TAYLOR ENGLE ANDERSON BRAIN

Imposter syndrome creeps into any profession or way of life, but I think writers are particularly vulnerable to it. Writing is isolating, and isolation can play with your mind. We spend a lot of time alone, inside our own heads, attempting to translate thoughts and imaginary worlds into words that make sense to other people. Spend enough time in your own brain, and it’s easy to feel like you’re going insane. Writing is also incredibly subjective. You can write something you’r

Practice makes perfect. But sometimes, doing the opposite is what helps you get unstuck. Lacking creativity in the kitchen? Go eat at five new restaurants and get inspired. Unsure what to create next with your sewing machine? Check out some vintage shops for a fresh perspective. And for all of the writers out there suffering from writer’s block, it might be time to pick up a book and get lost in someone else’s world for a second. Reading is one of the most important writing

Personal power, confidence, boundaries, and refusing to make yourself smaller. Power can be a loaded word. We often associate it with control, authority, dominance, or having influence over other people. But some of the most powerful shifts happen quietly, when you stop handing other people the authority to determine how you feel, what you choose, or how much space you’re allowed to take up. Maybe power isn’t about controlling anything outside of yourself at all. Maybe it’s a

Leo characters want to matter. They want their presence to leave something behind. A story people repeat. A feeling someone remembers. A room that changes slightly because they walked into it. Sometimes this looks like confidence. Sometimes it looks like performance. And sometimes, underneath all that light, is someone quietly wondering whether they would still be loved if they stopped shining. This workshop is designed to help you write a Leo character in real time. Not as t

Writing becomes a spiritual practice the moment it helps you pay attention. Every time you sit down with a blank page, you're invited into a conversation that doesn't happen anywhere else. The page doesn't care about your resume, your social media following, or whether or not you've figured your life out yet. It just asks, "What's true today?" Sometimes, you know the answer. Sometimes, you discover it while you're writing. What does writing teach you about yourself? One of th

There is a tree near my house that I talk to. I call her Tree. One day a few years ago, I got the pull to walk over to her and put my hands on her trunk. Peace came over me, and I was reminded that I used to talk to nature all of the time as a child—until someone overheard me one day and made me feel like a fuh-reak. I stopped, intuiting that if I didn’t, I might be either ostracized or hospitalized (or both). I had no idea I’d be back on my bullshit twenty-five years later.

Cancer characters rarely forget. Life leaves fingerprints on them. A song, a sweater, the smell of someone's perfume years after they've gone. They collect moments the way some people collect photographs. They move through the world carrying invisible keepsakes. This workshop is designed to help you write a Cancer character in real time: a layered, intuitive presence shaped by memory, belonging, vulnerability, and the quiet strength it takes to keep loving. What is a Cancer,

Pleasure, play, rest, and not earning happiness through exhaustion. Somewhere along the way, many of us learned that joy comes after the work is finished. That rest has to be earned. That pleasure is a reward instead of a way of being. But what if we've had it backwards all along? Joy isn't something reserved for perfect circumstances. It's something we can cultivate, protect, and return to, even in the middle of ordinary life. For this installment of Interview with a Psychic

How to develop a style that sounds like you. Finding your writing voice can feel strangely intimidating because it sounds like something you are supposed to discover fully formed: like it’s been hiding inside you waiting to be unlocked. In reality, your writing voice is built much more slowly. It develops through everything you read, every detail you observe, the stories you tell, the jokes you make, the subjects you can’t stop returning to, and the way you naturally explain

Some stories are about what happens. Existential writing is about what it means. At its core, existential writing explores the big questions of being human. It asks why we're here, how we create meaning, who we are beneath our roles and labels, and what we choose to do with the time we've been given. Readers are drawn to existential writing because it makes them feel seen. Writers are drawn to it because it offers a way to explore questions that rarely have simple answers. If

Support, softness, abundance, allowing yourself to be held. Many of us are taught how to give long before we learn how to receive. We offer our time, energy, attention, and care without hesitation, yet accepting support can feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, or even undeserved. Receiving sounds simple, but for many people, it's one of the hardest things to do. So what happens when we stop believing we have to earn everything? What opens up when we allow ourselves to be supported

My anorexia was molded by fashion magazine subscriptions, early 2000s SoCal dance studios, WeightWatchers, Lean Cuisine, the runways I desperately wanted to walk. The ludicrously normalized idea of chewing food and spitting it out just to “get a taste.” By the time my age was in the double digits, I’d been energetically flattened by this cultural and common rhetoric. I let society convince me that my ultimate goal was to be thin. I fell for it for years. insert clown emoji.

When I was a young stoner, the smoking accessories—to be found at the local gas station or “hookah shop”—were gauche af. Neon pot leaves, badly airbrushed aliens (always, always aliens), tie-dye everything, and fonts that would make Times New Roman roll his regal eyes. We didn’t think too much about it. We were too concerned with…not getting caught. Imagine me seeing today’s rolling paper packs, which look like they belong in a design bookstore. Over the past few years, can

Gemini characters are never just one thing. Duh, twins. They shift mid-sentence. They contradict themselves a lot. They can be deeply engaged while already thinking about at least three alternate versions of the conversation unfolding somewhere else. There is a constant movement to them, but unlike Aries, it is not movement toward action. It is movement toward understanding, connection, and possibility. This workshop is designed to help you write a Gemini character in real ti

Wanting things, naming them, letting yourself want without guilt. Desire can feel complicated. We’re taught to shrink it, soften it, explain it away. To want too much is “selfish.” To admit what we long for can feel vulnerable, indulgent, even dangerous. But desire is also information. It points toward the life, love, freedom, and fulfillment we’re meant to experience. So, what happens when we stop apologizing for what we want? For this installment of Interview with a Psychic

Summer in Southern California. The evenings slow and stretch. People linger outside longer. Feet everywhere—although we tend to keep it open-toe even in December. During summer, the energy shifts outward. But even though I’ve been living back in California for over four years now, a big part of me still associates summer with Brooklyn. Summer in the City was SO physical. Subway platforms radiating wet, swampy heat. You’re sweating in places you didn’t even know you could. Tin

Taurus characters do not rush. They arrive, they settle, and once they decide something is worth their energy, they stay. There is a deliberateness to them that can feel almost immovable. Not because they lack urgency, but because for Taurus, commitment is sacred. They do not scatter themselves across possibilities. They choose, and then they root. They are not interested in beginnings for the sake of beginnings. They want something that lasts. Astrology is a tool of understa

Coming back to yourself, recalibrating, choosing truth over autopilot. There are moments when life starts to feel a little too rehearsed. The same patterns, the same reactions, the same quiet compromises that slowly pull you away from yourself. Nothing is exactly wrong, but something feels off. Alignment isn’t always a dramatic awakening. Sometimes it begins as a subtle discomfort. A feeling you can’t quite name. A quiet realization that you’ve been moving through your life i

Why taking breaks is crucial for maintaining creativity and productivity. There is a persistent myth that creativity thrives on pressure alone—that the mind is at its most brilliant when stretched thin, racing, always reaching toward the next thing. It sounds convincing at first, almost romantic in its urgency, but if you listen closely, you begin to notice the quiet fatigue underneath it, the dulling of color, and the way ideas start to echo instead of expand. Anorexia recov

Aries characters do not wait for anyone or anything. They enter, they assess, and almost immediately, they move. There is very little distance between impulse and action. Not because they are reckless, but because for Aries, instinct is a form of intelligence. They trust what rises in them before they have time to question it. They are not interested in watching something unfold if they can be the one to begin it. This workshop is designed to help you write an Aries character