Writing

Have a plan and stick to it.

Notes and highlights from Gotham Writers' Workshop's Writing Fiction guide—covering character desire, point of view, voice, theme, and the hard truths about revising and querying.

Channeling the Federalist Papers, and the perils of partisan drift in American democracy.

The Bear. Netflix. Mesa Grill Rolls. Cup 4 Cup. Yoda. Airborne Toxic Event. The Life Impossible. Brain Rot. Hemingway.

An intersection of AI writing tools, human creativity, and the experiment of building an automated writing system.

How keyboards, typewriters, and deliberate limitations shape the writing process and help projects reach completion.

How the St. Louis Cardinals' 2024 struggles illuminate the universal challenge of building momentum in baseball, business, and life.

A ten-year look at the gear that's never left my bag and the stories that ride along.

When Google's AI answers questions instead of referring traffic to content creators, what happens to the web's incentive model and the future of online writing?

How ordinary words transform into extraordinary meanings—from Homer's 'epos' to modern 'epic,' and the perfectionist journey of editing and writing.

Dive into the world of panda diplomacy, and the fast fashion industry's challenges.

The magic of an Olivetti typewriter.

Why Gatsby keeps shifting with age, and what old typewriters still teach us about craft.

Testing an earth battery to keep a novel honest—because some scenes deserve a real-world trial run.

Reflections on Roam Research, smart notes, and making knowledge systems work.

A masterclass on writing craft through analysis of Russian short stories.

Catching up on a decade of writing, from Knights of Legend to The Day Life Breaks.

The story behind The Day Life Breaks, an unfinished editing project with an interesting crowdsourcing experiment and mysterious correlation.

How constraints, serial releases, and fresh art keep a long-running story alive in the Kindle era.

Modeling a clone of your own writing, the ups and downs of machine learning for creativity and story creation.

Richard Powers has written an opus to change your life. Read the Overstory. And then, plant a tree to change the world.

Nuances in the English language and why it’s OK to make a writing mistake now and then.

Revisiting Spielberg’s adaptation and Ernest Cline’s novel through 80s nostalgia, VR quests, and what might have been.

What would you do if you only had twenty-four hours in Paris?

Wreckless Eric's masterpiece, a song for the ages. How do you measure success? Think the long game.

A tour of the places that shaped Jason Sheridan—and the writing behind him.

Books told in the second person are rare. A review of Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City and the power of second person narrative.

Building better characters. A Tweet storm from a fantastic author.

Revisiting Aesop’s fable about warmth, persuasion, and a stubborn traveler.

A script to stand the test of time.

My favorite commencement speech distilled into go-to Gaiman reminders.

E.B. White returns to his childhood lake, and so do we.

On building, refining, and daydreaming about the writing desk that feels just right.

Journals worth carrying when you want ideas to outlive the paper.

The importance of copyright for writers and creatives, and how to make a formal claim through the U.S. Copyright Office.

The difficult decision to delete 8,345 words from a draft, featuring wisdom from Lawrence Block about giving yourself permission to write badly.

A veiled work from George Orwell.

Picking the idea worth finishing and preparing for the inevitable motivation dip.

William Faulkner’s Nobel speech still calls writers back to courage and the human heart.

Lasting books, a comparison of the Gutenberg Library to the NY Times Best Seller List.

My favorite commencement speech. Anyone who creates from the ether should watch monthly.

Why every manuscript needs multiple passes, multiple readers, and the humility to start again.

Building the map for Silver Throne and revisiting the cartography that sparked the journey.

On children’s songs, runaway drafts, and trusting other eyes to tame the monsters.

Revisiting timeless children’s books for writing inspiration and remembering why their stories endure.

Project inspiration—writing for an audience of one.

Why writing a novel is far harder than it looks, and why it’s worth finishing anyway.

Six personal principles for getting blog posts out the door.

Thoughts on doing what you love and working hard to achieve excellence.