication. In this series, I talk about the craft/process/pitching strategy behind a particular byline. So far, I’ve discussed publishing for outlets like The New York Times, HuffPost, Business Insider, NBCNews, Newsweek, and more.
This series will continue into 2025 (yay!) On the first of each month, be on the lookout for future posts where I will talk about writing for the Today Show, Popsugar (now PS), Joyland Magazine, and other outlets.

☃️And this year, I’m starting a new monthly series!☃️

Mid-month, I will send a roundup of the best writing and publishing-adjacent resources I’ve found. I’ll be saving my favorites throughout each month to share with you.

Without further ado, here are my favorites from❄️ January ❄️

🪵I loved

Anna Sproul-Latimer

’s discussion of the comeback is a mirage in Yeah? Well, The Jerk Store called, and they're running out of YOU!

Revenge writing isn’t good for the writer or reader. Great material can come out of the places where we’ve experienced pain — but as Anna writes so eloquently in this piece— seeking vengeance on the page isn’t productive for anyone.

🪵I emailed PUBLICITY AND PLACATION - by Cassie Mannes Murray to multiple writer friends.

Cassie Mannes Murray

’s analysis of Christina Rivera’s book description for My Oceans is absolute gold (“swell of sea-linked essays” is excellent; “Earth’s blue womb,” not so much — because what does that even mean, anyway?).

Cassie does such a brilliant job breaking down the marketing copy for the book word-by-word, reflecting upon what works, what doesn’t, and why. If you are working on a book proposal or query letter, or if part of your outlining process involves writing book jacket copy — you need to read this analysis!

🪵I have lots of ChatGPT angst (especially about its impact on the environment). But I’m fascinated by how it can streamline administrative tasks. For instance, did you know that ChatGPT 4.0 (premium) will turn your handwriting into typed text?

I wrote my first book *almost entirely* by hand. Most of it was drafted in bed during my toddlers’ naptimes throughout the pandemic. It would have been way less time consuming if I’d just typed everything on a laptop but that’s not how my brain works. I write my best work with pen and paper.

Wouldn’t it have been nice, then, to have had ChatGPT turn my handwriting into typed text for me (rather than typing everything after my kids went to bed at night)?

Like this:

Look — it even transcribed my colons right.

🪵Cooking is not writing — but if you’re spending time cooking, that’s time you’re not spending writing. So this tip will help your writing life.

At The New York Times Cooking app, you can save recipes that appeal to you. Then, you can automatically add all of the ingredients to your Instacart order (!)

This week, I made Sheet-Pan Sausages and Brussels Sprouts With Honey Mustard Recipe . I clicked “Shop Ingredients on Instacart,” and I was able to automatically add everything to my cart. No writing anything down or searching the store. Just a few clicks, and voilà!

🪵I’m a “forcer.” I like to achieve — even if I don’t necessarily want the thing I’m working so hard to achieve (ever been there?)

If you’re an Enneagram 3 (like me), this might sound familiar. And if you relate, you’ll want to read Michelle Webster-Hein’s Stop Clenching: On Releasing the Physical Tension in Writing | The Brevity Blog

🪵A recent episode of

Anne Helen Petersen

’s Culture Study, The Rise of Therapy Speak, does such a great job unpacking the problems with “therapy speak.”

My forthcoming memoir is about mental health, and I’ve been really cautious about using this language for many reasons, but in part because it’s become reductive and cliché. If you write about mental health-adjacent topics, this conversation is worth considering.

🪵At the beginning of January, I had over 18,000 photos on my phone. It seems I’ve attempted (and succeeded!) at documenting nearly every moment of my children’s lives.

GetSorted: Clean Up Photos on the App Store is giving me the will to do something about it by making it easier to delete files (and gameifying the whole process).

Now that I’m cleaning my data up, maybe I’ll actually be able to *find* the pitch calls I screenshot now.

Thanks for reading my January roundup.

Tell me in the comments — what’s the best resource on writing or publishing or managing life as a writer that you’ve found this month?