As a young writer, I worried so much about my ideas. I worried that I’d never come up with any that were special enough to build a novel around; I worried that if I did come up with one, someone else would “take” it. Several decades in, I now have a more balanced view, which is this: the main concept of a book, its idea, may be important, but it...

You know what it’s like: you carve out time to write, sit down at your desk with your favorite notebook or software and…your mind draws a blank. Or perhaps you’re a swirling vortex of story ideas, plot problems, anxiety about whether your writing will be ‘good enough’. So you put off writing until you’ve completed all those suddenly-important tasks...

There are some seismic shifts in this month’s roundup. A potentially disturbing development—Meta discussed buying Simon & Schuster to train AI. Yep, you read that right. Meta would then own books published by S&S. AI is nosing in on screenwriters as well, and they’re fighting back. TikTok is considering AI generated ad avatars. Amazon uses...

  Ever taken a punch to the face? I have.* Sometimes getting feedback on a manuscript feels very similar. I’m shocked, my head is spinning, I’m a bit bruised, and I want a nap. And maybe some dark chocolate, or a hug. Taking criticism is hard, even when you ask for it. I think the best writers ask for it. (Thanks to Ray Rhamey, we’ve all read...

My relationship with crows is best described as complicated-but-definitely-trending-positive. Last Thursday evening however, I was startled by a sudden, fervent, 5-alarm cacawphony. No matter, I told myself. They mean me no harm. They are not coming for me. They are simply playing games, noisy games like Taunt the Neighborhood Bald Eagle. Or, Taunt...

Writing fiction requires imagination. So does reading fiction. But what kinds? Are both writing and reading imagination the same? Let’s take a closer look. Daydreaming is passive imagination, thought clouds drifting by. Solving math problems uses cognitive imagination. Designing a table to be constructed in your garage woodshop, or mentally planning...