The Michelle Hickey Design Blog

After 125 consecutive days of writing, the first draft of my novel is complete! In this post, I share the next steps in my book-writing process. What’s next? Now that I’ve reached the end, it’s time to go back to the beginning. In the next phase, I’ll be reading and revising every chapter, one word […]

Within every story, there’s another story to be discovered. In this post, I share the creative lessons learned from the book, Hamilton: The Revolution. On March 12, 2020, I got an email from my library. Hamilton: The Revolution, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter, was available for pickup. I had been on a waiting […]

Do you have a creative habit you’ve been hoping to adopt? In this post, I share how I began a new writing habit and kept it up for 100 days, and counting! Last Saturday, I celebrated a milestone. Two, actually! 100 consecutive days of writing, which serendipitously aligned with my birthday. I can assure you, […]

I’m writing a novel! In this post, I introduce the theme of my book. So someone you know is writing a book. “What’s it about?” is the normal first question you would ask that someone. Now that I’m the writer in this scenario, there’s a different question that I wish people would ask: “What is […]

One of the ways we can help create lasting change is to elevate black authors. This list of fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books was cultivated with the hope that through them, we can learn to make our world better. Amid all of the injustice that has come to light in the last couple of weeks, […]

I’ve dreamed about writing a book for years. In this post, you’ll hear what I’m doing to make it happen. I’m writing a book. It has taken me nearly a year to get comfortable typing those four words. I first broke the news that I was taking on this new endeavor late last summer, in […]

In this book review of Atomic Habits by James Clear, I explore the role that environment plays in making our habits stick. If you tend to start and stop new initiatives before they are complete, in this post, you’ll find inspiration to help you follow through on your biggest dreams. While Atomic Habits does not […]

In this book review of Educated by Tara Westover, we explore the idea of questioning your truths. What if everything that you knew to be true, was a warped version of reality? That there was an entire world out there, of possibility and prosperity, that you didn’t even know you had access to? It sounds […]

Where should you focus your efforts to grow your business? If you’re struggling to figure out whether email marketing, Instagram, Pinterest, or one of the many other alternatives will be the best avenue to grow your creative business, a powerful tactic from the book, The One Thing, by Gary Keller, will help you to determine […]