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Do I need an MFA to be a writer?
February 06, 2023
Is it necessary in order to become a published author? No. But I don’t think anyone who embarks on it will regret their decision.
- On the craft
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Building a Novel: Scenes, Chapters, and Pacing
January 26, 2023
If the scene is the fundamental unit of fiction, chapters are more of an organizational tool that relate to both structure and pacing.
- On the craft
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Who Killed the Omniscient Narrator? A Brief History of POV
January 16, 2023
In deep third, the narrative voice belongs to the focal character. Every scene filters through their sensory awareness and cognition. Anything described is necessarily what they see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
- On the craft
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Building a Fictional World: A Novelist's Guide
December 10, 2022
Repeat this to yourself: the world is merely the backdrop. It is not the story. It will want to be the story. It will try. But you can’t let it.
- On the craft
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Is Save the Cat! for lazy novelists?
December 09, 2022
You’ll never be able to create an engaging plot with deeply nuanced and compelling characters simply by using a formula.
- On the craft
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Reading Deliberately
December 08, 2022
Whenever I’m editing someone else’s work, I always read it more than once and am astonished by what I missed the first time around.
- On the craft
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Why Today? The Importance of an Inciting Incident
December 07, 2022
Once you decide on an inciting incident, you set in motion a chain of plot events that will culminate in the novel’s climax.
- On the craft
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Find Your Why
December 06, 2022
While it might seem a little navel-gaze-y to ask yourself why you write, there will come a time when your entire career might depend on the answer to that question.
- On the craft
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The problem with plot points
December 05, 2022
Outlining a novel with plot points can, at first glance, seem like a paint-by-numbers, formulaic approach to writing.
- On the craft
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Workaday Writer: The Importance of Routine
December 02, 2022
That’s what a routine helps you do: it is a ritualized action that gets baked into your day so that you don’t have to spend any time thinking about whether you feel like doing it or would rather go have coffee with friends.
- On the craft
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Story Skeleton—The Great Gatsby
November 18, 2022
Keep in mind that story structure is more about convincing readers to keep turning pages than it is about how to write a story. Within the dimensions of narrative structure, there are still limitless possibilities.
- On the craft
- Story Skeleton
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Everything I Know About Writing I Learned from the Rolling Stones
November 15, 2022

Mick Jagger probably never realized this, but he and his bandmates knew a lot about how to write a good novel.
- On the craft
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