My ex-mother-in-law used to flat-out refuse to use my name when she sent me gifts or cards in the mail. Instead of addressing things to “Ms. Shannon Hilson,” as I’d asked, she’d insist on simply tacking “Mrs.” onto her son’s first and last name and calling it a day. She continued to do this even after I asked her multiple times not to.

She reasoned that I was too independent and needed to stop seeing myself as an individual and start seeing myself as her son’s wife, first and foremost. I disagreed. And when my ex turned out to have…

I’ve never been one of those svelte, sporty women who make loving exercise look easy. I was quite literally that kid that always got picked last for teams in gym class. Naturally speaking, I’m clumsy and uncoordinated. I can’t even dance worth a damn without making an absolute fool of myself, so I guess you could say exercise and I weren’t exactly fast friends in life.

It hasn’t helped that most of the few friends I’ve had who were good at staying in shape made exercise sound awful. They talked too much about all the things they’d given up and…

At some point in my 20s, I read The Journals of Sylvia Plath and fell instantly, violently in love with the incredible prose they contained. Her writing was absolutely stunning, every sentence electric with meaning and saturated in raw emotion. I’d been a fan of her poetry since my days as an angsty teenager. Now, here were her private writings and they were everything I would have hoped they’d be — cohesive, expressive, and so elegantly written.

I’m not sure anything else I’ve ever read has made me feel so inspired as a writer… or so inept.

I’d kept journals…

When you’re a writer, drawing on your life and personal experiences for inspiration isn’t just a good idea. It’s often what makes the difference between stories that resonate with a reader and stories that feel hollow or fall flat instead. It’s also impossible to do that kind of writing without bringing up other people you know sooner or later.

I’m pretty eclectic as a writer, so I write about many different things. I write a lot about my actual life, so people I know (or used to know) come up a lot. Some of the people in question are fine…

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone’s response to finding out I’m a full-time writer was to tell me they wish they were talented so they could do the same thing. I wish I had two dollars for every blank stare I’ve received after telling someone talent had nothing to do with how I built my writing business and eventually made a success out of it.

Talent is great and all, but it’s not worth much all by itself. If you have it, you might catch on a little faster than average when you’re learning the ropes…

Being easy to find on the internet has been a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, it’s made it possible for beloved old friends to get back in touch and for anyone who likes what I’m putting out there to find more of it if they feel like it. On the other hand, it’s made it easier for people who have any sort of beef with me to find me, too.

Naturally, this includes ex-boyfriends, and that experience has been an eye-opener in ways I never expected. It‘s been a lot like feeling confident you at least passed…

I’m not sure whether it’s just another by-product of getting older or what, but January’s been an absolute blur for my husband and me. The earlier part of the month found us suffering from a serious case of post-holiday blahs. A straight-up coup attempt at the United States Capitol building, not even a week into the new year, hardly helped.

Thankfully, things slowly but surely began to feel like they were looking up. Seeing a new president sworn in later in the month didn’t magically fix everything, of course, but I was still surprised by how much better it made…

I’ve had many guy friends complain to me over the years that figuring out what women want from them is next to impossible these days. This is especially the case when it comes to facilitating a meet-cute with someone attractive they stumble across out in the wild.

Do women still want men to talk to them, or do they strictly want to be left alone? It’s actually both, but it depends on the woman, as well as the circumstances. You’re probably pretty safe chatting someone up in a social setting where people are there to mix and mingle, like at…