The Goodjelly Blog

By Christine Carron

I received the email one week after I took over a software development project that was way behind schedule and massively over budget. The email was from the CEO of another consulting firm. Two of his consultants—very senior, very talented developers—were staffed...

By Christine Carron

Your writing adventure is most likely not going to proceed in a straight line. There will be zigs, zags, challenging twists, and exciting turns. You may have already experienced this. Truth is, the whole adventure could end up feeling a little discombobulating. Unless you take...

By Christine Carron

A client hired me to reset a project that was months behind schedule and about one million dollars over budget. In the first week, I completed a high-level analysis of the remaining work, met with senior leadership and the delivery team to get a picture of the...

By Christine Carron

Toward the end of last year, I shared two facts about my reading habits. First, that in any given year I bought a ridiculous amount of books, many only to be later culled due to limited shelf space—culled often before I even read them. Second, that I started reading many...

By Christine Carron

I was teaching a class on how to receive critiques like a pro. I spent thirty minutes outlining the parts of ourselves that are at play when we receive feedback. In that mix, of course, is our inner power. That even as we open ourselves to feedback, we must stay connected to a...

By Christine Carron

We live in a culture that values doing, accomplishing, taking action. On the writerly adventure, leaning into that cultural norm is a good thing. You have to take action—a whole lot of action—as a writer, or your literary dreams will never amount to anything....

By Christine Carron

I left for the conference with high hopes. Not only was I going to get all the main conference sessions, I had paid for a session with a V.I.I.P., i.e., a very important industry professional. I was going to be mentored by an agent or an editor or a successful author who had...

By Christine Carron

I’ve been on the writing adventure for over a decade, and it kind of blows my mind that last week was officially my first ever personal writing retreat. I have attended conferences and classes and workshops galore, but never before have I gone away with the main purpose...

By Christine Carron

For years, I tried and failed to meditate. Instead of being calmed by the process, it stressed me out. I felt a bit ashamed about this. Wasn’t meditation supposed to be a universal salve? When I finally ‘fessed up about my meditation chagrin to my therapist, she...

By Christine Carron

[The inner game] takes place in the mind of the player, and it is played against such obstacles as lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt and self-condemnation. In short it is played to overcome all habits of mind which inhibit excellence in performance.

- Tim...

By Christine Carron

I had been living in the small studio apartment on Rue de Bremondis in Aix-en-Provence for a week. Madame Leyssieux was my landlady. A lovely woman who kindly agreed to let me parrot her in attempt to improve my French pronunciation and vocabulary. Each one of our early...

By Christine Carron

There I was. In a writing workshop with seven other writers. We had completed a writing prompt a moment ago. The workshop leader called on me to read and instead of reading the prompt, I launched into an . . . I don’t know what. 

Apology? Explanation? Plea to the...