Tag: fiction writing

SEO for Fiction Writers

March 8th, 2025
Let me preface this by stating that while my day job revolves around Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I am by no means an expert.

I say that, and then this enormous monster post has a 15-minute reading time. I’m sorry? I hope it helps?

While I try to cover absolutely everything I can think of here, I encourage you to do further research. Google has some excellent resources available, and there are plenty of other guides out there.

Anyway, let’s get started.

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What is SEO and why is it important?

Search engine optimization is the process of molding your online identity so that you appear higher in search results for a given topic. Much of it revolves around keywords, which are the specific terms people use when searching for stuff.

It’s obvious why SEO is important: we want people to search for us and find our books and buy them! Most people only look at like the first ten results, and they rarely go to the second page of search results, so we need to be somewhere near the top.

While SEO takes more time to show results than paid ads, those results stick because you’re improving your organic search performance. Organic search is anything that doesn’t have a paid ad warning on it, and it is chosen by algorithms based on relevance to the given search term. These stay around for longer, and the more traction you get, the higher you show up on search pages.

Also, SEO is mostly free; you can pay for things, but you can also bootstrap it. And we looove free.

Now, let’s get into what SEO is all about for us writers.

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SEO will ideally start before you even release your book.

Here are some of the things you can consider before releasing.

If you are choosing a pen name, it must be unique enough that you are not going to be mistaken for anyone else. Get freaky with it. I’m lucky because my last name is very distinctive so I didn’t need to bother with a pen name.

Come up with a unique book title that will not get lost in the shuffle. I chose to use a numeral instead of “Nine” for 9 Years Yearning because most book titles do not have numerals. “Yearning” isn’t a common part of titles either. Eirenic Verses is also pretty distinctive.

You should set up a website right away and start developing a content backlog. The longer that your website has been in operation, the more trustworthy it is to search engines, and the more likely it will be recommended. Consistent posting schedules also bode well with Google.

Begin searching for keywords and targeting niche ones.

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Research valuable keywords and keep them in mind.

Head over to Ahrefs or Semrush and check out their keyword analysis tools. I prefer Ahrefs, but they both work similarly. Don’t worry – they both have free versions, so you don’t need to pay for anything just yet.

Now, pick a general keyword like “fantasy book” and see the synonyms it provides. Don’t target the ones at the top because these are super competitive and swamped with huge international companies. You won’t be able to rank for them, though you can still use them as you please.

Use the middle of the list for your copy, like blurbs, articles, landing pages, and so on. The more prominent the use (like in headers, meta descriptions, etc), the more likely you’ll rank. You should also use keyword-optimized subtitles as needed.

Pride Before a Fall has the subtitle “a low-stakes fantasy romance” based on my keyword research. I decided not to go with “gay low-stakes fantasy romance” because that’s a bit of a mouthful, and it’s already shelved in LGBTQ fiction.

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the list and pick out some that you can can base blog posts on. Look for long tail keywords, which are ones that are longer than a few words and typically involve a question. For example, a keyword might be “what is second-world fantasy.” You can then use this as a topic idea.

If you use WordPress for your website (which I am begging you to have), you can insert tags before posting. This is an excellent way to use keywords without making your content sound weird. Keywords also let you get discovered in WordPress Reader, so you’ll start to pick up some steam if you’re targeting those words regularly.

Be judicious with your keywords so that you don’t fall prey to keyword stuffing, which is when you just cram a million keywords into your content so that it sounds weird and fake. This will get you penalized by Google.

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Make a website.

Again, you should do this before you publish if at all possible. Get thinking, planning, and posting.

What do you need on your website? At the bare minimum:
- SEO-optimized front page that discusses your books and has links to your most important pages
- Author profile, with links to your socials and other accounts
- Books page, with links to all retail options
- Contact page with a professional email and form
- Blog page
You can also have character guides, country guides, glossaries, and so on. But the main draw is your blog page. It’s crucial to keeping your website relevant and improving your SEO.

Yes, that’s right. I’m sorry to tell you this, but you need to have plentiful, free content hosted in one place. Social media is ephemeral and should only be used to direct people to your site.

I know, I know – you want as much money as possible and it’s torturous to give stuff away. Like, damn, I’m doing all this for free? What the hell?

But people don’t like paywalls, especially for one website. Medium and Substack are one thing, but don’t go thinking you’re special enough for people to pony up for you and you alone.

More free content = more visibility = more name recognition = more sales.

Also, free sites are fine, but I do think that WordPress Business is helpful for writers – much more so than paying for ads. If that’s in your budget, then definitely consider it.

And also also, pick a short, memorable, and unique URL. Ideally focused on your book series or your name.

You know, like eirenicverses.com. But that’s mine, so you can’t have it.

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Post regularly on unique topics.

Because you’re an itty-bitty author with a small audience, you cannot try to fight with the big guys who have huge SEO budgets. As such, you need to think weird.

The more unique and interesting your content, the more likely it will do well. Cover niche topics that others aren’t focusing on. You can post things like how to build a character, how to chart a plot, etc, but just know they’re going to get smothered by bigger sites that have already covered that.

For example, one of my most popular posts is “Quality Assurance Checks for Character Development.” This is an unusual topic that I haven’t seen covered before, and it provides novel tests for characterization that I made up myself.

People clearly like that because it is well-organized, creative, and provides unique information they can’t find anywhere else.

Again, return to your keyword research and find the nichest keywords you can find. The really weird ones that it seems like no one is searching for. Then write about that.

Focus on things you’re passionate about whenever you can. I’m insane about writing, so making up a million blog posts about it is fun for me. The more you enjoy doing this, the more likely you are to stick with it and improve your SEO. Pick a posting schedule that works for you – it could be once a week or once a month – and schedule stuff out.

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Organize your content correctly.

This goes both for your website overall and individual pages. Set up categories and use keywords.

In content, use headers, spacers, and breaks as necessary. Use shorter paragraphs – no more than four lines. You should also add some blocktext, bullet points, etc, as this lets people read faster.

Many people use pictures as breaks, especially as they can then add keyword-optimized alt text. I don’t do that, but you’re welcome to if you want to.

Organization includes posting about relevant topics and keeping a good theme for your site. Do not post random things about your other hobbies, unless you can connect it to the main topic, as I do in my post about the connection between athletics and writing.

And please please please, do not use your Professional Important Writing Blog as your personal diary. Readers don’t care anywhere near as much about you as you think they do.

Though you’re free to get more personal in a newsletter, which is where all your bestie superfans hang out. You can learn all about me and my boring life every single Monday if you want!

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Practice good internal linking, and select good outbound links.

Try to ensure that every single blog post is linked to at least one other blog post. The more important it is and the more you want it to rank, the more frequently you should link it. Have internal navigation bars with all your main pages on them.

This can be rough, especially as your posts proliferate, but do try your best. Do a site audit with Ahrefs (which is free with an account) to see if you have any orphan pages, then find a way to link them.

When linking outside of your website (outbound links), choose quality sites, not spammy ones. Think academic articles, major publications, government sites, and things like that. The better your links, the more that Google trusts you.

Of course, link your books frequently. If you choose wide distribution (which I encourage you to), then pick links from different platforms every time.

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Sign up for Google Analytics.

If you choose to work with WordPress, it does come with native stats. However, these are often misleading because despite what they say, it does count bots. Anything you see from Mountain View, California, is probably a Google crawler.

So while WordPress stats are good, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are better. Here’s some of the things you can do with it.

Helps you identify what content is doing well. GA will list which pages get the most hits, which tells you what type of content your readers want. You can then align better with audience expectations. Additionally, you can revise content that isn’t doing well, such as adding more keywords.

Shows what websites are getting you the most clicks. This is especially important for social media because all of us only have so much time in the day and we need to focus our attention on the most valuable platforms. I do find that WordPress is a little better for this.

Identifies search terms people are using to find you. Direct searches for your book are excellent, but you can also find what type of keywords people are using that aren’t just your book title or name. You can then focus more on these keywords in your content.

Lets you submit sitemaps so you can get your pages on search engines faster. If you use WordPress, you can get a plugin that will generate a sitemap for you. You’ll then submit this to Google Search Console (connected to your Google Analytics account), and Google will update its listings for you faster.

There’s a million more things, and Google Analytics could be its whole own post. You should check out the documentation and read some guides to see how this supercharged tool can help you.

Also, don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a lot of stats to work with at first. GA takes time to track and collate things.

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Choose wide distribution.

I regret using KU at first, because the more websites have your book, the more sales you can get, and the more that your book is recommended to people.

In fact, you may get organic links from strangers that list new books in random places. For example, Googling my book name and title showed me some offhand mention of my book on Reddit.

Love that succinct list of the tropes actually, those are great.

This blog post by Dana Fraedrich discusses why Draft2Digital is so helpful, but it doesn’t really mention SEO. The more places you are linked and the more keywords that are associated with your book, the more likely you are to come up for relevant searches. Having your book mentioned on a lot of high-ranking websites gets you more attention.

Again, ensure you have a keyword-optimized blurb, as this will help you rank higher for relevant terms.

I have another post I will share later that discusses the importance of reviews for SEO, but if I added that, this will would be an entire book in and of itself. Reviews are good for SEO too. Just know that.

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Set up accounts on book-related websites, linking back to your website whenever possible.

The more authoritative sites that link to you, the better. In addition to listing sites, sign up for things like Goodreads, AllAuthor, Bookbub, Booksprout, Authoriview, Book Barbarian, and so on. Fill out your author profile and include a link to your site right up front and center.

People probably won’t click on it, but this is an inbound link informing Google that you are Very Important and Should Be Listed Higher.

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Get your content featured on other websites.

Having inbound links, also called backlinks, from quality sites provides link equity. In other words, you get to siphon off some of that website’s ranking power for yourself.

You’ll notice that when you search for your books, the first link is likely not your website but Amazon, Kobo, etc. As an example, this is what it looks like when I search for 9 Years Yearning:

But if your website is linked on that page, then your website gets link equity. (That’s another reason why wide distribution is so important.) Over time, as you attract more and more organic links, then your website will rank higher and higher.

Of course, these all come from wide distribution. You will also need to get other links that aren’t your listings.

This is more difficult because it requires networking and research, but it’s possible. For example, you might do editorial posts on a writing-related website, sign up for reviews from influencers, or use websites like Authoriview to post interviews.

While it’s ideal to have your own byline, guest posts (when you post under someone else’s name) can also be helpful. In fact, many people don’t realize that guests posts are often written by the very company or person that is recommended in the post, so they’ll think this is a super valid and trustworthy review.

Always ask to have links to your website and books in there, calling them out by name. If you’re writing the content yourself for other websites, then you can just insert it wherever you want. Remember to use keywords as necessary.

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Be patient and consistent.

SEO is not automatic; it takes months of regular work to get yourself out there. This is both because Google doesn’t immediately crawl every website in existence (though updating sitemaps speeds up that process) and because it doesn’t trust new websites as much as older ones.

When you’ve been posting on the regular for three to six months, you’ll start to see improvements. If you have chosen a unique enough name for your series, then you’ll get the blasphemous but vital feature in Google AI search:

The fact that Google gave a little nice review of my book comes from the fact that I paid to be featured on a review site ages ago. While I originally thought that was a waste of money, it improved my SEO so I’m pleased with it now.

As an aside, it’s pretty cool that Google cares more about me than an actual Greek word and part of the Bible (which does have “verses”).

The AI did get it a little bit wrong because Eirenic Verses is the name of the series, not the book. AI is pretty stupid, after all. Still, it gets my name out there if people search for that term.

In fact, people are indeed wandering onto my site from search terms like “eirenen” and “eirenic.” That little insight from Google Analytics is the reason why I wrote the post “Names in the Eirenic Verses.”

Consistency is essential to SEO. Do not disappear for months, because then you vanish from results unless you had bombproof SEO in the first place.

Post regularly. Set up a schedule. I have posts scheduled out four months in advance, and I keep having to push things back because I continue to write more content.

There is so much more that goes into SEO; it’s a trial-and-error process that requires continual updates and strategy changes. The company I freelance for has been doing this for over a decade and is still regularly changing their tactics based on competitor analysis, so don’t think this is a one-and-done thing.

But regardless, if you keep at it, you’ll start to see rich dividends: better than ads, better than spamming social media, better than running through town screaming your book name. I’m wishing you luck.
The Key to Effective Worldbuilding in Fiction

March 1st, 2025

I discuss worldbuilding on here with relative frequency. As a second world fantasy writer, this is a topic that both fascinates and frustrates me.

So, let me share my spicy opinions on worldbuilding that I have learned through crafting The Eirenic Verses – and failing many times to do anything because I did too much worldbuilding.

Worldbuilding is the easiest part of writing a fantasy book.

I believe this is why many aspiring writers spend so much time on it and then kind of give up before even writing the book. Because it is easy.

Worldbuilding is fun, and so people get mad when you point out that it’s not the most crucial part of a story. It’s exciting, and the ideas flow quickly, and you come up with all these cool quirks and nuances.

You don’t have to engage anyone when you’re worldbuilding. You don’t have to think through plot holes or build up interesting characters; you just get to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

By nature, humans want to focus on things that bring them pleasure. For some people, making characters and plots don’t bring joy because they’re too hard. So, instead, they put all their efforts into worldbuilding and then wonder why no one likes their work.

But as I have said many times, writing is hard. Focusing only on the easy things does not a compelling story make.

Only one question really matters when it comes to worldbuilding.

That is:

Why is this important?

I ask this of myself constantly. Why do I need to tell the readers this? What are they going to get out of it? I also ask this of all scenes I write, every piece of dialogue, every character, every location.

You can see why writing fiction is so hard.

Sure, it’d be easy to cram a bunch of details in, hoping readers will think it’s neat, but too much of these extraneous factoids turn people off. Then your writing feels like work because they feel like they have to memorize everything to understand what you’re saying.

In today’s society, we’re all doing way too much work in the first place. Readers are entitled to relax and not think too much, even if you infuse things with deeper meaning. Themes and symbolism, just like worldbuilding, cannot get in the way of a good story.

Sometimes I do include things just because I think readers will think they’re interesting, but they have to be related to the plot somehow.

For example, there’s a scene in the upcoming Funeral of Hopes (coming June 23, 2025), where Orrinir and Uileac participate in a sword forging ritual with High Poetry. I included this based on one piece of feedback: a reader wanted more High Poetry in the stories because it’s such an important part of the world.

I then had to find a way to make this harmonize with the ultimate plot, which is that Orrinir’s abusive estranged father is dying. I won’t give any spoilers, but it does become plot-relevant in a way you wouldn’t expect.

And, of course, you do need some downtime scenes so readers decompress. These are good times to worldbuild; characters aren’t as stressed, so they can note more of the society around them and share with the readers.

A world does not exist without characters and plot.

It doesn’t matter to anyone if they can’t connect with the characters and don’t care about the plot. You can have the coolest world concept ever, and no one will care if your characters are boring and your plot thin.

Again, I believe this is why newer writers focus so much on worldbuilding rather than characterization. They spend a lot of time creating a world without considering the lenses they’ll show it through: the main character and side characters. Because characters are hard.

They don’t know what to do with the world they have made because all they have is an entire encyclopedia of terms, locations, etc. They don’ thave characters and plots and symbolism and themes. There’s no reason for any of this to exist other than “hey, wouldn’t that be neat?”

Why do I know this? Because I did it too. I spent over 10 years making terrible characters and plots because I was too excited by worldbuilding.

I, too, did not want to do the hard work, so I dreamed up all these cool fantasy worlds and then never did them because I spent way too much time plotting and worldbuilding. Once I had what I believe is my coolest idea yet, I knew I had to knuckle down and struggle a bit.

Coming up with the basic premise of Eirenen took me maybe a day. Creating my first character – Cerie Korviridi – took weeks.

Since I wrote the sixth book of the series, Poesy, first, Cerie was my original window into the world, not Uileac or Orrinir. She had to be compelling, somewhat sympathetic, and worthy of whatever plot I created.

I had to justify why she was the most valuable introduction to Eirenen rather than anyone else. As such, I knew she needed to be deeply connected to the premise of my world: that there are people with magic poetry powers. Making her a High Poet was the obvious choice.

The High Poet Society grew around her personality, not the other way around; I created the idea of Inculcated Poets because I hate the Chosen One trope and wanted to show that she has earned her title.

Baking conflict into your worldbuilding creates an organic plot.

I started the Eirenic Verses without any factoids about the world, or any details about it at all, really.

Rather, I began with the overarching conflict. There’s two countries, one with magic and one without, and they have been at war for centuries.

When I knew this, I had to go back and figure out why the conflict started, why it hasn’t ended, what advantages each country has over the other, how much contact the two have, and so on.

From that, the ideas flowed naturally without becoming overwhelming. The conflict began because one country wanted the others’ resources. It hasn’t ended because there’s an impassible mountain range; one side sees it as sacred and the other sees it as a nuisance. Neither of them can fully breach it because they don’t have flight, and the mountains are so steep that no one could possibly shlep an entire army up there.

They’re evenly matched because of their different strengths: Breme has magic, Sina has technology. They rarely have contact except at one part of the mountain range, though both attempt to get past this through espionage.

Refusing to do extra work makes your life easier – and your work more enjoyable.

You may have noticed that the posts specifically about Eirenen have slowed lately. That’s because I have already told readers most of what they need to know and don’t have as much to share.

What you know is what I know. I didn’t make anything else up because I didn’t need to or want to. Those things aren’t going to be in the stories, so why do they matter? They don’t.

Some authors may sniff at this. “Why don’t you have a complete timeline of Bremish history, date by date? Why can’t you tell us the exact geography of both countries?”

Because I don’t need it, and most readers don’t care. If I made those things up, I’d feel the urge to stick it in my books somewhere, and everyone’s eyes would glaze over.

All the time I would spend coming up with these details that don’t matter is time I cannot spend writing my books. Unless I decide to produce a world lorebook (which I don’t want to), then that’s wasted time.

And some people like my approach. Here’s a review from 9 Years Yearning over on Goodreads:

I think about my books a lot like a View-Master, where I force depth into something that is, in reality, relatively flat and basic. The worldbuilding appears deep because I didn’t outline everything in exhaustive detail; I let things be glimpsed and hinted at.

After all, that’s how things are in real life. We know that there’s a big wide world out there, but few of us take the time to dive deep into every single facet of life. We see flashes of cultures beyond our own, but we have our biases. All of us focus on the things that are most immediately relevant to us because they directly impact our well-being. In writing, I do the same.

Visceral, physical details are more interesting to the reader.

When I think about any books I have read, I tend to think of the hard facts and descriptions they gave me rather that abstract constructs about how the world works. Even if I forget the specific names of things, I do remember how I felt and envisioned what the author gave me.

In fact, sometimes I forget the name of the book entirely, but I still think about the intriguing little facts about the world. I remember there was this book I read in grade school where two kids fell into an underground society through a washing machine, and they immediately had to take a bath in a phosphorescent pool.

Another book I completely forgot the name of was one I picked up at a dollar store, set in Nazi Germany. The mother of the protagonist had a sexual relationship with a kitchen knife, and she’d stab herself for gratification. It was so shocking that it has stuck with me for decades, long after I misplaced the book.

Knowing how interesting these details can be, I work hard to place them in my books rather than focusing on things like political schemes, magical rules, and so on.

I want my readers to feel the heat and press of Goldnin, to see themselves in the protagonists’ home, to shiver at the oppressive rainstorms during a Bremish spring. I hope that these things will stay with the reader long after they put away the book, after they’ve forgotten the character names or the plots.

This, to me, is more important than mythologies, lists of magical animals, or complicated relationships between different characters.

Ultimately, there is no one way to worldbuild.

Whether you’re doing the gritty politics-with-dragons like Game of Thrones, the sarcastic social commentary of Discworld, or the steampunk thrillers of The Bas-Lag Trilogy, your imagination is what really brings things to life.

But. There are ways to worldbuild that help build a rich, engaging experience, and ones that read more like a Wikipedia article with a plot plunked in as an afterthought.

My worldbuilding method may not work for you, and that’s okay. Every fantasy writer is different. However, keep asking yourself that one question, over and over again, as you write.

Why is this important?

You will likely find, as I have, that this singular question can completely revolutionize your work. By being intentional with your worldbuilding, you can make the process more enjoyable both for you and your readers.
Quality Assurance Checks for Character Development

February 26th, 2025
Congratulations, you created a little guy! Now, we want to ensure that he (or she or they or it) will withstand the horrors of being thrust in front of an unloving audience.

I’ve invented some exercises that may help you refine your characterization and ensure that you have created a well-rounded, interesting character who has deep motivations and a consistent personality.

These are the not the end-all-be-all of characterization; they’re not meant to be. Nor are they the only exercises you can do to ensure that your characters feel real.

Remember: characters aren’t people, but they should feel like people.

However, I hope these will give you a jumping-off point to tinker with your characters a bit more. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even end up writing what you thought about here.

Also, they are in no particular order of importance, so pick the ones that feel relevant to you and leave the rest. Or do them all, I’m not your mom.

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Identity Powerwash

I put this one first because failures in this department make me the maddest. The personal interest in good representation cannot be helped, given that I am very lesbian.

Anyway.

Purpose: To ensure you are not using labels to bolster a character rather than making them interesting on their own (my pet peeve) or that you are actually delving into their identities so that they feel like a product of their culture, upbringing, experiences, etc.

Good for: Characters with marginalized identities.

Used on: Usually MCs, but could be anyone.

How to do the exercise: Swap all the labels you’ve given a character. If they are POC, make them white. If they are neurodivergent, make them neurotypical. If they are queer, make them straight. If they are disabled, make them abled. If they’re a dragon, make them a human.

Do you find that you can’t actually figure out who they are beyond their identities? Do they act the same way despite their labels being removed?

This tells you that:
1. You have not created a whole and interesting character beyond how they identify; and/or,
2. You have not delved deep enough into their identities to make these labels an integral part of who they are; and/or,
3. You do not know enough about the identities to portray them in a deep, sensitive way that influences the plot.
As an aside, I see this a lot in queer stories written by straight people or amateur writers. Gay love is too icky and scary for the writer. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that the MC and Love Interest are just really good friends; there’s no tension, no affection, no intensity.

I am whapping you with a rolled-up newspaper. Make them gayer.

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Alternate Universe (AU)

Purpose: To determine whether your character would feel “real” outside of the specific plot.

Good for: Characters who are bound by the narrative or seem to be pushed around by the plot too much.

Used on: Any character, but especially the MC.

How to do the exercise: Imagine a setting that is completely opposite to what you have in your story. This means you can’t just transfer a Fantasy character into a SciFi story; they’re too similar.

Instead, think of putting a thriller character into a romance, or a fantasy character into a slice-of-life modern novel, or a literary character in a silly generic story.

How would they react? Would they still function as a character? Could you imagine them doing this?

My personal Eirenic Verses AU is Uileac and Cerie as blues-rock musicians (Cerie singer-songwriter, Uileac guitarist) who need a drummer. Guess who happens to be a very very sexy yet infuriatingly unavailable drummer? Yeah. Orrinir.

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Plot Eradication

Purpose: To determine whether the character is completely driven by the plot or would have interest on their own. Works similar to the above, but more radically.

Good for: Characters who are too bound by the narrative.

Used on: MC.

How to do the exercise: Remove the plot. Just get rid of it. The inciting incident never happened, the dragon didn’t destroy the village, whatever.

Would you be able to come up with something else for the character to do? Could you imagine a different story for them within this same universe? If not, then your character is too wrapped up in this specific plot and could not stand on their own. They only exist for this one purpose. You need to give them more agency.

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Domino Plot Disaster

Purpose: To see if your character is making decisions that directly shape the plot, or if the plot seems to thrum on without them doing anything.

Good for: Characters that are too bound by the narrative.

Used on: MC, but could also be used on side characters.

How to do the exercise: At a pivotal plot point, make the character do something else. They may fail during a fight, or they may refuse to do something, or they may run away when the confrontation comes. It can even be smaller things, like refusing to talk to someone who could have given them good information.

Does the plot still get to where it needs to go without them doing what they did originally? Then you have built a good plot, to be sure, but the character is just being dragged along on strings, not making their own choices. Consider how you can give them more agency.

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The No-Good Very-Bad Day

Purpose: To understand a character’s motivations beyond another character, vocation, or activity.

Good for: Characters who do not have a clear drive or purpose in their lives, especially MCs whose lives revolve around a Love Interest.

Used on: Usually MCs with a Love Interest.

How to do the exercise: Have the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a character … happen. Could be their partner dying, their home being destroyed, losing their job, whatever.

Now explain how they come back from this. Do not let them just kill themselves! Consider how they would build their life back up and what would encourage them to go on. This helps us understand what, beyond circumstance, really drives them.

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Line Swapping

Purpose: To ensure that characters are differentiated enough.

Good for: Characters that are too similar to each other.

Used on: Two characters who you worry are too alike. Often the MC and Love Interest.

How to do the exercise: Take “quintessential” lines from the two characters and swap them for one another. Don’t pick ones that are just “okay” or whatever; choose ones that you feel really distill their personality.

Now you take Character A’s line and attribute it to Character B, and vice versa. Do this for as many lines as you feel is necessary. Preferably, you’ll create a new “trick” draft just for this exercise. Keep everything else the same so you’re forced to reread everything to find what you changed.

Now wait a week or two and revisit the text. Did you even notice that the character lines were switched without remembering where you put it? That means you need to work on differentiating them more.

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Character Swapping

Purpose: To ensure that every character is differentiated enough; similar to above, but more global.

Good for: Side characters.

Used on: Mostly side characters (we will assume your MC can’t be swapped out).

How to do the exercise: Take an action point and change who does it. For example, “Aya swung the sword high” becomes “Pima swung the sword high.” Preferably, you will do this for more than a few character actions.

As with line swapping, let it sit for a while and see if you even noticed that you changed which side character did the action. If you didn’t, then you can merge the two characters (Pimaya?), remove one, or work on differentiating them more, depending on how important they are.

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Dramatis Personnae

Purpose: To ensure you do not have too many background characters.

Good for: Stories that have more than 5 named characters.

Used on: All named characters.

How to do the exercise: First, write out a list of all named characters with a brief bio for each of them. For example, “Uileac Korviridi is a cavalryman. He is Orrinir Relickim’s husband and Cerie Korviridi’s older brother.”

Now, pick a metric based on the length of your story. This could be how many times they are named (use Google or Word’s “search” function to figure that out), how many lines they speak, or how many pages/scenes they appear on. Write this down for every single character.

If you find that multiple characters only speak once, or are only named once, or appear in only a single scene, you need to look at them more carefully and decide if they really belong there. If they serve some purpose beyond idle back chatter, you could just not name them.

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Perspective Flip

Purpose: To ensure all characters have coherent reactions to plot points – and that the MC you have chosen is interesting enough.

Good for: Wooden MCs or undifferentiated side characters.

Used on: Side characters.

How to do the exercise: Rewrite a scene from the perspective of a side character. Does the scene feel different? More interesting? What are they thinking about that is different than the MC? Do this for as many side characters as you want.

You might find that this allows you to differentiate them more and provide more interesting actions when you return to your main perspective. You may even find that your actual MC isn’t as interesting as your side characters and that you have more work to do on them.

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Hello, Human Resources?!

Purpose: In genres other than straight smut, to determine whether a love interest’s actions are actually sweet, or whether the Love Interest is just physically attractive. (Inspired by the “Hello, Human Resources?!” meme.)

Good for: Love Interests who the author has firmly established is incredibly hot, with reams of pages about their glistening abs, but who is kind of an asshole.

Used on: Love Interests.

How to do the exercise: Swap out the incredibly handsome sexy fabulous good-looking rich Love Interest with some schlub, whatever that means to you.

Do their lines now feel icky? Creepy? Has all the chemistry gone bye-bye? Then that means you need to work on developing the relationship beyond “Love Interest is hot.”

Now, it’s fine if MC likes them as a friend because they’re not physically attracted to them anymore. But if MC would be utterly repulsed by everything they do now that they don’t have a ripped six-pack, you’ve got to fix stuff.

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POV Mergers

Purpose: To ensure that you are using just enough POVs to tell the story. The more POVs you have, the more confusing it gets for the reader, and the more likely they are to give up.

Good for: Stories that have more than two POVs. Two POVs are common when telling a love story from both sides and is typically not a problem.

Used on: All POV characters.

How to do the exercise: Pick a POV and try telling it from one of the other POVs. Does it still work, or would it be impossible to explain things that way?

For example, it would be incredibly difficult to tell the same story without three POVs if all the characters are separated for a significant period of time, or if they all have different information that they are refusing to share until a significant reveal (such as in a murder mystery).

It would not be incredibly difficult to tell the same story if all the characters are together throughout the entire story and you’re just splitting POVs because you think it makes it sound more intellectual.

Using this might also show you which POV is the most interesting and which is weaker, so you can Kirby-style absorb one POV into another.

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I hope these exercises were helpful. You may find that you need to significantly revamp your characters to add more agency, create more interest, or flesh them out. That’s okay; we’re all learning all the time.

Keep working at it, think carefully about what you want from a character, and you’ll begin developing more exciting characters in no time.
Writing Trauma in Fiction: Key Dos and Don’ts

February 22nd, 2025
This post was originally published on Tumblr on August 9, 2024

Trauma is, quite frankly, a load-bearing weight in the fiction space. We’ve all done it: thrown in the saddest, most miserable little factoid about our meow-meows so that they feel not just real, but compelling and sympathetic. It helps readers empathize with them and spices up a story.

Very well-done trauma can also be cathartic for readers, especially if the character prevails despite what has happened to them.

The problem is that poorly written trauma can feel exploitative, cheap, and melodramatic. It turns people off, especially those who have been through a similar experience. Now it feels as if someone is using our pain to sell things or get attention, and it is often obvious when someone has not been through that experience, which can make readers feel uncomfortable.

So, here is my opinion on how to write more compelling trauma.

As always, I am not the ultimate authority on writing, I am not telling you exactly what to do with your writing, my opinions are just opinions, I am not perfect, I might be wrong, this might not resonate with you. Take what you like and leave the rest.

There’s also not going to explicit descriptions of abuse or trauma in this post.

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Don’t give a character every trauma ever

Going overboard with trauma is one of the best ways to get people to hate your book. It feels as if you are using trauma as a stand-in for actually developing characters people can resonate with. You’re relying on pity points to force a connection.

Of course, many people go through multiple types of trauma over their lifetime, to the point where if someone read a book about them, it would seem unrealistic.

But characters are not people. They are meant to populate a fictional plot. As such, less is more. Using less trauma forces you to dig deeper into those certain events and identify how your character changed.

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Trauma must be transformative

Trauma does not always mean something in real life. Bad things happen for no good reason. You don’t need to derive lessons from it or become a motivational speaker. It sucks, and it hurts, and it’s not fair, and it’s okay if you just never want to think about it again. Not necessarily the healthiest way to deal with it, but a common way.

However, fiction is not real life. We create worlds and characters to show something, to build a symbol, to represent a human experience, to explore human nature. As such, you must demonstrate some sort of change in the character, and you must pick something that makes sense for their personality.

Options for you (not an exhaustive list):

Developing anxiety. This may be a more globalized anxiety, such as agoraphobia, or it may be more specific.

Shying away from “unsafe” situations that seem perfectly safe to other people. This is another form of anxiety.

Becoming withdrawn and refusing to trust anyone.

Clinging to “safe” people; becoming dependent and helpless. They may be codependent and childlike. This is common with childhood abuse, particularly childhood sexual abuse. Their emotional coping skills were stunted after the event and they never developed a healthy sense of self.

Growing cold and unemotional; isolating themselves from other people. They may refuse to talk about the event and insist that they are fine.

Advocating for others dealing with the same thing.

Acting like an emotional “open wound:” intense, trauma vomiting all over other people, failing to self-regulate.

Having extreme bursts of rage. This is more common in men, but it can also happen in women.

For sexual trauma, becoming hypersexual or having no interest in sex whatsoever. They may become incredibly touch-averse, even getting antsy when someone touches their hand.

Making risky decisions that lead to further traumatization. Especially true regarding child abuse; those who were molested as children are far more likely to be revictimized later in life. BTW, this is not victim-blaming: it is still the abuser’s fault for hurting them. No one should take advantage of someone’s vulnerability like that.

Keeping everything surface level and refusing to open up to anyone about anything. They may seem “bland” and uninteresting to the outside observer because everything about them has been stuffed down.

Again, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s an idea of what you might be able to work with.

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The earlier the trauma happens, the more it changes a character

There is a reason that any therapist will ask you about Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs): because it completely shifts who you are and affects you forever.

I won’t bore you with the research, but those who went through childhood trauma are more likely to have substance abuse issues, heart disease, mental health problems, social challenges, and much more. The list of things that correlate to child abuse is very depressing and shocking.

This isn’t to say that adult abuse isn’t going to cause problems, but it won’t be quite as deeply rooted and horrifying as childhood trauma. Your character will likely not go through a 180 degree shift because their personality is already well rooted. Children are still having their personality molded by their environment and are going to be more deeply scarred.

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It’s not always necessary to show the event

This is especially true if you are writing about characters who have childhood trauma. Full-on cinematic flashbacks are a cheap way to get out of showing us how the trauma changed them. This is especially true if this is the only flashback in the story, or you are only flashing back to show us increasingly more disturbing examples of their trauma.

The most compelling stories I have read do not show the trauma; they show us the aftermath. We see how the character is haunted by what happened and how they can never go back to who they were before. It makes for deeper and more interesting characterization than just “oh look at this bad thing that happened.”

There’s also the fact that it’s more intriguing to give us hints and subtle references to something. The fear of the unknown is worse than the true, explicit details, because then the reader is filling in the blanks in their own mind and imagining how bad it must have been by seeing what is before them: the traumatized character.

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Flashbacks are not little movies

Nothing irks me more than writers who decide that the best possible way to explain someone’s trauma is to just go back in time and show it in exhaustive detail because that is not how trauma generally works. You don’t just see the whole thing in vivid technicolor most of the time.

Why? Because trauma is … traumatic. Your brain wants to protect you from that experience and isn’t going to force you to relive it exactly as it happened.

More commonly, flashbacks are small snippets of the event. For example, you might see the person’s eyes as they are staring at you, or a very brief image of the worst part of it. You’ll see what your eyes were focusing on in the moment, but you’re not going to see the whole thing all at once. Sometimes, a flashback is like a still image, or like a GIF. But it’s not a little movie.

In other cases, a flashback is just a body sensation with no actual visual images shown. You might feel pain in the place where you were hurt, and you may not even realize it’s a flashback.

This can actually make for very compelling writing when done correctly, because you can show small snapshots of the event sprinkled throughout the story so that the reader slowly develops a full understanding of what happened.

So what could you show?
- The eyes of the perpetrator
- Expressions on a perpetrator’s face
- A “diorama” of the room/location where it took place
- Repeating images of a small section of the event
- Physical pain: pelvic pain for assault, tender ribs, old wounds starting to hurt again
- Darkness or swirls of motion
- Sounds or phrases that were said during the event
- The aftermath: what happened right after they were safe or rescued
- Sensations: pressure, heat, cold, weightlessness, heaviness, exhaustion, pain
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Triggers are not always obvious

A trigger can be anything that reminds you of trauma. Scents, sounds, words, certain brands, the tone of someone’s voice, specific locations that just remind you of where it happened, anything. I am sure there are people out there who are triggered by Dolce & Gabbana handbags or certain ice cream flavors.

Sometimes, a trigger is not even obvious to the person who suffered. They may not realize why they shy away from certain experiences, like swinging on a playset or walking through a certain area of town, because they can’t remember why that’s relevant to what happened.

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Characters do not always tell every single person about the trauma

My greatest annoyance. Characters putting it all out into the open for every single person to know about is just … unrealistic. Even if it just happened yesterday, not everyone is going to know. Certainly if it was childhood trauma, only a few select people are going to know about it, especially in explicit detail.

For example, the vast majority of people sexually abused as children never disclose the abuse to anyone. Anyone! This makes it incredibly challenging to identify how many people were molested because so many people don’t want to share.

There’s a lot of shame and vulnerability that comes from disclosing abuse, and everyone, no matter who they are, wants to avoid pain. It’s in our nature. There’s also the fact that if it was a childhood event, the child was likely threatened with punishment if they disclosed, and that will carry on into adulthood. They will be afraid of repercussions if they share it, even if their abuser is dead or absent.

As such, you need to decide on the circle of trust. Who would your character rely on when wanting to discuss their problems? Maybe a lover, a close friend, or a parent.

One quick note here: it’s actually pretty common for people who went through trauma together to not discuss it with one another. Neither wants to trigger their friend/relative/partner/etc by bringing it up, so there may just be an unspoken agreement not to mention it. If they do discuss it, it might be in more vague and referential terms instead of explicit exposition.

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Characters themselves may not be explicit when discussing the trauma

It’s just not realistic for your character to go through every exhaustive detail of any traumatic event when sharing it with someone. There will be brief sum-up statements, not a gory and intense description of it, for example:
- “Something bad happened.”
- “He hit me.”
- “I was trapped.”
- “I was assaulted/raped.”
- “I fell.”
- “There was a car crash.”
- “Someone died in front of me.”
- “I was there when [x] happened.”
- “There was a robbery/break-in.”
- “I was kidnapped.”
Or the classic:
- “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Our minds don’t want to make us relive it, so we will keep it vague to avoid triggering ourselves. For some people, they dissociated during the event and don’t even have those details to share because they weren’t consciously encoded.

Think of a bad thing that happened to you. If someone asks you, it’s very unlikely that you’re going to walk through it step by step for them. More likely, you’ll summarize it. Your characters will do the same.

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Action points for writing trauma:

Consider when the trauma happened to decide on the impact.

Pick one or two types of trauma (death of a parent, sexual assault, being mugged, getting into a car accident, watching someone die, etc) and then stick with that only.

Identify what a character would have been had they not been traumatized, and then shift that personality based on the kind of trauma.

Decide whether it’s necessary to show the abuse.

Focus on sensory details rather than explicit narration when doing. any form of flashback: sights, sounds, smells, textures, how hot or cold it was, pressure, etc.

Sprinkle flashbacks throughout in snippets as they become relevant based on a trigger.

Don’t dump the entire experience of past trauma on the reader in one go because the character wouldn’t do that themselves.

Remember that people may dissociate during a traumatic event and their own descriptions might be vague and dreamlike.

Look at the scene yourself and consider what might become a trigger. A certain perfume? Cigarette smoke? A birdsong?

Decide who would be told based on relationships with the character. Again, the checkout clerk isn’t going to get the details. Maybe a therapist, a partner, a close friend.

People who were traumatized together may avoid any discussion of it.

Characters will typically summarize the experience when talking about it to others unless they have a very, very close relationship.

So many of your readers may have experienced some form of trauma, particularly domestic violence and sexual assault. As such, it’s crucial that you treat trauma with care so that your readers feel understood, not shamed or ridiculed.

You may even find that they reach out with their appreciation for your thoughtful depictions. This is my favorite type of reader comment, and I feel honored every time someone shares a bit of their experience with me.

While these tips are not exhaustive, they can give you a framework for planning out your character trauma. I wish you the best of luck in dealing with these heavy topics.
Mental Gymnastics: What Athletes and Authors Have in Common

February 12th, 2025

When I originally started writing The Eirenic Verses, I was pretty opposed to any form of exercise. I’d see people running along the side of the road and sniff, “Wow, how pointless. They could be doing something useful with their time. Instead, they’re plodding around like cart horses, head empty no thoughts.”

Well, I apologize to all those runners (though I still hate running). In fact, we have a lot more in common than I ever thought – something I only realized when I, too, started exercising regularly.

After watching the Olympics last year, I got a wild hair and decided to give rock climbing a go. Why? It seemed fun. There’s so much thought involved, something that always bothered me about just doing reps at the gym. I don’t like mindless activities like jogging or weight lifting; I want to put my brain to work, too.

I also liked the stories of how supportive the climbers were behind the scenes, which portrayed the community as very welcoming despite the hyperindividualism of high-level sports. Part of the reason that I’d never really joined a sport is because a lot of gym rats can be very hostile to newcomers.

Thankfully, the Olympics did not lie to me. The rock climbing community is indeed wonderful, and I’m so happy I gave it a shot. Now I’m part of a queer climbing group and have a regular crew at my home gym. I achieved my lead certification in January, and I plan to do outdoor climbing this summer.

While I am not and never will be a professional climber, I’ve realized there are deep connections between what drives success in individual sports like climbing and what helps you thrive as an author. Here’s what I’ve found.

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They understand that raw talent is not enough.

It’s true that some people are naturally gifted at sports or at writing. I went to high school with Jimmy Garoppolo, quarterback of the LA Rams, and he was always an exceptional athlete. (From what I remember of him, he’s a really sweet guy, so no slander here.)

Similarly, I’ve always rated high on written communication all throughout school, and I began writing very young. Part of the reason Jimmy Garoppolo and I didn’t know each other is because I was too busy with debate and journalism to pay him any mind.

But neither I nor pro athletes sailed into a career on raw talent alone. Maybe that will do something for you in a middle school writing contest, but there’s a point where you have to knuckle down and learn how to use your skills.

Why? Because your natural instincts may not always be right. What actually feels good to do may not be the best way to do it. There may be faster, more elegant forms that will achieve a better result, but you wouldn’t know that if you stubbornly insist you’re always right because you’re the Chosen One.

If you do nothing to advance your god-given talents, you are always going to fall far behind someone who didn’t have that advantage but worked hard at it anyway. Someone who fought for every success will always surpass the person who thinks they’re entitled to adoration.

Raw talent gets your foot in the door; it does not get you to the finish line. Only practice, patience, and discipline does that.

On the flip side, some people say they are naturally untalented and that is why they will never try. “I just don’t have the head for it,” they’ll say.

Well, I am not naturally athletic either; in fact, I am the weakest climber in my groups. However, I started lead climbing within six months because I didn’t see raw talent as a prerequisite for trying. My real skill is my persistence, not strength, flexibility, or balance.

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They have intrinsic motivation and discipline.

Writing and individual sports both require a high level of intrinsic motivation, the most powerful form of motivation. Essentially, you are doing it because you want to, not because of some external reward like fame or fortune.

While those things certainly may come along for either an author or an athlete, and they are definitely very nice, none of it is guaranteed. There must be something deep and instinctual that drives you to work even if you get nothing else out of it but personal self-satisfaction.

I don’t really get anything out of climbing except making friends and getting exercise. I’m not trying to impress anyone, nor am I going to market this somehow; it’s just for me.

That intrinsic motivation – a sense of self-satisfaction – also keeps me writing even when the money isn’t rolling in.

If no one ever read The Eirenic Verses, I would write the whole series. I love the world I’ve made, and I care about my characters. I lie awake at night dreaming new scenes or revising sentences in my head. My stories make me happy; money and attention are just bonuses. What matters is that I enjoy sharing my books with the world and feel satisfied about a job well done.

That’s the kind of motivation that makes miracles happen, whether that’s running in the Olympics or finishing a book.

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They want it so bad that nothing else will suffice.

Let me return to one of my favorite books, which is a massive inspiration for my own writing. Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote The Diving Bell and the Butterfly while suffering from locked-in syndrome after a stroke. The whole thing was written by blinking his left eyelid over and over again so his transcriptionist could choose the correct letters.

The writing process took him approximately 168 hours and 200,000 blinks. He died just two days after its publication, as if he’d only been waiting to produce this masterpiece before he could rest easy.

Many people would probably have given up and sat there for the rest of their lives doing nothing, too demoralized by such extreme distress to go on. (Count me as one of them, probably.) But Bauby wanted so badly to share his story that no amount of pain or suffering would deter him.

If I could not write for some reason, I’d probably die. I’ve talked to other climbers who tell me that not being able to do their preferred sport would be literal torture. There is something about it that compels them, no matter whether they win or lose, to continue.

That drive is the whole reason that we have the Paralympics. Parathletes did not let anything stand in their way: not blindness, not paralysis, not deafness, nothing. They forced the Olympics to give them their own separate games so they, too, could compete at the top of their sport.

Lifelong authors and athletes both are unwilling to surrender their dreams for any possible reason, no matter what may come. It’s that powerful drive to move or create that separates the writer from the communicator, the climber from the couch potato.

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They have a high frustration threshold.

The frustration threshold necessary for rock climbing is through the roof. Hah.

No matter how good of shape you think you’re in, you might still suck at rock climbing. Unless you’re climbing below your typical grade, it’s rare to get a route on the first try. Sometimes you can’t even send a route you did once before because the vibes are off.

You will fall. You may feel a bit stupid. You will struggle. You’ll have to sheepishly ask to be lowered halfway through the route, apologetically explaining why you couldn’t get it as your belay buddy assures you that it’s all okay.

Sometimes, rock climbing even hurts. I’ve banged my shins, cut up my knuckles, developed nasty scars on my brake hand by holding the rope so hard. Every time I climb, I find mysterious bruises on my knees and feet. My first lead climbs were brutal on my ankles because I wasn’t skilled enough not to slam into the wall.

Yet, none of this has dulled my love of the sport. I don’t get frustrated because I know I can try again. The only thing that would frustrate me would not being able to try at all.

A while ago, there was a rash of self-published authors dramatically flouncing from the industry in Reddit posts. “I’m done! I only sold 250 books in 10 months! It’s not fun anymore! I’m not getting the rewards I wanted!”

This signifies a low frustration threshold, which doesn’t do well in sports or writing. You need to get comfortable with disappointment and failure, recognizing that each failure gets you closer to success.

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They are in it for the long haul.

Persistence and resilience are innately tied up with having a high frustration threshold, and they are crucial for any athlete or writer. However, I’d posit that this is even more important for authors, who generally have longer careers but more build-up time.

Except for in a few sports, like dressage, archery, and marksmanship, it’s rare to see athletes competing at the top levels beyond age 50 – or even younger. Simultaneously, you see age-grouped competitions from childhood on, with junior-level events held regularly. This is a way for trainers and teams to identify potential talent early and nurture them toward a successful, if short, career.

It’s the other way around for writers. There aren’t really any “high-level” competitions for authors that are age-ranked, beyond school competitions. There’s no grade school best seller lists. Other than a few national writing contests for children, most of us don’t get the chance to prove ourselves until much, much later in our lives.

So we have to spend several decades toiling away on our skills, restraining the urge to publish before we’re ready; or, failing that, take our knocks on the chin and accept that we weren’t at the necessary level yet.

The reward is that we do have longer careers than athletes. The average author debuts at age 36, but they can continue writing until they die.

Regardless, both disciplines necessitate that you be willing to show up, over and over again, with or without external feedback, and do what needs to be done.

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They are fascinated with the mechanics.

Many high-performing hobby climbers are in the STEM professions or hardcore athletes with a deep knowledge of sports medicine. They’re fascinated with physiology, physics, sports psychology, and technical routines.

Climbing is extremely dangerous, so attention to detail is essential for both safey and success. Being obsessed with little things like dynamic rope stretch can quite literally save your life.

Writers are the same, though with less life-or-death stress. We love to play with words. We love knowing how they work, how they change, and how we can use them to maximum impact. Tiny shifts in syntax can make a huge difference in how a sentence feels, and every comma must mean something.

Being someone who started with poetry, I am fascinated with wordplay. I also love finding out how to subtly display emotional states without actually telling you, whether that is through someone talking in a more childlike way when they’re scared or dancing around their actual problem.

Other authors love etymology, or puns, or symbolism. It’s these little factors that show our love for our profession and make us always want to learn.

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They know their skills don’t always perfectly translate.

Being good at one sport does not automatically translate to great returns in other sports, even if they seem very similar. For example, I’ve seen videos of weightlifters or runners getting obliterated by the wall.

That’s not to say that these athletes aren’t great at what they do, nor that they can’t learn rock climbing at all. It’s just that being naturally athletic does not necessarily give you the muscle memory and technique to excel at a different sport without a learning curve.

Similarly, writers of one discipline may not excel at another. I do not write murder mysteries or children’s books because I know I can’t do them, and I don’t want to. The skills I have developed through fantasy writing would not translate to that specific genre.

Of course, there are some authors who kick ass at multiple genres – and many athletes who do an excellent job at multiple sports. These folks are exceptional, both in their skills and their discipline. Not all of us can achieve that, at least not without working incredibly hard all over again. That’s okay, of course. No one is everything to everyone.

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They are intense.

Lastly, there’s no getting around the fact that both authors and athletes can be a little … unsettling at times. Loving something abstract with such fervor can be off-putting to other people, who may not understand how it feels to be so committed to an activity rather than a person.

I’d posit it’s even weirder for us authors, who make people up and then put them in horrible situations. How can we create someone just to torture them? Idk, because it’s fun?

Of course, many people can shut off this intensity when they need to so they don’t scare away every single person they meet. I’d like to say that I’m a pretty chill and cool person IRL; many of my acquaintances don’t know I write books. Still, when that passion subject comes off, watch out! You’ll get a monologue you never expected, one that may terrify you in its passion.

I’d argue that athletes could make great writers if they chose to leverage their amazing skills in a different way. Likewise, if you’re a serious author, try your hand at a sport (maybe rock climbing). You might find you’re better at it than you could have ever imagined.
How to Elevate Your Writing Style with 6 Simple Hacks

February 1st, 2025

Let’s go through a few simple and easy tricks to make your writing masterful! No expensive writing courses – these are all so very free.

Read and write poetry

I often get complimented on my poetic writing style (no wonder my entire book series is about poetry magic). Here’s what a professional editor said about the sixth book in the series, Poesy:

There’s no real secret to how I have developed my style: the entire start of my journey, from about age 14 to age 26, was writing poetry. I read good novels and practiced my poetry in addition to getting my Brit Lit degree and all that stuff. (I have a chapbook out called The Lucretia Cycle, which is about my sexual assault at age 25. Trigger warning, obviously.)

Why is poetry so helpful for fiction writers? The word flow. Poetry is meant to be spoken aloud, so it needs to have a certain cadence.

As an aside, this is why I hate people who think you can just take a sentence and break it up however you want and call it poetry. No! They’re different forms. You can use poetry to inform your fiction writing style, but it doesn’t really work the other way around.

Anyway, practicing a lot of poetry helps develop your internal voice so that you can self-edit, improving your word flow and making for a smoother reading experience.

To write good poetry, just like with writing good fiction, you need to read good poetry first. Hunt up an anthology of celebrated writers, search “100 best poems of all time,” stuff like that.

As a test for if a poem is good, read it aloud. If it makes no sense and sounds weird, then it’s a bad poem.

Use Microsoft Read Aloud

This goes along with the abovementioned poetry: you want to develop a good word flow. Even if your readers aren’t listening to an audiobook, most people have an internal voice that reads along with them, and they’re going to get annoyed if your writing has a jangly, unpleasant flow.

Of course, there are times when you do want a jangly, unpleasant flow, like when you’re discussing something gross, but most of the time, you don’t want that.

Hearing your work read aloud not only helps you catch typos, but it also lets you notice if you use the same word too many times; the Microsoft Read Aloud voice uses the same tone for the word every time so it’ll be very apparent. You can also ensure that sentences flow smoothly with one another based on the practice you’ve done with poetry.

The other thing that Read Aloud helps with is punctuation, something that a lot of people struggle with. See, the way that we teach punctuation in school sucks because it doesn’t point out that punctuation is basically stage directions for reading aloud; that’s the whole reason it was invented. It helps group words together so that we understand how they are related and how we should verbalize them. Even if your punctuation isn’t grammar-school perfect, it will make sense to readers if it helps them slow down at the right points.

My ultimate goal when revising is to put my headphones on, sit with some knitting, and not have to stop the Read Aloud for several pages. Once I’ve hit that point, I know I’m good to go.

If you write fantasy, you may find Sensory Readable a useful investment because you can create a custom pronunciation guide for unique words or names. You can also select from a wide variety of different voices (I use Microsoft Natural Fiona).

Develop your Theory of Mind

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand that someone else may not have the same knowledge, experience, opinions, or beliefs that you do. It is a crucial skill for writers in a variety of ways; I’ll detail a few of them now.

Being aware of audience.

What enraptures us as a writer is not always what our readers will care about. This is why infodumping is annoying; it often is about the writer wanting to show off how smart they are and how much they have thought about their characters.

Writing in an engaging way.

Going along with this, good writers understand that their readers are likely not devoting their lives to any one book; they’re able to recognize that their book is one of dozens or even hundreds that the reader will consume this year. As such, they push to make their book stand out by making it as intriguing as possible.

Considering a reader’s blind spots.

A great beta reader can help you with this, but if you have good ToM, you can rectify these errors yourself by remembering what you haven’t told the reader yet – and what they need to know right this instant.

It also ensures that you explain things in a way that makes sense to readers, such as remembering that not everyone knows the same pop culture references and may not be familiar with certain brands or objects.

Understanding characters’ perspectives.

When my brother started reading my first book, 9 Years Yearning, one of the first things he said was something like “ugh Orrinir is SO down bad for Uileac!! Why can’t Uileac see that!!”

Well, because Uileac is a teenage boy who is also down bad for Orrinir but is terrified of pushing his closest friend away by confessing. Applying Theory of Mind allowed me to write a story where both characters are practically screaming their desire, but neither is willing to take the plunge.

There’s no forced miscommunication, just a very human reaction: accepting one pain (keeping one’s feelings hidden) to avoid another, bigger pain (ruining a close friendship).

Remembering what information only one character has.

Especially crucial in mysteries and thrillers, but it applies to every book in some fashion. Your characters don’t know what the other does unless they are a mind reader (unlikely), they are actually told the information direct from the source, or they sniff around and find it out.

Now, I know that some neurodivergencies have issues with Theory of Mind, but recent neuroscience demonstrates that there are actually a number of ways to improve your ToM.

If you have autism, schizophrenia, or other neurodivergencies, please don’t think it’s impossible for you to become a good writer; it’s absolutely not.

Anyone can become a great writer if they work hard and practice.

No matter your neurotype, no matter your background. I’d never gatekeep this beautiful art from anyone.

I’ve found some resources about improving theory of mind here and here, but there are many more out there. I’d also argue that dialectical behavioral therapy, targeted toward developing theory of mind, would be helpful too.

Be vaguer (within reason)

Keeping some mystery in your works is important for a few reasons.

Invites further reflection.

When everything is spelled out for your readers, there’s little room for them to come up with their own theories and perspectives on your writing.

Gives readers autonomy.

Readers like to take ownership of a world – that’s why we have the entire genre of fanfic. Leaving some things open for interpretation helps them feel like they are part of the experience rather than a passive viewer.

Helps your writing pass the sniff test.

Getting too specific gives readers a chance to go “well acktuahlly” if they happen to be more well-versed in a topic than you are.

I avoid talking very explicitly about archery in my books for this very reason. I’m not a professional archer, though I have practiced it a bit, and I don’t want to annoy anyone who knows more than me.

Avoids infodumps.

Readers’ eyes will glaze over if you throw too much information at them. Let them think. Sprinkling a few tidbits in here and there, then making the reader connect the dots, is far more enjoyable than a wall of irrelevant details.

The funny thing is that what I remember from texts is always the small and charming details rather than the big important plot points and explanations of the world mechanics.

For example, it has been literally 20 years since I picked up a Redwall book, but I remember the sumptuous discussions of the feasts, with all the yummy cheeses and so on. I remember the discussions of the tapestries and the abbey’s tall ceilings. Those are the memorable details, not the exact plot points.

What can you be vague about?

Well, it really depends on what type of book you have – there’s no one-size-fits-all rule. Make a hierarchy of things that are most important for readers to understand, and let everything else be background info.

In general, though, avoid specific measurements. Time, distance, weight, height, and so on, unless they are absolutely critical to the plot for some reason (unlikely). If you’re wrong, readers will be very annoyed.

Listen to IRL conversations

One of my favorite ways to improve dialogue is to watch interrogation videos. You have access to hours of unscripted conversations from a variety of people in all sorts of situations.

But, at the same time, you are not trying to figure out what to say in response to anything because you’ve not having a conversation. It can be challenging to notice verbal tics when you’re working to digest and respond to someone else.

Another popular method is to just plop yourself down at a cafe, or bus, or whatever else, and quietly listen to others without seeming weird.

The important thing about both of these is to choose something where you are passively listening to someone speak without needing to contribute anything.

Do not rely on movies, or other books, or podcasts, or whatever, to build your dialogue skills. These are edited down and agonized over; they are not going to teach you how to sound natural. You need real-life examples.

Say less to do more

Good writing can do a lot of work without extra fluff because the writer is targeting multiple things at once. Excellent authors can build foreshadowing, demonstrate personality, worldbuild, and infuse themes just by having a character walk across a room. Each part moves the plot forward without separating every single thing into its own point.

Sentences can be pretty short, less than two lines, and still powerful. For example, I’m proud of this part from Pride Before a Fall.

As if a world-fever had broken: Orrinir woke feeling sluggish, mind full of marbles that rolled every time he moved. His first thought was of Uileac lain beside him, eyes closed and hair stiff with sweat. A bath would be in order, but later. Assuming the cavalryman even let him.

Clearly Orrinir had a rough night full of unexpected problems, and now he has a mental hangover. He’s tired and has many disconnected thoughts rattling around in his head.

From the “world-fever” part and the fact that Uileac is covered in sweat, we can sense that Uileac was sick but the danger has now passed.

Uileac and Orrinir clearly had some sort of argument, and now Orrinir’s not sure whether his partner will accept his care. We also guess that Orrinir desperately wants to help his partner and is kind of obsessed with him but also scared of rejection. He seems a bit snippy and resentful, too.

Each of these sentences is less than two lines, but they all get a lot done very quickly.

Note also that while I use two unique phrases in the first line, the rest of it is pretty plain. The reader can enjoy the interesting metaphor in the first line, then get back to more straightforward discussions afterward. It’s not a 24/7 purple prose fest.

This is a very hard skill to learn; even after over 15 years of writing regularly, I’m still working on it. However, you can get to that point by just revising over and over again.

Write your draft in as much detail as possible, unconcerned with if it’s wordy or messy. Then, figure out how you can say the same thing more concisely without losing the meaning. Go back in and do this again, and again, until every single word has a reason to be there.

And there you have it. Try out these tips and see whether you’re happier with the result. They have certainly improved my writing, and I hope they’ll work for you too.
A Note to AI “Writers” Everywhere

January 29th, 2025

Before we begin, I want to clarify something. When I say “AI writers,” I’m not talking about people who use Grammarly, ProWritingAid, or any writing tools where you are primarily responsible for most of the writing.

Grammarly and ProWritingAid do not do the work for you, though they can enhance what you have already written. Their suggestions are often stupid and wrong, which is why I encourage newer writers to avoid them until you have the basics down. Still, they do require you to put in effort.

By “AI writers,” I mean people who prompt generative AI to do all or most of the writing. Or people who write poorly and then put that into ChatGPT, which then “cleans it up” for them (aka lies). You are my primary audience. Listen up.

Give up. Stop doing this. Find a new hobby.

That’s my primary message to you. Give up now, before you waste even more time and resources on this endeavor.

I know this is extremely harsh. It’s meant to be. But ultimately, I say this for your benefit.

⤝❖⤞

When you are using AI, you are telling us that you can’t think for yourself and don’t want to try.

I look down on people who use AI because, to me, it signifies laziness and a lack of critical thinking skills. Most other writers do, too.

You are debasing yourself when you use AI. Whether you like it or not, you are proclaiming this:

“I think so poorly of myself that I believe a heartless, soulless, lying, hallucinating machine can tell this story better than I can. My stories don’t really matter, or I would be compelled to write them myself.”

“I am too impatient to learn the skills necessary to tell this story. I want instant satisfaction without doing the hard work.”

“Artistic integrity doesn’t matter to me. The human element of writing is pointless. I don’t want to explore myself or others. I don’t care about learning.”

“I don’t have the ability to find writing advice, to ask a more experienced writer, to find books on craft that can guide me. I refuse to expend any effort to write my stories.”

“Rather than overcoming challenges, I would rather immediately give up and look for the easiest possible solution. I have a low frustration threshold. I can’t calm down and think things through.”

“I am completely helplesss. Someone else has to spoonfeed me answers, both in writing and in life overall. I do not want to improve myself as a person, to learn or to grow. I just want to do things with as little effort as possible because I don’t believe in self-improvement.”

“My self-esteem is too bad to handle criticism, which is why I let a machine do all the work for me so I can easily dismiss anyone’s criticism as the machine’s fault. And I cannot be bothered to improve my self-esteem, just like I can’t be bothered to do the hard work necessary to succeed as a writer.”

Those are all harsh things. And they are all true. That is exactly what I think – and what others think – when they see you crowing about using AI.

Why do you think so badly of yourself? Why do you think that you’re incapable? And why won’t you do anything to make it better?

Life cannot be outsourced, no matter how much you want the easy solution to every problem. Eventually you will come across something that you have to figure out on your own. If you have not gained the ability to problem-solve, to research, to work through frustration, then you’re going to have a complete and utter meltdown the first time you face a true challenge.

Learning how to write, just like learning any other skill, teaches you those things. It sets you up for a better future because it forces patience, creativity, research, and persistence.

I feel bad for you if you believe that there are any easy outs in life. There aren’t. If you want something, you must achieve it on your own. Better to learn this lesson now.

⤝❖⤞

If learning how to write is too hard, then you don’t have a passion for it.

I do not use AI in my writing and never will. Not even the excerpts for my blog posts, which is why I occasionally find typos in them which I hurriedly fix before posting them anywhere.

Everything in The Eirenic Verses was written by me. I do use ProWritingAid, but only to point out things like glue words or overly difficult paragraphs. Most of the time, its suggestions are bad, but it correctly identified a potential issue that I didn’t catch. I don’t take its suggested rewrites; I workshop ways to fix it myself.

For me, it is basically just a supercharged spellchecker and nothing more.

Why? Because I actually enjoy writing. The entire process, from start to finish, is enjoyable to me.

People who like doing something do not look for shortcuts. They do not want some machine to do the work for them because doing it themselves is the whole point.

For example, one of my hobbies is knitting. There are machines for this; they’ve existed for longer than I’ve been knitting, which is about 20 years now. I’ve never used them because the whole point of knitting is to do it myself.

I derive incredible satisfaction from making something with my own two hands. Over the years, I’ve taught myself many skills, including multiple bind-offs, intarsia, entrelac, short rows, and mosaic stitches. Of course I don’t succeed the first time, which makes it all the more amazing when I do figure out the technique and make something beautiful.

Why would I want to remove half of the joy? The point isn’t entirely the finished product: it’s working hard, trying new things, and pushing myself to achieve more. It’s failing, then succeeding, then marveling at how far I’ve come.

If all you want is the finished piece, then you don’t really enjoy writing as an activity. You want something to show off. And that’s not the point of writing. The point is the hard work.

⤝❖⤞

You are denying yourself the pleasure of self-discovery.

I learn something new about writing every time I read or write. Every piece, no matter how small, teaches me something about craft.

But more importantly for personal growth, I learn something new about myself every time I write something.

AI writing is soulless; it doesn’t have anything about you in it. What are you learning about yourself? What are you infusing about yourself into the work? Nothing. Because you let a machine do it for you. A plagiarism machine scoured the internet, picked a bunch of random stolen content, and vomited it out in accordance with your wishes.

My third novel, Funeral of Hopes is deeply, painfully personal. Through Orrinir Relickim, I was able to confront my feelings about being estranged from my abusive father.

Orrinir depicts when the brain knows that the abuser will never change, but the heart wishes so much that they would. There’s a push-pull between “I want to make you feel bad” versus “I want you to acknowledge and praise me.”

And, of course, all those things are incredibly hard to say, especially for a strong soldier like Orrinir. So one has to learn how to show these things without the character monologuing about their bad vibes all the time.

How would a machine ever do that? It can’t. You have to feel the feelings before you can put it into words. You’re stymying your own self-growth by refusing to explore those parts of yourself.

⤝❖⤞

Machines cannot accurately depict the subtle nuances of human behavior, making its work less interesting.

Writing is also a way to explore the world around me, especially psychology. By studying other people and myself, I can more accurately reflect humanity in my work.

AI simply does not depict nuances. It doesn’t know how, and I doubt it ever will.

ChatGPT will never understand the difference between touching someone’s hand or patting them on the shoulder because to it, those are both expressions of companionship. But the two gestures are not really the same.

Handshakes are a gesture of trust. This gesture is at least 7 million years old and was originally used to prove that you were unarmed. Not only was your hand empty, but pulling your arm up and down would dislodge any hidden weapons, too. Plus, it’s hard to get away from a handshake, so you don’t want to give them out without at least a baseline level of ease.

Racheting up the closeness level, we get to holding hands. There’s a deep intimacy about squeezing someone’s hand; it’s one of the most sensitive parts of the body, and not being able to use such an essential limb suggests a bit of vulnerability. You hold someone’s hand when words alone cannot express how much you love and care for someone.

In contrast, patting someone’s shoulder is a more impersonal gesture, often done to a child by an adult. You don’t have to care about someone much to pat their shoulder because they’re not temporarily surrendering use of their body part to you. For many people, being patted on the shoulder by someone other than a partner or relative seems patronizing; it can even feel threatening, especially if the person comes up behind you and you don’t know each other very well.

So they have completely different levels of intimacy and trust. People pat my shoulder all the time and it doesn’t really mean anything, but I’d be very surprised (and offended) if someone I didn’t know suddenly held my hand.

This is, of course, presuming a Western context. Different gestures mean different things around the world, and reflecting this can help a story feel more rooted.

To a real writer, these tiny gestural nuances are fascinating and provide such depth to their work. I love thinking about these things, and learning about them has made me far more mindful about the way I move through the world. I notice the way people point their feet during a conversation, how they angle their bodies, when they gesture with their hands or not. I also consider what peoples’ body language says about them, both in the moment and overall.

This deeper exploration of human behavior has made me a more attentive listener, a more vibrant conversationalist, and a better friend. I can read peoples’ moods and respond appropriately so that I offer my loved ones what they need in the moment, even if they don’t tell me. I’m able to identify manipulative behavior, to assert boundaries, to stand up for myself.

Why would you want to deny yourself the opportunity to learn these things and utilize them in your work? You’re missing out on so much by letting a machine regurgitate thousands of stolen works on your behalf.

⤝❖⤞

Writing is nowhere near as lucrative as you seem to believe – especially for AI writing.

Let’s talk about the tech bros who want to shit out a book in a day and make millions of dollars.

Sorry, bub. They lied to you.

Most authors do not make that much. Of course there are exceptions, but the majority of us have to work a day job in addition to our writing. My fiction writing operates at a loss right now, and I wouldn’t be able to publish at all if I weren’t a business communications writer during the day.

Heartless, mediocre writing is going to make even less. Yes, you may gain the benefit of quantity over quality, but the instant that people get a sniff of AI-generated writing, they will rat you out and your numbers will plummet.

Let’s look at an author who uses AI. Here’s the first novel in a series, before readers started to cotton onto it:

And here’s the most recent one, released back in July 2024.

Look at that extreme dropoff in ratings. It’s been out for well over six months now, so there should be way more than just eight ratings.

But people got tired of the derivative bullshit and gave up on the series; only a few remained to warn others about the terrible AI writing. There were only three reviews, two of which complained about the AI.

Now, it’s true that sequels usually get less reviews than the first book. This happens even amongst well-known authors writing a series. People already left their comments on the first book, and they don’t feel compelled to leave another one on the next instalment. Brandon Sanderson went from 76,000 reviews on the first book in The Stormlight Archives to just 12,000 on the fifth one.

But going from over 200 down to just eight?? That’s horrifying. It shows you AI writing is bland and tiring. People don’t want to read the same thing over and over, but that’s all AI can do. Eventually they get fed up, and you get significantly diminished returns.

In general, 5% to 10% of readers will leave reviews. If we extrapolate that in the most generous way, it means that Vera Winters sold up to 2,600 copies of the first Starlight Sanctum book but only 80 copies of the sixth one.

Let’s assume my numbers are correct. The first one would have made her around $9,000 in royalties, ignoring taxes. The sixth one? $280.

Yikes. Abysmal.

Surprisingly, Vera Winters has kept writing the same AI slop, but she started charging even more for it, from $4.99 for her Starlight Sanctum up to $5.99 for her Shadowbound series. We can assume that this is because she is frantically attempting to make up for the drop in sales.

But the same thing has happened yet again: over 200 reviews for the first book, almost nothing for the next ones as people realize that they have been scammed.

If she wants to keep the grift going, she’d probably be better off doing one-off books so everyone is exposed to her derivative crap anew each time.

Step outside of your tech bubble and you’ll see that most people hate AI. They’re sick of it. If you search “AI” on Bluesky, you see pretty much nothing but haters, including this hilarious tweet:

Post by Matt Hegrin on Bluesky

And even AI companies themselves realize that if people knew how AI worked, they wouldn’t like it anymore.

Post by MJ Crockett on Bluesky

As soon as tech companies started forcing AI on everyone, people stopped liking it. Post AI images and people will roast you, picking them apart. Post AI writing and people will laugh at you.

And they certainly won’t pay for something they could easily generate themselves with a few clicks.

⤝❖⤞

I’m not worried about AI writers surpassing me. They won’t.

A lot of pro-AI people say that writers and artists who complain about AI are just worried about becoming irrelevant.

We’re not. Every single time AI has been rolled out, companies have lost money because, as previously mentioned, the average consumer doesn’t like being forcefed some generative garbage.

The backlash is already here. CNET was forced to stop using AI-generated articles after controversy. An academic journal had to retract an article that used a hilariously bad AI-generated image, and recent research has cast aspersions on the entire scientific community after it was found that many journal articles were submitted with clear marks of using ChatGPT.

In fact, most companies are losing up to 6% of their annual revenue on AI rollouts. OpenAI is hemorraging money, and the recent rollout of Chinese competitor DeepSeek is going to make that even worse.

You really think ChatGPT is going to be free forever? It won’t be. Soon enough, they’re going to paywall it in hopes of desperately recouping even a fraction of their losses. Or you’ll get a handful of freebie responses and then have to pay for credits.

Are you willing to spend real money to do your work? Do you really think, after what I showed you before, that you’ll receive a return on investment? Nope. You won’t.

As companies like OpenAI tighten the noose in hopes of paying their creditors, the average AI “writer” is going to realize that they, too, won’t make anything off their work. They’ll jump ship and find a new grift because their hearts weren’t in it anyway.

Us authors will remain, crafting work that people care about. If you want to join us, there’s plenty of time to advance your skills so that your writing has true heart.
Bird by Bird: Why You Should Only Work on One Project at a Time

January 25th, 2025
Stop starting a million WIPs.

I am serious. Please. Do not do that. Do not start a million WIPs.

Why? Because then you won’t get any of them done. And why is that? Because you’ll lose motivation, get distracted, and hop on to the next thing, leaving a trail of heartbreak in your wake.

I have 131 stories on Archive of Our Own and have written over 2 million words of fiction. Two. Million. Words.

Don’t believe me? Look.

And then there’s more that is not accounted for here: Poesy (109k), Perseity (109k), 9 Years Yearning (31k), Pride Before a Fall (51k), Funeral of Hopes (59k), and What Is Cannot Be Unwritten (60k). So, all told, I have over 2.12 million words under my belt.

Are they all perfect? No, of course not, especially the older stuff. But is it done? Yep.

And I did that by doing each project one at a time.

If I get another story idea while I’m in the middle of another story, I write a note in my WIP list, but I don’t start it. Only when I’m letting a story “rest” before editing do I start outlining another book, but I still don’t start. I wait until I’ve finished one entire project before I do another one.

Your brain does not actually multitask. Our brains aren’t wired to do that. This article from Forbes explains:

Multitasking, as we understand it, is largely a myth. While the concept of doing more in less time seems appealing, the fact remains that only a minuscule 2.5% of the population may possess the rare ability to juggle tasks effectively. The term ‘multitasking’ itself, coined by IBM in the 1960s, was never intended to describe a human capability but was rather a function of computers— machines that do not have the cognitive constraints of humans.

You are highly unlikely to be part of that 2.5%, even if you think you are. I’m not, and you’re probably not either.

What you are really doing is task switching. Take it from the software management program Asana:

Multitasking is actually task switching in disguise. When you try to do two things at once—like checking your email during a meeting—you’re actually jumping between those two tasks at lightning speed. Task switching takes precious mental effort, meaning you’re likely to make more errors and get less done. In this article, we address common multitasking myths and what to do instead.

That article from Forbes elaborates:

When we attempt to multitask, what we’re really engaging in is task switching. Each switch may seem instantaneous and effortless, but it’s far from it. The transition from one task to another involves significant cognitive effort, causing mental and physical fatigue, reduced task performance, and a loss of concentration — a phenomenon known as the switch cost effect, according to ABLE, a knowledge acquisition and productivity app. This switch cost effect has profound implications for our mental health and work output. Multitasking temporarily increases stress levels which raises blood pressure and heart rate. Multitasking is also associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to Lifespan Healthcare.

And it is even worse when you are hopping from one WIP to another, essentially changing contexts.

Pleexy, another task automation company, continues by discussing ‘context switching’:

Context switching means moving between separate, unrelated tasks. The term originally comes from the field of computer science, but it’s also commonly applied to the cognitive tasks we perform.

While classic multitasking involves doing more than one task simultaneously, context switching occurs when you abandon your current task and move on to another task without completing the first.

This rapid succession of unfinished tasks makes it impossible to get anything done. It not only robs us of our time but also curbs our ability to focus in a digital age where we need it the most. Context switching is particularly destructive because it takes a lot of time and effort to pick up where you left off and get back in the zone.

Every time you stop working on one WIP, you are switching contexts and pulling yourself out of the world you have created, jumping into another. Now your brain is struggling to reorient itself, and it’s not going to do its best work.

“But I love writing different WIPs and I get some of them done!”

I am sure you do, but is it your best effort? Would you have been able to write faster, more coherently, better, if you had only worked on one? Probably. And don’t you want to do your best?

“But I have ideas and if I don’t do them right now I’ll forget them!”

Then write them down. I have a whole WIP list of things I am intending to write later. Make a notepad document, a spreadsheet, whatever, for your different WIPs.

When you think of something interesting for that project, put down a small note underneath it, but don’t start writing! Your brain will let it marinate and when you’re done with your current project, you’ll have a better idea of what to do with it.

I like to visualize things before bed, so a lot of the time, I will use that visualization for a different project as my way to calm down, but I’m not devoting too much attention to it before I’m ready to work. I’ve got some scenes and images that I have daydreamed about, but I haven’t drawn attention away from my current WIP by actually beginning to write.

This way, I can devote all of my brainpower to my current project while reserving a little bit of attention and aspiration for the next one. I also avoid writer’s block because I have my next WIP lined up, waiting for me, and I can transition to it almost immediately.

Generally, I don’t go more than a few days without starting a new project (after completing one!) because I am prepared for it: I can give it my full attention. There’s no sitting around and waiting for inspiration.

“But I have so much inspiration for this project and want to start right away!”

Something I am learning as a writer is delayed gratification. I am an impulsive person and I want to jump into things right away, but then I get disappointed with the results. For example, I released 9 Years Yearning before commissioning a really good cover. I regretted that and commissioned the cover for Pride Before a Fall before finishing it.

By waiting, you get a better payoff.

I’ve got four different projects waiting to be released and one waiting for serious revisions. They are all finished, but they’re not polished. It would be very easy for me to spend a few hours formatting them and then just throw them up, but I won’t get the best payoff then.

Instead, I’ll wait for a break between projects before turning back to them and fixing them up, giving them all my attention. Yes, it means I only release two books a year, but it also means I release my best work.

Writing is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. It’s okay to give your projects a break.

By letting my stories rest, sometimes for entire months, I can come back to them with fresh eyes and make sure they’re perfect. The same is true of your WIPs. Let them sit and marinate for a while.

How to avoid having a billion WIPs:
- Make a list of future WIPs. Put it in one document. Add things as you think about them.
- Put this list of WIPs away and ignore it.
- Allow yourself to get some writer’s block if you’re struggling with your current project. Writer’s block is okay sometimes. Don’t use writer’s block as permission to start something else.
- Put reminders up that tell you not to start things. I like the phrase “bird by bird” which I got from the eponymous book by Anne Lamott (which is really good writing advice).
- Read up on task switching and the myth of multitasking to show why having a million WIPs doesn’t work.
- Interrogate yourself. When you have a bunch of WIPs, do you actually get any of them done? Be realistic and ruthless with yourself.
- Look back at how many WIPs you have in storage. Identify your WIP completion rate. It’s probably lower than you think.
- Read about the writing habits of other writers. You’ll find most successful writers do not have a ton of different projects at once. They also go one at a time.
“No I’m going to write a million WIPs anyway! You don’t know me!”

Okay, then go for it. You’re not obligated to take my advice. I can only tell you that the science – and my personal experience – says that’s not a good idea.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter to me if you continue to stop and start a gazillion different projects and get none of them done. That’s your problem, not mine.

But I’d rather you be able to finish something you’re proud of, because then you’re growing as a writer, and I always encourage personal growth.
How to Reach Your Writing Goals: Developing Self-Discipline

January 11th, 2025

Last week, we discussed the importance of discipline as a writer, so today we will be discussing how to develop said discipline. There are hundreds of ways out there, but I will focus on the things that I have used.

My advice may not be helpful to you, and that’s okay; every writer is different. However, you may derive some benefit from it.

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Discipline is a process and a muscle.

No one springs out of bed one day and has perfect discipline. You need to slowly build it up over time, then continually exercise and refine it.

As such, don’t get frustrated if you give up sometimes. You’re still learning and developing. The goal is to be able to jump back into your writing habit even if you take a few days off.

When I get to the end of a project, I don’t work on it every day. I often went days without working on Funeral of Hopes because I needed time to percolate my ideas – and because I had a bunch of other stuff going on. December is gloomy here in Cleveland, I was burned out from six months of nonstop work, I had started getting serious about rock climbing, and of course I had a bunch of Christmas-related stuff to do.

But, I always knew I’d come back to Funeral of Hopes because, well, I have to. I have already committed to finishing the series; I can’t leave people hanging with only two books after they were promised 10. And I did finish the first draft, on Christmas no less.

I have the discipline to get back on the wagon after a few days off without feeling guilty. These are a few of the ways I’ve developed that.

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Remind yourself why you are doing this.

Discipline goes hand in hand with motivation. You need to want your goal enough that any challenges will only make you want it more.

My personal goal is actually a fear: that I won’t finish the Eirenic Verses before I die. The thought terrifies me and keeps me up at night.

Not only does this fear of death make me want to take care of myself so I live longer, but it also makes me sit my butt down and do the work so that if I die at like age 52, I will die knowing I achieved my goal.

Maybe your goal is just to finish a project so you can prove to yourself that it’s possible. That’s a fine and honest goal, one I applaud. But it has to be compelling enough that you are willing to face frustration without giving up.

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Accept that trying is half the battle.

One of the nicest compliments I have gotten from anyone was actually about sucking at something. A belay buddy at the climbing gym patiently watched me miss a crucial handhold, come flying off the wall, then find a new grip and try again.

When I was finally lowered, she looked me in the eyes and said, “You take such beautiful falls. It’s a real talent.”

This might sound like a passive-aggressive dig at me, but it wasn’t. She was praising the fact that I wasn’t afraid to attempt moves I couldn’t pull off.

A lot of climbers (and people in general) will see something’s too difficult and go “nope, I’m out.” They aren’t willing to face the disappointment that comes from not succeeding immediately, and thus they never grow. Maybe their ego is too brittle to withstand frustration, or maybe they are self-conscious, but it’s a self-defeating attitude.

There is nothing embarrassing about failing.

Failure is a wonderful thing because it gives you feedback on how to improve, but most importantly, it means you tried. You gave the task your best effort, and you were willing to face potential disappointment to achieve that goal.

Any attempt is a success because it means you actually did something. Unlike many other people, you faced down the discomfort of changing yourself and were willing to take a risk. That’s such an amazing achievement, and I’m happy for you.

Being proud of trying encourages you to try again. Accepting this will develop your discipline, as you’ll be more motivated to push through the hard times.

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Don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad writing day.

Going along with the above point, discipline requires you to be gentle and understanding with yourself. Of course, you must stay accountable, but you also cannot be so self-critical that you feel like giving up.

Many stymied writers have motivation and talent, but they don’t have the self-esteem necessary to keep going. In fact, a lot of supposedly “unmotivated” people actually have a fear of failure or rejection. It is easier to get told you’re lazy than to believe you’re bad at something you love.

Teaching yourself that it is okay to not always succeed will help you bounce back from a disappointing writing session. You will understand that this doesn’t mean you’ll never get to where you want to go: it just means you’re not there yet.

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Block out time – literally.

Social media keeps me from writing because I just love fighting with people on Twitter. It can also interfere with my day job because, as a freelancer, I have a set amount of projects to do every week but get to organize my time how I like. Of course, it’s easy to say “oh I’ll do it tomorrow” and then panic because I have to do 6,500 words in a day.

So, to stay accountable both at work and at writing, I use Cold Turkey, a program that blocks me from going on certain sites. You can set up different lists depending on what you need, and you can also decide how to unlock it. I use random text because it’s annoying to do, so I have to really really want to fight with people on Twitter.

With random text, you can also choose how long your string of text should be. For sites I absolutely must stay off of, I choose really long strings, like 300 characters so that it takes me forever to do. You have to put it in perfectly and can’t just copypaste the characters.

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Separate the work into stages.

I discussed this before in my How to Write Faster post, so I won’t belabor the point too much. Essentially, thinking too far ahead demotivates you because you get overwhelmed. Put your writing blinders on and think only of what you’re doing right now.

Maybe you are plotting things out. Or maybe you are actively writing. Or you are percolating. Whatever you are doing, focus entirely on that one task and tell yourself you can worry about everything else later.

Doing everything one at a time also refers to doing one project at a time too, which we’ll discuss in a later post.

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Keep track of your progress.

Poesy, the sixth book in the series, was actually the first part I completed. This was originally intended as a trilogy, but it organically expanded as I explored the world. Oops.

But I had never written a large original fiction project before and wasn’t sure how long I could keep going. As such, I made a spreadsheet where I tracked my progress every single day.

I would input the project’s total wordcount and use the simple formula at the top to figure out how much I had done each day. At the beginning, I was only writing about 1.9k words, but toward the end of the project, I was regularly putting out 3.3k a day.

This helped for a few reasons. I’d get annoyed if I had a blank spot in my spreadsheet, so I was compelled to keep going even if I only had time for 500 words. It was encouraging to see the numbers going up, and I liked having an idea of how much I was doing.

The spreadsheet is also a form of self-competition, which is one of the best ways to stay motivated. Rather than worrying about what other people are doing or comparing yourself to others, you have only one opponent: you. I wanted to push myself to do more than yesterday, so I would keep doing a little bit more, a little bit more, until I finally finished the whole thing.

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Tell yourself you only have to do a little in any given session.

When I am feeling lazy, I tell myself I only have to do 200 words and I can stop. Sometimes I do stop at just 200 words, but oftentimes, I get into it and can keep going for several hundred more.

This way, you don’t feel guilty and have given yourself something to latch onto during your next session. There’s nothing more intimidating than a blank page, so having an idea of what to do next can help you get started tomorrow.

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Do not rely on other people for your discipline.

Lastly, you’ll note that all of my tips are about you. They are not saying “get an accountability buddy, ask someone to make you write, tell everyone about your progress so they’ll tell you to do more.”

Let’s look at a field where accountability buddies demonstrably suck so you understand why this isn’t a good idea.

Smoking is one of the hardest habits to quit because nicotine products are so accessible. Not only is nicotine an incredibly addictive drug, but you’re exposed to it all the time. My town has like five vape shops, and of course you can get cigarettes at any gas station.

So Smokers Anonymous has one of the highest failure rates of all the Anonymous programs. Why? Because one person starts smoking again. They light up right after the meeting and stand around outside; now everyone else is exposed to it. Perhaps they come in reeking of cigarette smoke, triggering the rest of the group into craving nicotine. It’s so easy to pass a light and a cigarette to someone else, so easy to say “oh just one more,” and now they’re hooked all over again.

You see this also in people who make a pact to start exercising regularly. Both of you want to go to the gym together, but then something comes up for your gym buddy, and now you have no one to go with, and you feel weird going without them, so you don’t go at all. Neither of you have developed the discipline to work out regularly, so how are you supposed to lean on them?

Plus, someone else who is already a gym rat might be uncomfortable trying to force you. When you say “nah, I’m not feeling it,” they will shrug and do their own workout.

If one of your accountability buddies fail, you’re more likely to fail too. You must develop discipline on your own, without relying on others to build it for you.

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Just like you’re the only one who can write your story, you’re also the only one who can make you write your story. Be consistent, use some of the tools I mentioned, and remind yourself why you’re doing it at all. With practice and motivation, you can become a disciplined writer too.
The Most Critical Component of Your 2025 Writing Resolutions: Discipline

January 4th, 2025

With the advent of a new year, many writers tell themselves that they’ll finally finish that project gathering dust in their drafts. This is the year where they’ll at last hit the “publish” button on KDP! Everyone will know their name and the books will be flying off the shelves. It’s their time to shine.

However, January comes and goes with no progress; soon enough, our ambitious aspiring author has fallen right back into their bad habits. Worse, they don’t even know why they haven’t succeeded, making it all the more frustrating to stare at an empty page.

Well, I do know why they have failed. And it comes down to the false premise of this Reddit post, which annoyed me so much that it strengthened my discipline all over again.

This sounds very reassuring. “You’re still valid if you don’t finish anything! You’re still a writer! Just peck away at it once every three months and it’s all okay!”

Sure, it is comforting. But it’s also cope. Just because something makes us feel good does not make it true. Likewise, something hurting our feelings does not make it untrue.

We all hate brutal honesty, but there’s a massive difference between someone being a jerk and someone just saying something we don’t like. While I may sound stern, my goal with this blog is never to tear you down or make you feel like a failure.

I want you to succeed. That’s why I tell you these things.

To grow, we often have to face uncomfortable truths rather than soothe ourselves with delusion. This is one of those times. But first, a caveat.

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It’s okay to not have discipline for something. It’s not okay to claim that discipline isn’t important.

There are many things I am undisciplined about. I’m no angel, and I’m not claiming to be better than anyone because I have stayed committed to writing. Let me tell you about one of my most monumental (and expensive) failures so you can be assured that I’m not riding in on a high horse.

I did a “gap year” in an undergraduate biology program after my BA in English, then transferred to a political science MA. And I, too, made a bunch of excuses for why I did that.

“Well, an MA makes me more marketable and is better than getting a second undergrad degree. They offered me a year of free tuition. I’m better suited to the humanities.”

The reality is that I have dyscalculia, and biology requires a lot of math.

To my credit, I had gotten all As that year and was invited to the Golden Key Honors Society, but maintaining those grades required me to stay up late practicing physics questions. I was getting maybe four hours of sleep every night and dragging myself to my labs.

This would have been sustainable if I had a true passion for what I was doing, and an end goal for how to use my degree. But I didn’t want it bad enough and had only vague concepts of a career path. So I quit.

While this was ultimately to my benefit, it does not change the fact that I did not have the discipline and motivation necessary to succeed. I didn’t want to do summer classes, get a private tutor, or give up all my weekends to studying.

There’s no shame in admitting that. If you don’t care enough to make a principled effort, that’s fine. It’s okay to be casually interested in something but not devote much time to it.

You can be a hobby writer who does a story once or twice a year; I’d never look down on that or insist that you take it to the big leagues because I say so. You’re happy, so I’m happy. No shame or judgment.

But there is shame in using your lack of motivation as some universal rallying cry against the Mean Disciplined Writers Who Are Obviously Wrong and Don’t Understand that I’m Just a Disadvantaged Genius. If you want to be more than a hobby writer, you need to act like it.

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Excuses do not get you anywhere.

There are many people out there who insist they would be the best writer ever if they just had this and this and that.

“I could write a novel if I had six months all to myself. I could do it if I didn’t have children. Maybe I could quit my job and write full time and become a bestseller, but I need my paycheck. I have a mental illness, and therefore I cannot be expected to do anything. Being able to write on a regular basis is a form of privilege that I do not have, and you cannot expect me to obtain it.”

While these are good explanations for why you cannot write for 10 hours a day, they are also excuses that shield you from doing the work.

It is easier to say “I could do this if I wanted to” than to admit the truth to yourself or others.

“I don’t want it enough, so I didn’t try. I wasn’t willing to overcome the challenges in my way because ultimately, it is not important enough to me. I like the idea of being a writer, but I don’t like the reality of it.”

The imaginary writer is always better than the real one because they don’t have to prove themselves. Accepting we have flaws can be very hard, but it is also very necessary for our development.

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Discipline is how you improve at any skill whatsoever.

This isn’t exclusive to writing; it is true for anything that takes consistent practice and training.

As I’ve discussed before, I took up rock climbing in August of last year. I had never climbed anything but trees. I’d never played any sport. Other than walking my dogs for 30 minutes a day and horseback riding once a week, I was not exercising regularly. Three decades of mostly sitting around does a number to your bones and muscles, so I was at a disadvantage.

But rock climbing fascinated me. It’s a way to exercise without mindlessly plodding along on a treadmill; you’re solving puzzles with your body. More than that, it’s a great way to make friends and get social stimulation: very important when you work from home. I wanted to succeed.

Knowing that the first three months are the hardest part of developing any habit, I forced myself to go three times a week during that time, even if it was just for an hour. Even when I was grumpy, even when the weather sucked, even when I didn’t want to do anything but knit and watch mindless YouTube documentaries on caving disasters.

On my days off, I watched YouTube videos of rock climbing techniques and immersed myself in rock climbing culture in between writing and working.

By December, I’d gone from not even being able to hang on the wall on a 5.6, the easiest route, to completing 5.10 routes and getting about halfway up 5.10+ routes.

For context, the hardest routes in my gym are 5.13+ and take people years to complete. So I got to an intermediate level in four months, despite having no prior skills and being in bad physical shape.

When I told one of my climbing buddies about my journey, he told me I have “natural talent.” I didn’t contradict him, but that’s not true.

I don’t have natural talent. I have discipline and resilience. It is the same reason I wrote over 2 million words, published two books, and have the entire ten-part series planned out years in advance.

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If you want to make writing your job, you have to have discipline first.

I take umbrage to the idea that “discipline is only a viable method when writing is your job and livelihood.” It ignores that people only got to make writing their job because they were disciplined.

This is especially true if you are self-published. If you want to make it into a career, you must treat it as a business, because it is a business. You have to learn how to manage your expenses, how to register your company, how to do your own accounting, how to do business taxes, how to market. And you have to keep writing.

That all takes discipline, yes, but you had to have discipline to get to that level in the first place. Continually advancing your writing skills requires patience, resilience, and humility. Those who are disciplined get to that level, while undisciplined writers may never finish anything at all.

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Ultimately, everyone prioritizes what they want most.

The OP is true in that we all have other responsibilities, which can make it hard to find the time and energy to write consistently. But, if you do want something bad enough, you will prioritize it in whatever way you possibly can.

Think of the people who go through rounds and rounds of IVF to have a child. They might have gone into extreme debt to achieve their dream; certainly, the injections and testing are no walk in the park.

If you want your book baby in your hands, you’ve gotta bring the same passion to the table.

There are people who write books during wartime. Right now, there are people in war-torn countries, under brutal occupation, who are writing books. Bombs drop and they still do it, even if it could cost them their life.

People have scratched first drafts of their book on bars of soap while in prison. Jean-Dominique Bauby wrote The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking, over and over again, to pick a letter for his transcriptionist to write down.

These writers wanted desperately to realize their creation, so they didn’t allow any material condition to stand in the way. They kept at it, day after day, no matter how hard it was. That is breathtaking, nearly superhuman discipline.

Most of us are not that resilient; I’m certainly not. But all of us can still channel that spirit of discipline, no matter how our lives look.

Next week, we’ll discuss how to develop discipline as a writer with practical tips I’ve learned over 15+ years hammering away at the keys.