A newsletter for curious, world-changing creatives ready to expand their creative ecosystems and make their dreams come true.
Posts
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How do I choose a topic?
In food writing, it’s all about relationships I recently gave a talk on food writing at Forsyth County Public Library, where I was asked to share what food writing is, and how you pick a topic. As I prepared for the talk, I realized that for me, choosing a topic is not simply about picking…
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Embodied nonfiction
Writing about food, environment, and memory from our bodies and our minds This is Roots + Branches, a newsletter on the craft and joy of writing and creativity by Root creator and award-winning author Dr. Julia Skinner. I hope it supports you in your creative journey! Writing Playground begins August 1st: And we’ve got a…
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How Does a Star Eat? Reflections on Space + Ways of Tasting from Writing Playground
A sample writing prompt, plus my response, for your own playful writing practice. I love designing spaces that are part hands-on and part reflective, or part theory and part practice. Writing Playground is a good example of this: Part generative writing time, then part reflection and skill-building, so you can expand the scope of your…
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What does "good enough" even mean?
Maybe it’s time to stop giving shame a place at your table (or your writing desk) This is Roots + Branches, a newsletter on the craft and joy of writing and creativity by Root creator and award-winning author Dr. Julia Skinner. I hope it supports you in your creative journey! Ah, shame. There are a…
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Building a routine is a magical act
Plus 60% off Bloom before the doors close I’ve talked about routines before, briefly, and how they help us support our writing without boxing us in. But the power of building a routine (not a schedule) goes way deeper: building skills, like setting a routine that works for you, is an act of everyday magic.…
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Despairing about the state of the world may feel rational, but these are irrational times Everyone I’ve been talking to lately is moving through a sort of oscillation, wavering between intense hopelessness and sadness (personally or collectively) and a deep, unflappable knowing that everything is going to be ok. It’s a jarring feeling, particularly if…
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History requires us to be active participants in its creation. We aren’t just passive consumers of history, but active creators. Our daily decisions, our habits, from what we eat to who we engage with to our sleep patterns, clothing, and job schedules all become patterns that connect to the ways we define a given age.…
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We are living in a liminal moment. For the last few months, maybe a bit longer, everyone I’ve spoken to has seemed almost at the threshold of something. Some element, or maybe even most elements, of their life as it was have crumbled away, and while in most cases we recognize this crumbling as an…
Roots and Branches 