Writing about writing is fun and so is reading about reading.
Let’s All Go to the Apocalypse: Why We Write the End of the World
In a post-apocalypse world there won’t be a forty-hour workweek, beer, student debt, guaranteed heating, or hot water, but you know what there will be? Pure vibes.
Voices: Getting Your Characters To Sound Different
There’s roughly eighty thousand variations of the southern accent and whichever one you pick you will be wrong.
Streaming Shows Need to Tighten Their Shit Up
Thanks to the internet we all have problems concentrating now so save the slo-mo horsey rides for someone who cares.
How to Name Locations During Worldbuilding
Definitely don’t name a town after your grandmother, because what if, somewhere down the line, you make that town rob a bank or something?
The Minor Annoyances of Reading
Quibbles, really, but haven’t we all been launched into the stratosphere over a quibble or two? Or ten?
You Should Reread That Book You Hated in School
Can you imagine getting to read some Bradbury or Steinbeck and not having to write a five page double-spaced essay on it?
My First Draft Sucks
As all first drafts should.
Pantsing Vs Plotting
The difference between setting yourself on fire from the minute you sit down to planning exactly when you will set yourself on fire. Or something. No one should listen to me.
How to Name Your Characters
How do you solve a problem like Buffy? Also: PAAUULLSS! IIINNN! SPAAAAAAACE!
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Turn and Face the Wheel
Guys, I lived through the 2000s, which meant I already lived through Peak THEY CHANGED THAT FROM THE BOOK. I don’t have the energy for that anymore.
Discover Yourself Through Writing Short Stories
Way back in the bad old days of the late 2000s, I was an idiot college student trying to get an English degree with no idea that the economy was going to collapse a few months before I graduated. I mean, I also had no idea what I wanted to do with an English degree…
Subtle Pressure to Get You to Read Short Stories
I’m always consistently shocked when someone tells me they don’t like short stories. I know that doesn’t sound like a conversation that can come up a lot. I sound like some NASA douche at a party half-drunk on wine coolers and slurring at a friend of a friend’s neighbor I’ve managed to pin to the…
Live from Wheel of Time: Sexism? In My High Fantasy?
Spoilers for the series ahead. Let’s start this off with a simple message: I Am Not Saying Robert Jordan Was Sexist In fact, as I pointed out in another article, there are a lot of feminist aspects about the book that I really enjoyed. Hell, here’s one I missed: an Aes Sedai named Leane Sharif…
Live from Wheel of Time: The Seanchan Are the Absolute Worst
Spoilers throughout for the entire series, including the ending. As I discussed in a previous article, Robert Jordan’s worldbuilding in The Wheel of Time series is a masterclass on creating an entire continent filled with different, cohesive peoples and having them interact. The number one reason anyone who wants to write fantasy, especially a sprawling…
Live from Wheel of Time: Things I Didn’t Like
I already wrote about some of the things I liked about Wheel of Time. Definitely not all the things I like about the series, but I was bumping up to two thousand words and not everyone gets ten thousand words to make a point. Now that I’ve mentioned it… Today I Was Wearing a Black…
Lessons from Wheel of Time: Things I Liked
I don’t remember precisely when I started reading these books, but it’s been, like, five years. I wanted a super-long, super-involved fantasy series, and I was initially hesitant to read them for absolutely no good reason. None. I can’t be the only one who just hears about something and immediately shuts down, right? Like, I’m…
Said Isn’t Dead
If you use Pinterest at all for writing topics, I’m sure you’ve seen these pins come up. They’re always in some cutesy font and usually with little tombstones (subtle) and come with a huge list of words you should use instead of ‘said.’ If you’ve ever paid attention to these, though, you’ll notice that none…
Solarpunk: Chicken Soup for the Climate Catastrophe Soul
Hey, you guys hear about the billionaire space race? You know, all those billionaires spending millions of dollars to replace their dicks with rockets and then skimming the earth’s atmosphere and calling it space or shooting a car into space or, and let’s be real, probably a lot of secret space stuff we’re not told…
Writing Tips for Beginners, From a Long-Time Amateur
Let’s Get the One I Hate Hearing Out of the Way First – Just Write Yeah, super hate hearing this one all the time. But it’s true, and that makes me hate it even more. God, it just sounds so…so…smug. Like, I immediately want to react with that Spongebob Meme: jUsT wRiTe. Like, I’m asking…
Every Writer Should Know the Moth Joke
On Wednesday, I told The Moth Joke and gave credit to Norm MacDonald at the bottom. The meat of the joke was all mine, but the general structure of the joke can be traced to an appearance Norm MacDonald made on one of Conan O’Brien’s shows, I think Late Night: Okay, so to start: Hi,…
The Tao of Pots
There’s a story that goes like this: There’s this college art professor. I don’t know what college and I don’t know what kind of art, except the assignment is to make pots, so…ceramics? Pottery? Ghost appreciation? I don’t know, I didn’t take any art classes in college. Unless you count writing, which most people don’t,…
The Dark Tower of Ass
Spoilers, hey. Okay, so, this isn’t so much a review of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, but a brief look at why I hate every single word in all seven books. Hate. Hate. I hate these books like I hate the Nazis. I hate these books so much Emperor Palpatine is somewhere in space…
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