Blog
Soft fascination: How doing less can help your writing
Don’t you love it when you learn that there’s a term for something you’re already familiar with? (I’m looking at you, “petrichor.”) Recently I discovered that a phenomenon I know and love in my daily life has a name: soft fascination. No, this is not the pleasure of gently squeezing
The surprising thing I learned from joining a podcast
I’m a writer. I like to be read, not heard. I’ve always felt most comfortable behind the scenes. Sort of the phantom in the opera house. The woman in the attic. The ghoul under the bridge. Pick your creepy 19th-century metaphor. I feel more at ease with a keyboard than
A quick way to prepare for writing success in the new year
This article originally appeared in the newsletter of the Phoenix Screenwriters Association. To sign up for their newsletters, filled with screenwriting tips and industry news, go here. The start of a new year is a good time to sit and ruminate on yourself, your writing, and the state of your
Seven reasons to write short stories
In my reading nook with two of my favorite short story collections by Alice Munro and Ottessa Moshfegh I think I might be accidentally writing a book. About a year ago, I wrote a short story, just on a creative impulse. I was in a weird place personally and emotionally,
Eight tools from fiction to make you a better screenwriter
This article originally appeared in the newsletter of the Phoenix Screenwriters Association. To sign up for their newsletters, filled with screenwriting tips and industry news, go here. After studying and practicing screenwriting for years, and working in TV development in Los Angeles, I decided to try something new, and wrote
Why is imposter syndrome so common among writers?
This post is an expansion of an article I originally wrote for Charlotte Lit’s Lit Bits series in their newsletter. For more on Charlotte Lit, including info on an intro to screenwriting course I’ll be teaching for them in February 2023, check out their website. There are a lot of
The Two Types of Suspense, and How to Create Them
Even if you’re not writing a story that one would typically think of as suspenseful—say a mystery, or thriller, or horror piece—you probably do want to keep your readers in suspense. Think of suspense as the invisible fishing wire pulling readers through from paragraph to paragraph, chapter to chapter. If
The Funnel: One simple approach for going from blank page to book
So you’ve decided to write a book. So you’re staring at a blank Word document. So what now? In my last post, I talked about the paradox of creativity: that sometimes putting restrictions on the writing process can push you to tap into your imagination. That article includes my thoughts
Loving the Box: How to find inspiration in your limits
The career of a writer is often a case of hurry up and wait. Or more accurately, wait and hurry up. You work on project after project on your own, for free, with no deadlines except those you impose on yourself. This can go on for years. Then, something happens:
The Iceberg
I have a love-loathe relationship with social media. I’ve met some incredibly cool people through it, but for every one of them, there’s a hundred randos and spammers. There’s an abundance of cute animal content, but for every snoring Frenchie, there’s an ill-founded political screed. Social media is a wonderful