Techniques of the Selling Writer - Dwight V. Swain
A 50’s era pulp writer speed runs your writing knowledge. If I was teaching a college course today on writing fiction, this is the book we’d use as a textbook.
Books for Finding Your Voice
A list of intrepid tomes that dare to teach what many say cannot be taught.
Reading Report: October 2025
This Month's reading report features craft articles from Ilona Andrews and C.L. Polk, a 2,000 year-old copper skeleton and 100 word memoirs.
How and Why to Track Your Writing
Whether on paper or a spreadsheet, or on specialized software, keeping track of when, where, and how much you write can help you spot when your writing sweet spots are, and are useful tools for estimating how long a draft will take.
Spiral Story - Rough Draft 1
Rough draft time. My goal at this stage is to get words on paper, whether that's in a notebook or digitally.
Spiral Story - Outline
In our last Proof of Work I spent some time describing the ideation process for a short story. This time I’m going to outline it.
Reading Report: September 2025
This month's reading report has a fish committing credit card fraud, doomscroll the game, and some ominous mail from the red cross.
Spiral Story: Ideation
Inspired by Meander, Spiral, Explode I'm writing a short story with a spiral plot structure, from idea to final draft.
Never Say You Can’t Survive - Charlie Jane Anders
If you need a rallying cry or a shoulder to cry on to help you create right now, Never Say You Can’t Survive might be the book you need to read right now.
Firing Chekov's Gun - A Gentleman in Moscow
A Gentleman in Moscow contains a set of literal Chekov’s guns, but many of the other objects, people, and places in the story set up the ending. So let's talk about how this type if story is built.
How to start (and keep) a writers group
If you are looking to start your own writers group, for whatever reason, these are my notes on what I would do if I had to start a new group today.
Always have something to write with
One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten was if you want to get good at something, keep your tools with you all the time.