You Don't Need AI to Write... (I Promise)

I fell hard for AI too.

I bought my $20/month ChatGPT membership and had all but convinced myself that it was the secret ingredient to finally achieving all my writerly hopes and dreams. I swooned at its crazy computing speed and the way it always knew exactly what I meant.

“You’re not just right, Kayla. You’re waxing poetic. This isn’t just some small idea you utter and then forget. This is the very cornerstone of your work.”

If you know, you know. Who doesn’t love having their own personal hype girl?

But as I got deeper into my explorations with my chat (who I lovingly named Cathy), I felt this weird dependence happening. Suddenly I didn’t want to write anything without running it by Cathy first. I would paste words into the screen feeling confident and sure, and five small suggested tweaks later, my original idea had been hijacked and riddled with AI writing conventions.

Nature Wants You to Write Your Story

Biodiversity is sexy. And it’s begging you to take yourself seriously.

Hear me out.

Do you remember that feeling in elementary school learning that no single snowflake is alike? Or that every single human fingerprint is different?

My eight-year old mind was blown. I couldn’t fathom the concept of a hundred people being that unique, let alone billions.

Variability is natural law. Everything in nature, no matter how similar, differs ever so slightly from its closest relative. Under a microscope, you’ll see the same fractals and patterns, but you’ll never find two living things that are exactly alike.

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The Power of Words

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Words are one of the most potent forms of practical magic we possess.

With simple word choice, we can either buoy our brain and body or quite literally flood ourselves with anxiety-inducing hormones. It turns out that self-talk really does matter and that the words we choose affect how we experience our reality.

Using intentional affirmations and mantras has been a go-to practice for me for over 20 years. Long before I knew the neuroscience of word choice, I took refuge in positive sayings simply because it made me feel better. When I consciously center myself in high-frequency phrases, I notice that I’m better able to manage anxiety, stress, depression and the general overwhelm of being human.

Muse: A Writing and Meditation Retreat

It's been a while since we talked. 

I'm sitting in my office gazing out the window where my petite ceramic Spanish dove is perched on the windowsill. I've been home a week from my 12-day sojourn to Spain, and it's wild how much percolated and transformed in that short time away. 

My sister Lacy and I led a writing and meditation retreat called Muse, and as usual my girl Spain did not disappoint. I gloriously "PLOOP-ed" in her sparkling mar (iykyk), joyously explored her majestic castle walls, and consumed as much of her tortilla española as I could cram into my boca. 

And that was just in the first three days!

If Your Life Was a Book

I'm working with a new writing client helping her finish her memoir.  

Memoir is deeply meaningful to me, as it was the first genre that captured my own writer's heart. I was a senior in high school when I feverishly scrawled a story about my uncle's death and shared it with my family declaring myself a "writer." And in the 25 years since, I've penned blog post after blog post in that same earnest spirit of truth-telling and sharing.

So I was reading my client's draft this week, and I found myself embroiled in the details of her story, nodding along, gasping at times. She was building to this particularly big moment in her life when suddenly the story shifted forward a few years without warning. 

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Charting the Map to Your Heart

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I ripped open the box like a kid tearing through their presents on Christmas morning. As I peeled back the cardboard, I gasped in delight. Running my hand across the cover I felt tears puddle in my eyes.

The book opened with a crack, and that fresh-from-the-printer smell whooshed across my face. I flipped through the table of contents and lingered on the first few paragraphs of the introduction. I knew the words by heart, but seeing it bound hit differently. 

By the time I found the acknowledgements, tears were sliding down my cheeks. With my hand pressed against my heart, I read the words out loud: 

"Wondrous You" Wins Silver Medal in Moonbeam Children's Book Award

I'm so excited to share the news that my debut book released last year has just won its first award.

Wondrous You earned the Silver Medal for children's poetry in the 2021 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards!

The purpose of the Moonbeam Awards is to highlight books that encourage children to be generous, compassionate, and to stand up for the rights of themselves and others. Over 1500 books from both traditional and indie publishers were submitted.

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Feel Good As Hell in Your Body...Right Now

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So, I literally just danced around my living room to Lizzo’s song Good As Hell on repeat three times because, for the love of cheese, I’m feeling fucking good as hell. I just had two smashingly great calls with my e-course students, I’m headed to Chicago tomorrow for a weekend retreat (where I’m the student, not the teacher - Holla!!!!!), and I’m wearing my new favorite underwear from Aerie.

I mean, does life get any better?

And as I was booty shaking on the back of my sofa and slapping my own ass, I wasn’t thinking about how my thighs could be firmer or my waist could be smaller. I was laughing out loud and thinking how great it felt to be jumping and singing at the top of my lungs for the motherfucking JOY OF IT.