dear john – Meg Dowell Writes

Dear John: Confessions of an Anxious Writer

“I understand that stories are the keys that let us out of a consciousness we cannot always control.”

Feb 23, 2016Feb 22, 2016 Meg DowellLeave a comment

“I love stories because they let me out of this prison of myself.”

For a long time, I didn’t understand what you meant when you said that.

There are good kinds of escapes in this world. Healthy ones. Reading and writing alike let us take journeys away from the present so we can turn negative emotions and situations into beautiful stories. That I knew. I have always known.

I tried seeing things from your point of view then and for whatever reason found that I could not do it. When I write stories, it’s always been the opposite for me. It forces me to dive deeper into myself, to understand what I am thinking and feeling. To try and see writing as a way to set myself free was seemingly impossible.

I can’t (rather, prefer not to) explain exactly what has changed in the months since I first heard you speak these words. But I can say that I have come to a much deeper understanding of what you meant when you cited storytelling as a way for you to step out of your inner consciousness.

Lately, for me, writing has become something I must force myself to do. Not because I do not enjoy it but because stopping would throw me completely off balance.

I have discovered that I am two different people when I am writing and when I am not. When I write, I am honest. I am opinionated and decisive and intelligent, sometimes. I am driven and outgoing and always content. Even when I write something I know isn’t good, that doesn’t shake my confidence.

But in the real world, I am not that person. I am neither confident nor outgoing. I do not speak my mind. A lot of the time I don’t speak at all. It isn’t something I am comfortable doing and I’m not comfortable writing about it, either. But I can say that here, because here my words matter and they make sense and they are my wings.

This is a terrifying thing to realize but it is through writing that I have come to accept the reality of my existence. I cannot be who I want to be without my words. Searching deeper I have found that telling stories really does free me. I would feel eternally trapped if I did not have this outlet, and even on days when I struggle to write, something always comes out and it is usually enough to get me through the day.

I think you can admire a person for many different reasons. I admire you as an author because your stories speak to me and they are, as expected, beautifully written. But I also admire you for your openness and your willingness to talk about how important writing is to your mental health.

When I originally found this quote I wasn’t really sure why it stuck out to me so much. But I get it now. I understand that stories are the keys that let us out of a consciousness we cannot always control, and we can run and jump and say anything we want to in our stories and there is no fear. There is no hesitation. Sitting in front of my creations, I am so happy. So alive. Whole.

It isn’t that stories serve as an escape from our problems. Instead, stories are the pathways through which we can free ourselves from the barriers that prevent us from acting as our true selves. If there are parts of the mind that hold us back, also there are parts that drive us forward.

The only hope I have for myself, and for anyone else in situations similar to mine, is that someday we will figure out how to feel less trapped, and more free. I appreciate the places my mind allows me to go when I am telling a story. But I must always return to the places that make me feel inadequate, and this makes writing so much harder.

But so, so much more rewarding all the same.

DFTBA, Meg<3

Image courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.

Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine, a guest contributor with Lifehack and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is an eight-time NaNoWriMo winner and has also written for Teen Ink and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Dear John: Finding Fulfillment in Our Ideas

Sometimes I write letters to John Green because it’s his fault I do all this writing stuff and have yet to give up on any of it.

Jan 29, 2016Jan 29, 2016 Meg Dowell1 Comment

At some point, we all have that moment. That moment when we finally look at our list of goals or dreams or things we want to do before we die and say, “Now. I’m going to make this happen right now.” No more waiting. No more procrastinating.

I was a junior in high school when I took my writing “career” into my own hands. Near the end of 2008 I somehow discovered YouTube, which has not much to do with writing unless you factor in the minor detail of simultaneously discovering the Vlogbrothers.

The first video I ever saw, I’m pretty sure, was this writer I’d never heard of before named John Green sitting in front of a camera, talking to someone named Hank about NaNoWriMo (which I also was not aware existed in the universe).

Naturally, as a sixteen-year-old convinced I was going to be a writer no matter what it took (stubbornness or passion, I’m not really sure which), I decided I needed to read all of this stranger’s books because he seemed successful and down-to-earth. I also signed up for my very first NaNo that October (because why not?).

Well John, I spent all Christmas (sorry – “winter”) break that year reading the then three books you’d published (Katherines, Alaska and Paper Towns). And that January, I started my first blog, what would six years later morph into what is now known as Novelty Revisions.

I’m not sure if this is your fault, but I’m giving you credit anyway.

I published my first essay that year too. I wrote my first book. I finally figured out that if my ideas were worth anything at all, I needed to find that out for myself.

This, I have since come to find out, is a lesson we are reminded of on more than a single occasion.

I learned it again in college, when I realized I wasn’t doing any writing outside of school and felt as though I was falling behind.

And again, when I got my first full-time job, applied to graduate school, basically stopped blogging for two months and almost convinced myself I could afford to put “writing for fun” on hold for awhile. You know. Until I had my life figured out.

Then I forgot why I ever wanted to be a writer in the first place, and my heart was sad, and to fill the void I watched every single Vlogbrothers video ever made, in chronological order, on my way to and from work, in the evenings, long after the rest of the world slept.

Again, there you were, unknowingly screaming at me, “YOUR IDEAS MATTER. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WRITE THEM.”

Novelty Revisions happened. And then I started writing. I started writing a lot.

Why? Because my ideas, sharing those ideas, allowing myself to be proud of those ideas, gave me a sense of fulfillment I never knew I’d been missing.

You told Adam Grant recently: “You have to find pleasure and fulfillment in [your] work […] find fulfillment inside the work itself.” I first stumbled upon the original video where this quote came from at the beginning of this week, which also happens to be the week I published my first work of fiction.

How do you always somehow manage to reappear in my social media feeds when I’m in need of reassurance the most?

Everyone has their senpai these days (sorry not sorry) and I know every other fan, follower and/or nerdfighter hopes and prays you will acknowledge their existence someday. I don’t need that (not that I would deliberately avoid you in a crowded elevator if we ever happened to both be on one at the same time or anything). I have enough fulfillment knowing that what I am doing with my life – writing, because it makes me happy, not because I want to be famous or financially privileged or anything like that – is what I’ve always been supposed to do.

It has taken me so long to figure this out. Why?

I don’t know. But I wanted to thank you. For somehow always showing up to remind me I can use my words for good and that they matter and that if I’m not happy, my stories will never reach their full potential.

I am happy. It’s been far too long since I could say that and actually mean it.

DFTBA.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of HuffPost Arts & Culture.

Dear John: Family Matters

Dec 25, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

This is a strange stage of life to be in during the holidays.

Unlike many of my friends, I am single and back living in the same house where I grew up. Most of my friends have moved away from our small town for work and school. So when my boss said a few weeks ago, “Do not work on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve,” as grateful as I was for that, I just shook my head. Sighed to myself.

I don’t have many friends or family members to spend time with this season. Work is all I really have.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my family and spending time with loved ones over these two weeks is absolutely essential. But all I’ve wanted to do since I left home to celebrate Christmas is work. Writing is work for me. It’s work I enjoy. Sometimes I would just rather spend all my time writing instead of watching Christmas movies. Nothing against Christmas movies or anything.

I view all this, obviously, from the perspective of someone who has never had a family of her own. I forget it’s different for people who have. Which is why, sometimes, I get frustrated when I am depending on someone for something, and their timing just doesn’t match up with mine. It seems selfish, unless you take into account these differing perspectives.

Earlier this year I (jokingly, but no one really saw it that way) wrote an open letter to John Green about how he was overdue for a new book. I made the mistake of posting that into the Nerdfighter Facebook group, and everyone shot me down and criticized me for not respecting John’s time or personal life.

It’s still up on this blog and you can probably find it if you want to. I didn’t delete it. But those comments really hurt my feelings and made me feel really guilty about the whole thing. I won’t lie about that. Here I was, a writer who understood how hard it is to write a book and balance other responsibilities, basically being publicly shamed for writing something about an author I really looked up to.

That was back in July or August, if I’m remembering right. I’ve learned a lot since then (like how not to share my work with a bunch of strangers who can’t respect someone else’s style and opinion). I’ve paid a lot more attention to how John maintains balance in his life as well (certainly not in a creepy way). After Project for Awesome, I finally realized I understood something John does right that has made him so successful in so many areas of his life, despite a handful of obstacles.

He puts his family first.

He will go on a social media hiatus (though he’s not very good at it) so he can better divide his time between work and family. He will allow both of his children to live their own private lives despite his status as an author, creator etc, yet he will jump up in the middle of hosting a live stream the second little Alice needs his immediate attention.

That isn’t a kind of dedication I can yet understand. It’s not my fault. I just don’t have a family to take care of yet. I have to balance work and school and a few friends and that’s about it. So I’m sorry if sometimes I come off selfish, like I don’t care about other people’s time. But you have to look at it through my eyes. I wanted to work over the holiday because, honestly, what else do I have to do?

I hope that whatever stage of life you’re currently in, if you don’t see things the way someone else does, you will at least try to view the matter from their perspective. I’ve never had kids, I’ve never had to try and raise a family and write a book at the same time, but John can do it. Someday I’ll have to do it. And when I’m at that point in my life, I’ll find a way to make it work.

I suppose even I can still learn to be more grateful for this time in my life. It’s kind of depressing sometimes and I don’t wish the loneliness on anyone, but maybe we have to learn how to handle being bored before we’re allowed to be busy truly living.

Thank you, John, for always teaching me things without knowing you’re doing it. I don’t write these things because I expect you to read them. It just keeps me sane. Mostly.

Merry Christmas, and DFTBA,, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

Dear John: Somehow, I’m Still Writing

Nov 27, 2015 Meg Dowell4 Comments

Back in March/April 2015, I did something that, at the time, sounded like a good idea.

I decided to watch every single Vlogbrothers video ever uploaded, in order, starting with Hank Green’s very first upload on January 1, 2007.

Also in March/April 2015, I started my first-ever graduate course, said goodbye to a temporary job doing something I actually sort of enjoyed, and re-branded this blog (a decision, I can assure you wholeheartedly, I do not regret).

Some beginnings. An ending. A good balance. Or so it seemed.

Halfway through April, I could feel something in my life was missing. Then, I still had my job. I was making new friends, doing more things I enjoyed (and watching Vlogbrothers pretty much nonstop, obviously). But somehow, in the midst of all these things, I’d stopped doing something important.

What was that something?

Writing. Writing for myself. Writing what I wanted to write. A book.

And then this video came along in my own personal marathon.

This video, and another one I’m having a hard time finding at the moment, flipped a switch in my brain I hadn’t even realized had been turned off. For so long I had been writing for myself. Writing because I wanted to prove to myself I could finish another project. Not even just creatively on my own time, but for my blog and for a magazine. Just to keep myself sane.

I have been reminded on multiple occasions in this way that writing is not about finishing a project for the sake of being able to finish it. It is not about writing because you have something to prove.

This lesson has been a particularly difficult one for me to learn, because I am knee-deep in the job market. Which means, while I am writing because I love to write, and I am writing for my readers and for those who enjoy reading my words, I am also, in some cases, writing to show I can, so when I send a potential employer a link to my work, there’s (maybe) something there that will grasp their attention.

And I don’t always like that. But I’m sure you don’t always, either. Especially when people try to pressure you into finishing another book (I’m really sorry about that BTW) when you’re doing your absolute best. I watch Hank’s video though, and I think, “It was hard work, but look at the joy it brought to so many people that day,” and still does even now.

Some days, honestly, I don’t even enjoy writing anymore. Even when it’s not actually work for me, it often still feels that way. I don’t want to lose the balance I’ve somehow found between writing for personal reasons and writing for professional reasons and writing to build relationships with those who stumble upon my work and want to read/know more.

Maybe, at some point, every writer feels this way. I think at some point you have to learn to give up the idea of what you want to happen and just let it happen. I don’t think any fairly successful author ever looks back and says, “I knew this would happen one day.” That’s not the kind of mindset that brings out the best in any of us as writers.

You’ve never given up on writing, and I suppose I really haven’t, either. Sometimes the joy gets buried and it all feels draining and pointless. But maybe that’s okay. Somehow I’m still writing, and I’ve finished that book and am halfway done with another already, and I’ve started writing for a few websites and blogs and even if that doesn’t make any difference to anyone else, I still enjoy it. I haven’t completely lost my joy.

I never thought a YouTube video would legitimately bring any sort of value to my life in the real world, but it has, and John, that’s pretty awesome to me.

I’ve written a few other letters to John Green (because why not?). You can read them here.

DFTBA, Meg<3

Image courtesy of The Telegraph.

Dear John: Stories Aren’t Just for Readers

Oct 28, 2015 Meg Dowell4 Comments

Storytelling is as complicated as it is simple. It’s very difficult, as a writer, to describe the writing process to someone who hasn’t experienced it themselves. Why? Because just as often as you have to think about your purpose for sitting down and writing a story, you must consider who you are sitting down and writing a story for – someone that is not you.

Complicating the matter even further is knowing that every story you write will mean something different to every person who reads it, no matter your intention for writing it in the first place.

We all write for different reasons, but something all writers have in common is the fact that writing stories is a powerful tool, and that is why we work so hard to refine our craft and learn how to tell the best stories we can, and how to tell them well.

Every story sends a message. Not just to the person reading it, but to the person writing it.

At NerdCon: Stories 2015, John Green spoke about stories and why they matter. Speaking from the viewpoint of a writer, he explained why he tells stories, and how they can be used to, in a sense, mentally, temporarily teleport from the real world to a world we create for ourselves. Stories are a way to escape our bodies and our minds and find comfort, at least for a little while, in the fiction we are attempting to bring to life through our love-hate relationship with words.

As often as we try to focus on who we are writing for – because, in the end, our readers are in a sense our customers, and their emotions and opinions do matter – John reminds us here that writing a story doesn’t start out that way. It all starts with us, and why we are writing the story we are writing. How that story resonates with other people comes later. Sometimes much, much later in the process.

Some of us start writing stories loosely based on things that have happened to us. Maybe we went through something when we were younger, or maybe it was recently, and we don’t know how else to come to terms with it and move on from it. It’s the same idea if you see someone else going through something and need to come to a better understanding of it yourself.

Maybe someone has seriously wronged you, and you want to use a story to try and see things from their point of view, in an attempt to understand why you have been targeted and hurt.

Maybe you’re at a point in your life where you feel you have a lot of important things to say, but nobody is listening, and a story is the only way you can seem to get your ideas out on paper.

Before the reader comes the writer, and when a story is born, the writer’s relationship with that story is the only relationship that matters. You have to use stories for your own benefit before they can be of any use to anyone else.

It’s okay to worry about what your readers might think. After you’re able to process what you needed to process while constructing your thoughts.

Here is John’s short monologue from NerdCon: Stories a few weeks ago.

Let’s take a step away from the reader today, and focus on us – the writers. Not everyone will love your story. That’s not what matters. What matters is that you’re writing something that is meaningful to you, and that is the only way for anyone else to gather meaning from it for themselves.

Image courtesy of youtube.com.

Dear John [and Hank]: I Am 23

Sep 30, 2015Sep 30, 2015 Meg Dowell1 Comment

I am 23.

Maybe to you that doesn’t mean much. Maybe to you it just means I’m an early ‘90s baby and rocked out to Hilary Duff in my tweens (because, why not?). I collected Beanie Babies and had one American Girl doll (Molly FTW!). I was right in the middle of high school when YouTube became a big deal but was too self-conscious to hop on the content creation bandwagon.

I am a recent college graduate. I majored in English. I write a lot.

So basically, at the moment, life is its own special circle of hell, and I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to find my way out of this dizzying labyrinth of unemployment, lack of fulfillment and, well, nothingness.

Some days, to be honest, the only thing that keeps me going is being able to say I am not only 23, broke, jobless, tired, invisible, but also, I’m a Nerdfighter.

I suppose I’m not the only lost soul who has stumbled upon your work in all of its varieties and found enough value in it to want to say around forever. There’s something about joining an online community of people who understand and like the same things you understand and like that makes all the hard parts of life easier to sift through.

Do I forget to be awesome sometimes? Of course I do. But there’s always another video or Tumblr post or podcast episode to get me back on track.

Speaking of podcasts, there’s a reason I was inspired to write this post today. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing ‘letters’ to people who inspire me even if they’ll never read them. I just haven’t been feeling very inspired lately. I’m exhausted. I’m working really hard and don’t have much to show for it. It’s getting old. I feel like the world keeps spinning and everyone is on an epic adventure except for me.

I feel like I’m going in circles, always going, but never actually getting anywhere.

I meant to bring this up. But someone else’s Dear Hank and John question already did.

First came this:

“I think that the hard part of creation is getting past the part where you’re doing it and no one’s paying attention, because you’re not that good at it.” –Hank Green

And next came this:

“You gotta take a certain amount of pleasure and joy in the act of making something.” –John Green

They might seem like simple statements taken out of context. Maybe even obvious ones. But they meant something to me. They inspired me. You inspired me. Again.

It’s hard to remember to love what you do when you don’t have a choice. If I just sat around, only applying for jobs I didn’t really want, with nothing to fill in the gaps, I don’t know where I would be. I had a job I loved, but like many things in life, it was temporary, and it’s gone.

So I write. And I set goals. And I try. And no one is paying attention.

I struggle every day with wanting to be a successful writer, wondering if I’m any good at it, knowing I can’t be 23 and support myself doing it, wishing things had turned out differently. I had a completely different dream and it was taken away from me before it even had the chance to see the world. Do you know what it’s like, trying to put all my pieces back together, trying to convince myself it’s all going to be okay?

Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. This is how life goes. I feel like, if I was ever going to give up, it’d be now.

I won’t, of course. How could I? I still love writing even though I never feel like it matters to anyone else. It matters to me.

Would I still write if no one ever read it? I do it every day. I participate as an audience member even if I don’t have an audience myself, because watching other people create content inspires me to create content, regardless of whether or not it’s important to someone else.

I’m a lot of things. I’m definitely not a quitter. I’m a fighter.

I may not be the best at what I do.

I may not be the best at anything.

But I’m only 23. Maybe I’ll get better. Maybe it will all get better.

Even if it doesn’t, at least I know who I am. At least I know what I love. At least, in the grand scheme of the online universe, I am not alone.

Best wishes,

Meg

Image courtesy of youtube.com.

Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and health. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist, Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine, a guest contributor with Lifehack and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has also written for Teen Ink and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Dear John: Happy Birthday, and Thank You

Aug 24, 2015 Meg Dowell1 Comment

Honestly, sometimes I forget I have become an adult.

It isn’t that I’m not willing to take responsibility for myself or that I don’t want to be in charge of my own life. It’s just that sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night because I drank coffee too late, because I’m thinking about my novel, because I’m stressed, because I’m paranoid my alarm won’t go off when it’s supposed to, I wish all the other things didn’t matter. Things like emails and job applications and choosing a profile picture that represents my absolute best, professional self.

Okay, so that last one isn’t at the top of my list of everyday worries. But on these mornings I just want to sleep so I don’t have to think, honestly, sometimes I start wondering how you do it all.

Let’s be clear: I know you’re just a regular human being who just so happens to have a little bit more awesome inside you than everybody else. I know being an intelligent, successful person really doesn’t make you all that different from people like me, who are still trying to find a thing or two (or twelve) they can be successful at without losing their joy.

What makes you stand out is your willingness to be real, John. And I think, today, that deserves to be recognized.

You see, we all carry fragments of our pasts around in the back pockets of our favorite pairs of jeans. It’s easy to forget they’re there, but every once in awhile, hello, we remember. And the thing is, everybody has their own outlet for dealing with how it feels to remember things we might not always want to remember. Or at least, everybody is doing their best to find theirs.

I never saw writing as an outlet for these kinds of things, really. Not until I saw the way you incorporate writing into your life, instead of making writing your entire life, all day, every day.

That’s what I used to want to do, just sit around and write all the time. But for some reason, I’d get really tired of it. I’d feel drained and, actually, kind of awful after long stretches of writing without stopping. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why.

You’re a writer, John, but that’s not all you are. That’s not all you talk about and that’s not all you’re willing to support or express interest in. You’re an interesting person to follow (that sounded creepy but I don’t mean it like that) because you always have something worthwhile to say. You know a lot about a lot of different things. You wear a lot of hats.

And on top of all that, on top of your work and your family and your dedication to Nerdfighteria, you’ve still found time to write a few books on the side.

Now I’m not saying I want to live an exact replica of your life. That would be going too far.

But I do admire you for being so willing to share what it is like to be you, the good and the bad and all the airport-sized chaos in-between. Because it reminds people like me that it’s okay to be 23 and have no idea what our lives are going to be like five, 10 years from now. It’s okay to try a lot of different things, even if we’re not so good at them, until we either get better at them or figure out what we’re good enough at to make it work in our favor.

It’s okay to have days where writing is the only thing we want to do. It’s okay to have days, weeks, months where writing is just something we do at our own pace, when we can, because sometimes there are things that take precedence.

It’s okay to forget we have become adults. And at the same time, it’s okay to be an adult, because that’s when everything eventually falls into place.

Thanks for reminding us we’re going to make it.

We hope you have a good day, all of us, and many more to come.

Best wishes.

Image courtesy of John Green.

Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and health. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist and Grammar Nazi, Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has written several creative pieces for Teen Ink. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Dear John: We Read You First

Jul 24, 2015 Meg Dowell1 Comment

Today, especially today, we can’t turn around without hearing about something else amazing you’ve done. Your book is now a movie (yet not for the first time). You’re flying around VidCon like a superhero right now, because to those outside your circle, you can do anything, and you have nothing but positive messages to leave in your wake. You’re in this country. On that talk show. Hanging out with this person. Being awesome, as always. Always.

But you see, John, there’s something we’ve been meaning to talk with you about. We, the ones who have stuck with you since the beginning. We, the ones who were reading your books before anyone really knew who you were and why you were so awesome.

Before we followed you into Nerfighteria, John, we loved your books, and we loved you for writing them, and we want nothing more than to continue to breathe in the products of your literary madness (the good kind). We still love you. However, we can only read and reread your books so many times before we lose our own minds.

John, please. For the good of the people. For the sanity of nerd-saturated humanity. Finish writing your next book. Soon.

It’s not that we don’t love your weekly exchanges with Hank; CrashCourse; Mental Floss; your Twitter addiction (but please, don’t stop tweeting, we need our daily fix). But you can’t forget where you came from. You can’t forget the words that started it all, the stories that shaped your career, the pages filled with inspiration we secretly reread again and again, as if we can’t get enough.

There seems to be a pattern in the timeline of your previous publications of the novel variety, John. And based on what we’re seeing, we don’t like the predictable outcome.

Looking for Alaska (2005)

An Abundance of Katherines (2006)

Paper Towns (2008)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010)

The Fault In Our Stars (2012)

Your first two releases were only a year apart; the third, fourth and fifth: two years between each. It is now over halfway through 2015, meaning it has been over three years since the January 2012 release of your most recent book, and WE ARE SUFFOCATING.

Even if this pattern continued, and the book you may or may not be working on right now somehow miraculously got a 2016 release date, this is still a very long time for us to wait. Remember, we read you before we watched you. Your words are part of us. Forever.

You are honest, John, and you make us all laugh whether we need to or we don’t. But you also understand your audience better than anyone. You know what resonates with us. You know what matters to us. You care about what we care about. Your books reflect that. And reading them makes us care even if we didn’t know we weren’t.

We know life gets busy, and there’s family and adulting and the never FTBA’ing, but you’re a writer. You need to write words as much as any of us, more than many of us need to read them. It can’t be healthy to keep even yourself away from this element of your work. And sure, you’re probably writing a little every day, in cars, on planes, stuck in airports. But promise us you haven’t forgotten. Promise us there will be more words.

Hurry home, John. Write a little. Write a lot. Write because you love it. And because, shamelessly, we need you never to stop.

Love&hugs, your readers<3

Image courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter.

A recent graduate with a B.A. in English and a completed major in nutrition, currently seeking a graduate degree in health communication, Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and dietetics. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist and Grammar Nazi (and the mastermind behind this site), Meg is an editor for College Lifestyles magazine and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine’s Stone Soup. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has written several creative pieces for Teen Ink magazine. Follow Meg on Twitter.