[Jennifer Fink, Practical Matters]: Writing what you know + the book she found at the library that launched her writing career EP 1062

Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

Today I am talking with Jennifer Fink, an award winning freelance writer who covers parenting, education, and health for magazines and websites. started her career as a registered nurse, but shortly after her oldest son, and as you'll find out, she has four boys, pivoted to writing full time. Her most recent book is called Building Boys, Raising Great Guys in a World that Misunderstands Males. She is also the co host of the podcast “On Boys,” which covers, you guessed it, real talk about parenting, teaching, and reaching tomorrow's men. Although Jennifer's writing career is clearly going great, she does maintain her nursing license just in case.

Jennifer’s start as a nurse

How taking her baby to story time at the public library ended up launching her writing career

The book that showed her how to start freelance writing

How it started/how it’s going in terms of why she started writing about boys vs. why she does it now

A quick look into why boys are struggling lately

How an unexpected divorce launched her writing business to the next level (“failure was not an option”)

In praise of morning pages (a practice Jennifer learned in Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”)

Her focus and productivity hacks

Why she gets outside every day–even during a Wisconsin winter

A rumor about coffee with cream in it that Jennifer is choosing to ignore

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

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