[Kate Broad, practical matters]: Liberating yourself from the idea that you “have to” write

My guest this week is Kate Broad, author of “Greenwich,” a coming of age story set against a backdrop of wealth and privilege that explores how mistakes can have life-altering consequences and asks who is the first to be blamed and who gets to be believed and forgiven.“Greenwich” was named a People Magazine best new book, an Amazon editor's pick and a Publishers Weekly Buzz Book for summer 2025. It would be a great choice for your book club, both because it's gripping and suspenseful and it explores a lot of gray areas around complicity and responsibility that will make for a juicy conversation.Kate is a Bronx Council of the Arts award winner for fiction and her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, No Tokens, The Brooklyn Review and elsewhere.We covered:- How she tried, but ultimately decided to stop putting energy into building a career that was writing-adjacent- How telling herself she doesn’t have to pursue writing helps motivate her to keep going- Cobbling together a liveable income from various writing pursuits- Using her advances to buy more time away from freelancing- The life choices she’s made to create more space for writing- Woo! Really insightful talk about money’s impact on creative integrity- Understanding yourself well enough to create the conditions that support your creative work- Taking care of your body and your mind as a creative- The steps she takes at the end of the day to make it easier for her to start writing the next dayConnect with Kate at katebroad.substack.com and sign up for her Ask an Author newsletter.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thank you for listening! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices