Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe.
She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook.
She lives in Olympia, WA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.
Last week, I finished a collection of stories I’ve been working on for twelve maybe thirteen years. I have memories of a retreat I went on with a writer friend ... Read more
This blog is about how to make time for our art and how to make time for ourselves even though it seems impossible to do so. I’ve been writing on ... Read more
The original form of this blog started in 2007 or so. It began and in many ways still is a way of asserting myself as a person who writes. More ... Read more
Let’s talk for a minute about zines. Being at the forefront of the Riot Grrrl movement, Olympia has a rich history of zines. In fact, there is still an annual ... Read more
I come from a long tradition of writers whose creativity seems to depend on movement. Long walks clear my mind, creating space for the seeds of stories to grow unchoked ... Read more
I was about to ask, when you see someone knitting a pair of socks, do you ask them whether they’ve sold any socks yet? I wanted to illustrate my point. ... Read more
Dear Friends, I look From here on out, I’m writing my posts in letter form. Sometimes I’ll write to you, dear readers, sometimes, I will write to others or even ... Read more
Read this or put this on repeat if you want to break through resistance and trust the writing process. Better yet, write and record your own version. *Deep inhale, long ... Read more
I write more letters in February than in any other month of the year, and sometimes that means none at all. Yet, I yearn for the days before email. I ... Read more
I am a firm believer in goals, as S.M.A.R.T as you can make them. Check out my 2022 Writing Plan document and file/make a copy for yourself while you’re at ... Read more