Author: Jackie Pick

Jackie Pick is a former teacher and current writer living in the Chicago area. She is a contributing author to multiple anthologies, including Multiples Illuminated, So Glad They Told Me: Women Get Real about Motherhood, Here in the Middle, as well as the and the literary magazines The Sun and Selfish. She received Honorable Mention from the Mark Twain House and Museum for her entry in the Royal Nonesuch Humor Writing Competition. Jackie is a contributing writer at Humor Outcasts, and her essays have been featured on various online sites including McSweeney's, Belladonna Comedy, Mamalode, The HerStories Project, and Scary Mommy. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, Jackie is co-creator and co-writer of the award-winning short film Fixed Up, and a proud member of the 2017 Chicago cast of Listen To Your Mother.

What I’m Learning — Day 9 of 100 Days of Writing

· Leave a comment ·

Writing isn’t a verb. It is a constant state of presence and awareness and being both in the moment and also not of it. To be active participant and loving observer. My challenge is maintaining momentum and finding quiet, both of which are elusive with my current stage in life, but not impossible to find. I have to give up the expectation of a luxurious stretch of time to sit and moodle and instead choose to hope my brain will record what it needs to, that pen and paper are always handy, and that at some point I will find guilt-free quiet.

I am also learning that I like to use purple pens.

Thank you. The next tour of the cobwebby corners of my brain will be at 8am.