About

Welcome! I started Beautiful Failure because one of the things that holds writers back from really delving into a project is a fear of failure. We worry that we won’t write the book we wanted to write. We worry that no one will like it. We worry that we’ll start and never finish.

I’m a writer first (my books include The Year of Fog, Golden State, No One You Know, Dream of the Blue Room, Hum, and The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress). I’m also a teacher and small press publisher. In every professional venture I’ve ever undertaken, there has always been that underlying fear that this thing I want so badly to do won’t turn out the way I’d hoped. But I’ve learned that not doing anything feels much worse than failing.

For writers, failure is part of the process. The Beautiful Failure Challenge is about embracing failure as a natural part of the creative process.

The problem: You’re waiting until “the time is right” to begin your writing project. Whether it’s a novel, a story collection, a blog, or a memoir, the only way forward is to take action.

The importance of action: When we do, we sometimes fail, but failure can lead to amazing creative breakthroughs. When we do nothing, we go nowhere. When we act, we give ourselves permission to fail beautifully.

The solution: every day for ten days, write something without fear of failure. When you sign up for this challenge, you’ll receive an email each morning with a writing prompt or advice to help you take action in your writing life.