THE PEN
New Website!
We're excited to have our new website up and running! What do you think? We are still tweaking, so please excuse any hiccups as we finalize. Our goal is to have a more streamlined experience for you that will be easier to navigate and find all the information you need to know quickly. Looking forward to connecting with you as we move into new ventures!
Habits for Keeping Up With A Busy Schedule
Sometimes it seems like life only ever gets busier, and worse yet, that there’s no way to keep up with it. Truth is, though, with some good habits, you really can juggle all of the events in your active and sometimes hectic life. The effort that goes into building these good habits will be beneficial in the long run! Find your system! There are a lot of great ways to keep your schedule. Journaling is all the rage right now and can be super fun and rewarding, but there’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned day planner either. If carrying around an extra ‘thing’ with you throughout the day seems inconvenient, then there are plenty of options on your smartphone as well. The calendar app already installed on most phones can be useful, along with various other scheduling and planning...
How to ACTUALLY Use a Checklist
It’s pretty easy to make a to-do list. In fact, many people do it everyday. However, many people never pay any attention to it after they’ve written it up. So what good is it? Truth is, a checklist can actually help boost your productivity if you use it correctly. Let’s take a look at some of the best guidelines for getting the most out of your checklists: Plan out everything beforehand. A checklist will only work if it's there to use as a road map. If you haven’t done it ahead of time, it should be the first thing you do when you sit down to work. It can also be useful to make your “to do” checklist span over several days, weeks, or even the month. Whatever your time frame is, take the few minutes to create your list before you begin so you can actually use it to guide your...
How to Kick the ‘Info Dumping’ Habit
Every fiction writer knows the struggle! You’ve got so much great information thought up about your characters, the setting, and the backstory. In this excitement, when you are deep in the writing zone, it’s easy to “info dump,” or drop in too much information in one spot. The strategies and tips below offer several easy ways to help cut back on that hard-to-break habit, and create sharper, more descriptive and dynamic language. Don’t rush it! It seems logical to put a bunch of information in the beginning of your story, but it's one of the easiest ways to wind up with a lengthy info dump. Remind yourself that there’s no need to rush and put all of that information in one spot. You’ve got many more pages up ahead to fit that important information into. So don’t...
How to Meet & Beat Your Deadlines
You may have heard the claim that if you give more work to the busiest person, they’ll get it done the fastest. Though we can’t generalize for every person, this is more or less true. I think about my schedule in college—how I juggled socializing, hundreds of pages of reading, writing my capstone, studying for exams, preparing meals, playing racquetball, and attending club events daily. Then, everything changed. Living at home in a pandemic meant I had no other activities besides my abridged classes and lightened workload. In fact, I only had one Zoom class a week. I noticed that my assignments, no matter how small, would expand to fit the whole morning and often the entire day. At school, I got my massive activity load done in an appropriate amount of time. So why was I struggling so...
How to Support Local Businesses While Socially Distanced
The days of entering your favorite local business without worry to have a chat and a waltz around seem distant. For those business that have kept their heads above water during the coronavirus pandemic, their operations are likely different than they were back in 2019. Even as some regulations have eased, the surge of the Omicron variant has marked a return to masks and social distancing in some areas. However, supporting your favorite local businesses doesn’t have to mean putting yourself at risk. There are plenty of ways to help out local businesses while maintaining social distancing guidelines: Buy Local. One of the simplest ways to support local businesses right now is to buy from them. Instead of heading to chains or big box stores for your purchasing needs,...
How To Stay Happy When The Days Get Dark
BRING IN THE LIGHT When the days become shorter and darker, you know it’s winter in upstate New York again. Waking up and going to sleep in darkness can begin to feel draining after the gloriously warm and bright summer and fall seasons. It can be difficult to keep spirits high when the sun takes its retreat, and a chill constantly pierces the air. Here are a few simple ways to inject that brightness back into your life, and make it through those cold, dark months. Get Outside Anyway Even though it may not be tempting, spending time outside no matter the conditions is always a good way to encourage positive emotions. Bundle up, grab your headphones, and take a walk outdoors while listening to your favorite music or podcast. Walking every day, no matter how...
Connecting Despite Restrictions
Though many of our friends and family have been vaccinated, we aren’t out of the testy COVID waters just yet. There are still restrictions that can make life frustrating and difficult—you’re not alone in feeling this way. We must think outside the box to stay connected until this is over. Here are some hybrid and virtual ways to have fun with family and friends: Get Outside This is always a solid option. Now that many of us are vaccinated, it’s even easier to feel safe and secure outside. From walking to hiking to spending time on a socially-distanced beach, the outdoor world is waiting for you to explore it once again. Of course, there are many fun events that you can plan in your own backyard! It’s all about taking the extra step or precaution to ensure your...
How to Prioritize Wellness During Stress
Prioritizing your own well-being is hard. It was already hard, but with COVID on our hands, it feels as though prioritizing wellness has become even more difficult. Adapting to remote learning and working, maintaining healthy relationships with friends and family who may be far away, and focusing on our own health add to the everyday stresses of life. However, despite how difficult it may be, we do need to prioritize our own wellness. If we aren’t well, we can’t do all the things we've been stressing about to begin with. Here are a few ways to prioritize wellness even during stressful times: Don't Procrastinate It can be hard to get to your work on time, but rest assured, if all of it is left until the last minute, you’re going to struggle. Plan in advance what you want to...
Writing Through a Historic Event: What Journaling Has to Offer During a Global Pandemic
The world has never felt as unfamiliar as it does in this very moment in history. Because that’s what this is—a moment in history, and an important one at that. We’re likely going to be talking about the year 2020 (& 2021) our entire lives; the pandemic, the political landscape, the fight for human rights and the way our lives as individuals have changed, both for now and for good, will never lose its luster or its lessons. That being said, the fact of the matter is, nobody knows what the hell is going on. We’ve weathered odd and difficult changes on an individual level—i.e., Working from home with a house full of kids trying to learn remotely, not leaving the house for days at a time, the change in your kitchen’s semblance since you grew a stockpile of masks, sanitizer, and Lysol....