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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:

  • Change Your Mindset
  • Talent, Perseverance, and Hard Work: Lessons on Writing from Football
  • Rising Expectations, Daily Pages, and Having Fun
  • 6 Writing Lessons That I Learned From My Wedding
  • Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
  • The Tricks and Treats of Writing
  • Writing Is Magic
  • How to Serve and Swallow Criticism
  • 3 Keys to Storytelling
  • Learning to Embrace My Limits
  • What I Talk About When I Talk About Juggling
  • Warning: Bad Book Ahead! Proceed With Caution

    • Change Your Mindset

    By

    Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your PotentialA few months ago, my husband recommended that I read the book MINDSET. At first I dismissed it as just another one of the many business/management guides that clutters his nightstand from time to time. But my husband insisted that this book was different, that it would be good for me. In fairness, he has been known to be right on one or two occasions, so I decided to give it a chance.

    He was right.

    MINDSET explains a lot of things about myself — especially about my attitude toward writing and achievement — that I had sensed but never fully articulated. Furthermore, the book offers productive alternatives for some of my biggest hangups. It’s not really a how-to or self-help book, but in examining the benefits and the power of a growth mindset, it does end up guiding readers toward a better path.

    Here’s the crux of it, from the back cover:

    “World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success — but whether we approach our goals with a fixed or growth mindset.”

    What is fixed mindset?

    The belief that we are who we are. Period. Static. Maybe you can change a little bit here and there, but for the most part, you’re born with whatever skills, intelligence, creativity, personality, etc. you’re ever going to get.

    What is growth mindset?

    The belief that we can always improve — and that the process of improving is as important as the improvement itself.

    Why does your mindset matter?

    As Dweck shows through various case studies, the fixed mindset sets people up for failure, generally speaking. I mean, if you happen to be a super genius with natural talent and charm, then OK you’re all set! But for the other 99.99% of us, it’s not so easy. And if we’re convinced that we’re either smart or not, either artistic or not, either (fill in the blank) or not, then when we fail at something, that’s it. We’re done. No point in trying again.

    But if we instead believe that every failure is just a step on the path to success? A necessary step? A valuable step, because what doesn’t work teaches us about what will work? Then we’re already where we want to be. The journey is as much the destination as the destination itself.

    There is a lot more nuance to fixed vs. growth mindset than that — and really, it’s a spectrum, not just one or the other — but many of the problems that Dweck identifies as part of the fixed mindset remind me of issues that writers face. [Read more…]

    Talent, Perseverance, and Hard Work: Lessons on Writing from Football

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    Today is Super Bowl Sunday. For some of you, that might mean painting your face and screaming at the TV. For others, it might mean eagerly watching the commercials for a change. And for still others of you, it might not mean anything at all. Personally I am a huge football fan, and in honor of the big game, I want to spotlight a few NFL players and the lessons that I’ve learned from them — lessons that apply to writing. JJ Watt, defensive end for the Houston Texans If you’re not … [Read more...]

    Rising Expectations, Daily Pages, and Having Fun

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    According to one of my favorite children’s books, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want a glass of milk to go with it. And if you give the mouse a glass of milk, he’s going to want a straw (to drink with). Then a mirror (to avoid a milk mustache). Then scissors (to groom himself in the mirror). So on and so forth. There is always something more to want. I think the writing life can be that way too. If you write a good short story, then you’ll want to try a novel. Once you write a … [Read more...]

    6 Writing Lessons That I Learned From My Wedding

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    I really hate to be all me-me-me, but I got married last weekend, and let's be honest: that's all I can think about right now. It is a big, wonderful change. It was also a bit of an ordeal. Like most ordeals, it taught me many things. These lessons aren't necessarily specific to writing, but let's be honest: if you're a writer, everything reminds you of writing. So here are a few important lessons that I learned, and how they can be applied to the work that we do: 1. Understand … [Read more...]

    Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

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    Thanks to Stephanie Perkins and Paula McLain, I can visit Paris anytime I want. Shilpi Somaya Gowda has taken me to Mumbai. My tour guide in Maine is Elizabeth Strout. And I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail with Cheryl Strayed. Good books take us on a journey, both literally and figuratively. As a writer, I’ve started to think more carefully about the literal part. Because when it’s done well, setting impacts pretty much every facet of a story -- plot, voice, character, theme, etc. This is … [Read more...]

    The Tricks and Treats of Writing

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    Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. The laughter, the screams, the decorations, the ghost stories -- it’s all such fun. But even from a young age, I knew that “trick-OR-treating” was a misleading term, because you can’t have one without the other. No costume? No candy. Unfortunately this is true of writing too. The good and bad go hand-in-hand. But what if we look at it another way? The good and bad go hand-in-hand. That means whenever one of those pesky writerly … [Read more...]

    Writing Is Magic

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    Confession: I kind of hate when people talk about muses, “the zone,” or anything else that makes writing sound like magic. As if what we do is so easy, so inexplicable, so wondrous. Confession #2: I hate it because I almost never feel that way myself. I don’t have a muse; GPS doesn’t recognize “the zone” as a destination; and my words definitely do not materialize from thin air like fairy dust. Every day is a grind. I have to sit at my desk, place my fingers on the keys, and force myself to … [Read more...]

    How to Serve and Swallow Criticism

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    Generally speaking, I’m not big on podcasts (because I have a hard time focusing on and retaining audio-only information) but there is one that I make sure to tune into every week: Scriptnotes by screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin. John and Craig are funny, irreverent, and informative, and most of their insights apply to writing in general, not just writing for Hollywood. A few episodes ago, they talked about "taking notes" – i.e., accepting feedback – and there were 2 points that … [Read more...]

    3 Keys to Storytelling

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    Back in 2009, I attended the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. It was a fabulous, fun experience that truly helped me grow. A few months later, reflecting on that time and the specific lessons I learned there, I wrote this post for my website. I'm re-blogging it here because of Lisa Cron's post last month about how we writers are often taught how to craft prose, but not story. I tend to agree with her, which is why I found the KRWW so valuable: for once, someone was teaching me about storytelling! … [Read more...]

    Learning to Embrace My Limits

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    1. Habit I sing ALL the time. In the car, in the shower, in the bedroom while I'm ironing. My poor musically inclined boyfriend is very nice about it -- maybe because I'm ironing his shirts -- but the truth is, I'm not very good. I can hear the pitches and modulations in a melody, but I can't always make them with my own voice. Still, I have fun, and that's good enough for me. 2. Hobby I love to dance. I went from ballet as a girl, to drill team in high school, to contemporary in … [Read more...]

    What I Talk About When I Talk About Juggling

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    In third grade, they made us learn how to juggle. We started with scarves, because they have good hang time in the air, and they don’t make any noise if -- okay, when -- you drop them. So picture a room full of 8 and 9 year olds throwing these dingy, neon-colored squares of cloth all over the place. Worst PE class ever, right? I mean, what does juggling have to do with anything? Couldn’t we have climbed the monkey bars or played kickball instead? Now that I’m an adult, I recognize that … [Read more...]

    Warning: Bad Book Ahead! Proceed With Caution

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    They say, “Even a bad book can teach you something.” And it’s true: we can learn almost as much from a bad example as we can from a good one. Slow opening? Cut the backstory. Cheesy dialogue? Listen to how real people talk. Clunky or complicated prose? Read your work out loud. These are all valuable lessons, yes, but what I’ve finally realized is that they can usually be gleaned within the first 100 pages of a book. (Or less.) The rest is just torture. At least for me it is. See, reading … [Read more...]