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About Kristan Hoffman

Originally from Houston, TX, Kristan Hoffman studied creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University and later attended the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Now she lives with her family in Cincinnati, OH, where she writes both fiction and nonfiction with a focus on feminist, multicultural stories. Her words have appeared in the New York Times, Switchback, and the Citron Review, among others. She is currently at work on a Young Adult novel, and is represented by Tina Dubois of ICM. For more, please visit her website.

Recent Posts by this author:

  • Pandemic Got You Blocked? Try These Ideas to Stay Active in Your Writing Life
  • A Grab Bag of Tools and Tips
  • 3 Lessons About the Creative Process (As Learned From My Toddler)
  • Make the Ordinary Come Alive
  • What Motherhood Has (and Hasn’t) Changed About My Writing
  • Shared Dreams, Shared Success: The Power and Value of Critique Partners
  • Dear Young Writer
  • Writing Through Life’s Stages: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
  • Making a House a Home (and What It Taught Me About Writing)
  • Fallow Fields — An Argument for Letting Your Creativity Rest
  • What’s in Your Bag of Tricks?
  • Getting Over the Hump

    • Pandemic Got You Blocked? Try These Ideas to Stay Active in Your Writing Life

    By 8 Comments

    Hello and welcome to another Monday, in this, the year of a thousand Mondays.

    I don’t want to harp on the obvious, so I’ll just summarize it like this: For many of us, 2020 feels endless and relentless. We are drowning in our feelings about the pandemic, civil unrest, and the upcoming election — and that kind of anxious uncertainty is not ideal for creative pursuits.

    Some of you are doing the work anyway, somehow. In all seriousness, kudos! I am eternally impressed by those who get their shit done no matter the circumstances.

    Others of us… Well, we’re trying. And that’s not nothing.

    But yes, I am finding it harder than ever to make progress on my manuscript right now. Once upon a time, I probably would have considered that a flaw in my character, a personal failure. But if there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that beating myself up about not writing just leads to more not writing.

    And if there’s a second thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that I am more than my work (or lack thereof).

    So instead of falling into those traps, I have been trying to shift my energy toward other writerly things. Things that are still productive, even if they’re not directly related to my work-in-progress.

    If you too are needing to come at your writing career sideways for the moment, here are some ideas: [Read more…]

    A Grab Bag of Tools and Tips

    By

    Let me be honest: I’m probably not the person you should be taking writing advice from right now. I have a toddler and an infant, which means that most days, I’m just barely hanging on. (Thankfully, things are getting better now that the baby is sleeping through the night.) But then again, maybe I’m exactly who you should be taking writing advice from. Because I’ve never had less time, energy, or brain power to spare — and yet here I am, still writing. (Well, some days.) Today what I’m … [Read more...]

    3 Lessons About the Creative Process (As Learned From My Toddler)

    By

    One of the greatest gifts of parenthood -- and perhaps one of the greatest tricks -- is that as much as you are teaching and guiding your kids, so too are they teaching and guiding you. Even though my daughter doesn't yet comprehend what I do, she has been an invaluable source of inspiration, and education, for my writing. Here are 3 of the biggest lessons -- on process, craft, and creativity in general -- that I've learned from her during our not-quite-3-years together. 1. Have Fun, Be … [Read more...]

    Make the Ordinary Come Alive

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    I recently stumbled across some parenting advice that resonated deeply with me, and if you'll bear with me, I'll explain why I think it's valuable for us to consider in regards to our writing too. Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people … [Read more...]

    What Motherhood Has (and Hasn’t) Changed About My Writing

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    The first time my husband and I talked about having kids, we were in our early 20s, not yet married, and the idea of starting a family felt so far away it might as well have been on the planet Jupiter. But then 22 became 25 became 29. The years blinked away faster than I thought possible. In that time, I also quit my job in order to focus on writing. I had grand dreams (or delusions?) of long days at the keyboard, words pouring out of me in a great rush, like rice into a pot. But truthfully, I … [Read more...]

    Shared Dreams, Shared Success: The Power and Value of Critique Partners

    By

    I think there's a common vision of the writer as a loner. Supposedly we all sit alone in our small dim rooms, hunched over the blue glow of our laptops, muttering to ourselves as we try to work out the perfect sequence of words. (I may or may not be doing that right now, haha.) Or even in a crowded coffee shop, we toil in a different sort of solitude, headphones on, coffees going cold, immersed in our own imaginary worlds, oblivious to the real one tizzying on around us. And of course, … [Read more...]

    Dear Young Writer

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    Dear Young Writer, ("Young" meaning where you are in your writing journey, by the way. Not your actual age.) I may be older and wiser, or I may just be waxing nostalgic, but either way, I'd like to say a few things to you, if you don't mind indulging me. First, you are innocent and hopeful, and that makes me smile. You only have the vaguest notion of how books are made, but you know without a shadow of a doubt that you want to be part of making them. You have big dreams and ambitions, … [Read more...]

    Writing Through Life’s Stages: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

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    It’s almost midnight, and I’m sitting in the dark with my laptop, music on and earbuds in, my husband falling asleep in bed next to me. This is what so much of my writing life has looked like over the past decade. I imagine this is what much of it will look like in the decades to come, too. But of course, there have been changes over the years. Big ones. For example, my husband wasn’t always my husband, and we didn’t always live in this house, and hey, when did this baby monitor become a … [Read more...]

    Making a House a Home (and What It Taught Me About Writing)

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    Maybe it’s because I’m the daughter of two architects, but I’ve always thought of writing a book as being like building a house. You pour the foundation, frame the walls, install the roof, rough-in the plumbing and electric… etc. etc. If you’re a plotter, you’ll do all this work based on blueprints you drew up ahead of time. If you’re a pantser, you’ll just rent a cement truck, buy some lumber and bricks, and hope for the best. But the reality is, most of us will never build a house from … [Read more...]

    Fallow Fields — An Argument for Letting Your Creativity Rest

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    The first sign was music. Or lack thereof. My mind was calling for silence. Demanding it, to the point that I couldn't even bear to turn on the radio while driving. And not just because I was tired of hearing the same 10 songs over and over. (Even the good ones get old after awhile.) Something inside me needed to rest. The quiet went on for days. Weeks. Months. No music. Few books. Hardly any writing. It feels scary, almost shameful, to admit that last part. I've spent so much of my life … [Read more...]

    What’s in Your Bag of Tricks?

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    Since I was about 9 years old, all I’ve wanted is to be a writer. Some of my strongest memories are of sitting in my own little room at my parents’ print shop, surrounded by filing cabinets and spare computer parts and dusty paper samples, filling the hours between school and dinner by scribbling stories into notebooks. Back then, the words seemed to flow so easily, like water, like magic. Now? Not so much. To be honest, most days I have to trick myself into writing. No joke. I think my … [Read more...]

    Getting Over the Hump

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    There's a carnival game I love called Roller Bowler. The objective is to propel a bowling ball over a hump on a metal track. Sounds simple, but it's not so easy. Too little force, and you won't make it over the hump in the first place. Too much force, and the ball will go racing over the hump, rebound against the rear wall, and come hurtling right back at you. Either way, you lose. Daily writing sessions are like Roller Bowler for me. If I don't bully myself a little bit, I can easily waste … [Read more...]