On Instagram, I often share a little snapshot of what’s on my day’s agenda. I don’t know why I started sharing these daily dockets — I suppose I find that kind of content interesting, a peek into how creatives actually spend and structure their time, and I firmly believe that one of the “secrets” to a creative life is writing what you want to read. I put secrets in quotation marks because whenever I write about writing, I feel as though I’m simply reheating conventional wisdom. Yesterday’s tripe. But the self-evident sometimes bears repeating, even to a tenured writer like myself, as so let me briefly mark down my creative credo:
+Create a discipline out of the craft. Show up every day with the intent of making something. It doesn’t have to be good; it doesn’t have to be anything at all. Process > product. This is, quite simply, the only channel to improvement.
+Read daily and diversely — the prose of others will laminate and enrich your own in secretive and alchemical ways. Anything half-good I’ve ever written was conceived of while in the throes of a great book hangover.
+Write what you want to read. If you find the material boring, woe to the reader…! The weirder and more specific the better. Trust me on that. No one wants bromides, especially in this era of AI slop.
+Do not think about the audience. This almost always compromises craft. Besides, what happens after you release something you’ve written into the world is none of your business — that’s the reader’s purview.
+Find low-stakes mediums that invite play and exploration. Personally, I cannot draft in MS Word — it’s like creating in a tuxedo and top hat. I’m so self-aware that I suffocate my sentences and choke on my details. I need a legal pad, a gridded notebook, a blank 8.5×11 sheet of paper. I need my WordPress editor. Places that feel fungible and forgiving.
+Be as specific as possible. This is both a kindness to the reader and a matter of accessible writing. If we write about the blue room with the salt-stained paint and the patchwork quilt and the gardenia and grief in the air, the reader will follow us to that room with those credentials. She sits with us there and cries or watches the weather in the window or fingers the quilted coverlet. Readers implicitly trust a detail. Mary Oliver may never have seen a starling or a hummingbird or a flicker, but the way she writes about those birds, with eggshell-delicate anthropomorphosis, it is nearly impossible to doubt her.
+Make a game of word acquisition. You don’t need to use them — certainly don’t paste them in where they’re uncalled for — but they broaden the library, giving you a wider range of color to play with. This one’s too blue, that one’s too-on-the-nose. I love to thumb through writer’s dictionaries and will reference technical literature (for farm equipment, for astrophysics) if an analogy calls for it. You would not believe the broad play spaces I have found at the rainbow’s end of these hunts for the specific, the way a highly technical term like Gamma Velorum (a quadruple star system in the constellation Vela) can draw a plain-clothed sentence into the musical and luminous. So the specific is about sound, too, about how loudly or quietly or cacophonously or melodically it can set the word echoing.
+Publish early and often. Get it out there. This is mainly a matter of swallowing your pride. You will hate things you’ve released; this is part of the humbling pathway to skill. There is no way out but through.*
+There will be a maddening gap between your ambition and your ability. Your job is to slowly shrink this through repetition of effort. But get comfortable with the chasm.
+You will enter pits of despair. Keep going.
+Begin today. Life is never going to slow down to accommodate your ambition. There is no perfect time or condition for creating. Write on a Tuesday. Write at 11 p.m. Write in the carpool line, in the margins, in the heady midst of fever. Committing to the imperfect now is at least 50% of the challenge. The rest is just time and trying.
*I saw a quote recently: “What a privilege to be embarrassed by your earlier work because you were brave enough to start.” Amen!
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Wow. Really got myself worked up there writing about writing, one of those things I could talk about forever. Mea culpa. But back to the firstling theme on daily dockets: in the living of my day, things feel fluid, even unstructured. For example, I don’t block out parts of my calendar for maker’s time or timebox my efforts (I’ve recently learned that many authors do this!). The hours feel a bit more free-form. There are frequent interruptions and last-minute plan changes. (Landon and I are often down-to-the-minute with who is going to pick up which kid!) And yet. I nearly always manage two chunky writing blocks (maker’s time) and they nearly always bracket a lunch break with my husband, at the kitchen counter. That meal is a non-negotiable for me. The art of the seated lunch! It’s like elbowing my way out of the calendar’s constraints and making space for something real and round and fulfilling in its center. The remains of the day thread and wind around whatever my kids need — a playdate, soccer practice, homework review. An example from yesterday below:
Thursday’s Docket
+drop kids, make coffee, reheat a bowl of leftover Mexican rice for breakfast
+chat with my brother (visiting from Norway) in the kitchen
+manager’s time: household admin / email inbox clear out (I’m an inbox zero gal)
+writing block one — essay for blog
+lunch at the kitchen counter (with brother and husband! full cup!)
+doctor’s appointment + errand (picking up Thanksgiving candles and my order from the Venus x Crate and Barrel collab — don’t ask me why I elected for in-store pick-up; I have no idea, and it only added to my to-dos)
+abbreviated writing block two — edit essay, tamper around with a couple of new concepts: “sometimes self-care is…” and “words that wear their hearts on their sleeves”
+oversee homework / hang with brother
+pick up Emory from theater practice, drop brother off for his dinner plans
+return to desk to idle over a few final edits
+family dinner
+Widow’s Bay (slowly making our way through) + wait for brother to come home to soak up a final conversation
+read a few minutes of my holiday romance in bed
Post-Scripts.
+A more detailed day in my life.
+What makes your morning easier?
+If you’re headed toward holiday travel: a crowd-sourced guide to easier travel days here.
Everyday Things I Love in My Little Universe.
S&L DESK // S&L LAMP // INSLEE CALENDAR // WOOL GATHERING MUG // JELLY PHONE CASE // EASY CARE WOOL RUG // MECHANICAL KEYBOARD // SOFT SERVICES QUICK-ABSORB HAND CREAM // FAV GEL PENS // MIDI CHAPPYWRAP (DESK BLANKET)
Annotations:
+My new desk! Still getting used to her, mildly mourning my little white desk. I was ASTOUNDED that my desk is now 40% off?! OMG. Your gain in waiting! Have also been looking for a little side lamp for my rattan end table and this one caught my eye — it is 40% off in select colors!
+My favorite mug. I’ve been using her daily, and I call her my “wool gathering mug” and I think about how it takes a long time to become. She’s currently a random 14% off.
+Speaking of wool-gathering: my wool rug! I’ve written a lot about her lately but I used to have a dark patterned/floral rug in my studio that was lovely (I loved her!) but my studio is so depressingly dark. I have been wanting to take out the blinds that were here when we bought the house and repaint the walls. Hopefully soon. The rug is already a brightener.
+New tech upgrades! My CTO (lol, Landon) told me my new desk deserved better technology. My keyboard has been so well-loved, several of the letters have been worn off the keys! He knows all the best tech finds and ordered me this mechanical keyboard (currently 20% off) and this mouse. The mouse!!! OMG. OK she’s not the most aesthetic thing but — I’m in total love with her. I can’t explain why but the sound and feel of the click is deep ASMR for me.
+On the tech note, we recently upgraded to the iPhone18 Pro — huge relief for me as I was constantly running out of storage and having to temporarily delete apps! — and finally got my paws on one of these jelly cases for it. Nothing more nerve-wracking then walking around with a new, bare iPhone. The brand had been sold out in burgundy and my cashmere color for awhile but are back!
+Ordered a 2027 version of my beloved Inslee desk calendar! These come in the most beautiful gift boxes (you can pick from several motifs; I ordered the beautiful petal one below) and make for a gorgeous presentation if you’re looking for a showstopping gift for a mother, MIL, teacher, neighbor, sister figure.
+Just discovered that my favorite overnight hand cream brand (I apply nightly / keep on my nightstand – she makes a great gift; I gave her to several friends last year) just released a quick-absorb gel version specifically formulated to not transfer / for use while working at a desk so as not to “smear onto surrounding surfaces.” YES. Ordered.
+The fine-tipped gel pens I ordered by the truckload. Why do they always sprout legs and wander off?
+I’m pretty much persistently cold — I always keep a midi chappywrap and Heidi, my heated pad, by my deskside.
BUCK MASON TEES // BEST EVERYDAY JEANS // FREYA CASHMERE SCARF // FRENCH GIRL LIPS // MOST COMFORTABLE FLATS // DESK SWEATERS FROM LA LIGNE AND GWYN // DORSEY CECILIA EARRINGS // GOAT CONCEALER // PRETTIEST AND MOST LUMINOUS CHEEK COLOR (“PINK DIAMOND”) // FAVORITE EVERYDAY PERFUME
Annotations:
I’m all about comfort and ease for workdays in my studio.
+Can’t quit these shrunken tees, recently restocked. I love them for layering. They are a second-skin-soft feeling and virtually invisible beneath anything you’re wearing. Close to the body fit, slightly cropped. If I want more of a statement, I wear the SoldOut ones, which have a higher-end polish and fit.
+Cannot stop raving about these jeans. OMG. A revelation. Good amount of stretch, classic 90s fit. I love the rise. Come in three inseams. I think I need another wash! Run TTS! Comfortable enough to wear all day, which cannot be said for many jeans. I don’t have a code here but some Magpies have had luck with code FRESHAYR. The other everyday pants I love: these utility pull-ons (come in petite inseams here! — use code JS15), these Rutis (use code JEN15), and these sweatpant jeans.
+A desk sweater: my favorites are Alice Walk, La Ligne (use code MAGPIE10), and Gwyn (use code JENSHOOP15).
+Some sort of scarf — loving the bandana motifs right now. I love to throw one on to my basic formula of jeans, a tee, a sweater to add a sense of perspective/intentionality. My favorites are the ones from Freya, Kujten (look for less here and here), and Guest in Residence ($30 look for less here).
+THE MOST COMFORTABLE FLATS. Period. I’ve owned in the calf-hair/leopard for two seasons but added these camels this year and they go with everything under the sun. Including athleisure, dresses, jeans.
+My ultra-lightweight everyday earrings. These are a good vibe for less pick — they look much more expensive than they are. Use code JEN10 for a discount. Speaking of Hart, they just launched a joyful, colorful collab with Julia Berolzheimer! Love these gumball fruit charms on colorful cords.
+My favorite perfume, found on sale!!! So hard to find scents on sale, but Nordstrom marked down an enormous collection of them as a pre-Black Friday deal! Their sale also includes the cool mom sneakers, some Rag and Bone miramar, and these waterproof boots from a smaller brand I’m obsessed with.
+Easy everyday swipe-on makeup: the best concealer (15% off) and the prettiest and most luminous cheek color discovery (LOVE in shade pink diamond). Little reminder that Sephora’s sale is still ongoing! Everyday favorites here.
+A Magpie reader recommended this as an alt to a lip stain — apparently it REALLY lasts. Apply a thick balm on top.
Post-Scripts: My First Holiday Gift Orders.
Mom, if you’re reading: stop here.
As with years past, I’m not going to be publishing a suite of gift guides. I’ll share one post with specific and thoughtful gifts I’d actually give the women I love in my life — and probably also one post for kids, and one post for Mr. Magpies. I put a lot of thought into these and typically try to buy all my own Christmas gifts first so I can really share what I actually buy versus just things that look pretty together in a collage — which, admittedly, is fun to compile and look at in its own way, but not particularly useful. I’d really like to be considered on this front.
Anyhow — I made my first Christmas gift purchases this week! The shopping prompt for me this year: how can I offer an upgraded version of something my loved ones use heavily / are in need of? My brother would never splurge on athleisure but he does wear a fair amount of it; his family loves to hike, explore, etc, and they also like to hunker down in comfort in the cold and long Norwegian winters. I got him this Rhone half-zip (one of Landon’s favorite things — he owns in a few colors) and these shorts. Reminder SHOOP20 gets you a generous 20% off right now, something I availed of myself. I think he’s going to love the quality and detail on these pieces. They hold up so beautifully and are just a wonderful upgrade for a man’s leisure time.
I also ordered my mom this beautiful fleece pullover for her morning walks. The color is SO HER. I saw it and thought “she has to have this.” Every morning, she says a decade of the rosary while taking in the surroundings and I think she will find joy in wearing HER color while in HER circuit.
I have slowly been compiling top considerations for sisters/sister figures here (will whittle down and share annotations in the forthcoming blog post, but in case you’re wanting to get the engines started, sharing now), and wanted to mention that this very sweet “connection” bracelet is currently 30% off with code BF30. I’ve given my SIL (who lives abroad) one of these and it’s a really sweet way to gesture at your bond. The style is very Cartier adjacent, too.
I like to give my closest girlfriends beauty products and I have this in mind for my best friend (bundled with something else – TBD), as she has the most phenomenal, long hair and will love the blowdry spray and these lip kits in mind for a few others. They’re my favorite and come in such a cute little giftable box. Both 15% off at Sephora!
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