Join AIGA DFW and PK Dallas at the Lakewood Theater on Wednesday May 8th, for their speaker series dubbed "This is my City". Speakers will each present 20 slides at 20 seconds each under this theme, celebrating out city and all it has to offer. Tickets are $10 members and nonmembers, $5 students for emerging designers. Tickets can be purchased here, and more information and a full list of speakers can be found here.

I’ll confess: writing does not come easy to me. I know I’m good at it, but it is still difficult. I was really encouraged by a recent article I read in The New Yorker. A writer named John McPhee wrote about the idea of writer’s block. I know this sensation all to well. It is simply paralyzing. Often I just can’t seem to put words to paper.

Take, for instance, this example from work. I’m a copywriter, which means I write the headlines for ads you try to ignore. Well, the thing about headlines is that headlines are (or should be) really short. We’re talking about 7 words tops. Seven little words to get the cash register to go “Cha-ching!” Now the thing about writing 7 words is, if you’re blocked, you feel like the client has asked for War and Peace, and they’d like it by end of day, “if possible (read: if you like your job).”

Good Lord, I’d rather dredge the Panama Canal with one of those little dessert spoons they have in Downton Abbey.

But let me tell you why this article encouraged me. Consider the writer’s sage advice:

“If you lack confidence in setting one word after another and sense that you are stuck in a place from which you will never be set free, if you feel sure that you will never make it and were not cut out to do this, if your prose seems stillborn and you completely lack confidence, you must be a writer.”

This article is a godsend. No joke. I’m young, I know. I’m inexperienced. “Headlines!” you say, “Those are nothing.” Well, you’re right. And on a good day, you’re right. But I’m at that sorry point where most days seem like bad ones. If this were fishing, I just haven’t seemed to have attained the touch. The water may be stocked, but I swear these fish can smell inexperience from a mile off. There’s a reason we have the phrase “words escape me.”

My job is to wrangle them. John McPhee’s article “The Writing Life” in the April 29th edition of The New Yorker gives me hope that I can do it. It can give you hope. At the very least, it’s a fascinating read. Check it out.

[This article originally appeared on a contributor's blog, which you can find here.]

It's with a certain amount of embarrassment that I'll admit that, after living in Dallas for several years, I only just visited Dallas' West End Historic District for the first time today. Of course, I have my excuses, namely that there are other happening places to visit in Dallas (and let's not forget those actually cool places far, far away from Dallas), and secondly, there just isn't that much happening down in the West End.

Surely I should be embarrassed that I haven't explored the area. This is my home after all. But honestly I find myself more embarrassed on Dallas' behalf for the pathetic state of the neighborhood.

The neighborhood has landmark status which is good and bad. The good thing is that we can preserve some architectural history. That bad is that we have to preserve architectural history. What do I mean?

The area cannot be torn down. So, Dallas is left hoping to build it up. Will that happen? We can only hope. The area has so much potential. It's right in the heart of Dallas. I say it's high time to infuse the same creative energy being poured into Oak Cliff and Deep Ellum into Dallas' Heart.

The Egotist has a lot wrapped up in the West End's potential. Revitalize the neighborhood, and it'll make Dallas suck less.