Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Ouellette

Home
Notes
Essays
Lit Salon
Story Challenge
The Letter Reimagined
Jeannine Ouellette
Gift a Subscription
Writing Lab + Exercises
Threads
Voice Memos
Strange Containers
Joy & Sorrow
Archive
About

Lit Salon

This will change how you write forever.
Because yes, we can capture the waking dream of wonder, awe & truth in words. (Also, fun new bits at WITD for 2025, like quarterly calendars, more live…
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
31
We Create, Therefore We Endure
I see you. I am with you. Let’s make something beautiful, even now.
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
86
A Long-Ago Lesson in Letting Go
When I was nine years old, I took my first paid job delivering unwanted, unread newsprint shoppers to all of the houses in Meadowlark Hills, the…
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
39
Dear Stuck: What Are We So Afraid Of?
On ode to ordinariness + the one thing that will close the gap between the work we make & the work we love
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
50
Absolute Attention is Prayer
Marie Howe says, "This might be the most difficult task ... in postmodern life …to look long enough so that we can look through it—like a window." A…
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
37
Substack Visionary Jeannine Ouellette: How Generosity and Expansion Lead to Meteoric Substack Growth
Archived from the Substack Visionaries Series by Sarah Fay | Writers at Work
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
16
How To Be A Writer
From the Archive | Building piles and piles of words is not enough. Good writing has a raw, disobedient quality, a feral disposition. So how do we…
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
45
On Curiosity: Surrendering our idea of the story to let the larger story emerge (on the page and in life)
Lit Salon on the power of "What If?" and the glory of letting ourselves not know, plus three valuable exercises for increasing our writerly curiosity…
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
33
What Do Editors Really Want?
From the Archive | Lit Salon on five things I want to see in writing ... and five things I don't
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
19
Can You Feel Homesick for a Dream? Ordinary Magic for the First Week of the New Year
Five Unusual Writing Exercises and One Everyday Incantation
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
20
My Creative Manifesto
Part Two of Two: Eleven Urgent & Possibly Helpful Things I Have Learned About Building A Newsletter During My First Two Years On Substack
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
29
Writing = Living: Here's Why
Ten Ways Creative Writing Intersects With Building A Better, Richer, More Meaningful Life
 • 
Jeannine Ouellette
34
© 2025 Jeannine Ouellette
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture