Learn how to serialize fiction, engage new readers, promote your books, and build your subscriber base — By now, you probably already know that Substack is an amazing platform for writers. Whether you want to serialize a novel or memoir, create (or migrate) an author newsletter, promote a forthcoming book, sell your backlist, or simply provide a glimpse into the things you love, Substack can help you…

Learn the craft of novel writing and get feedback on your opening chapters. — Do you want to write a novel but you don’t know how to begin? If so, read on. (If you are an experienced novelist, you might enjoy When to Let Your Novel Go: How to Stop Revising and Start Submitting.) If you’ve been following this Medium publication for a while…

writing a novel 500 words at a time — A novel is made up of small moving parts. When the novel is published, the parts may appear to be in just the right place, to have always been where they are. This is rarely the case. …

I asked BardAI for an answer. — Before the Writers Guild of American went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on May 2, it made a list of proposals. Among them was a statement about artificial intelligence. Regulate use of artificial intelligence on MBA-covered projects. AI can’t write or rewrite literary material…

Cultivating stillness in your writing life — I’ve been writing for my entire adult life. I started with short stories back in college and grad school and began writing novels after my first book, a collection of linked stories, was published in 2001. Sometimes I go a couple of years between books. Once, I went six years…

Quick Tip: Start with Your Bookshelf — If you want to publish traditionally, you’ll need a literary agent. Although you can still find those gigantic hard-to-navigate Marketplace books in the reference section of Barnes and Noble, you really don’t need them. The best place to find a literary agent is on your bookshelf. If you’re serious about…

If you want to write, one hour makes all the difference. — The Quiet Hour: Inspiration from The Vinyl Room One thing I love about teaching is the inspiration I get when my students start writing, creating, and making something beautiful. Such is the case with The Vinyl Room by Andres Celati. I first had the pleasure of reading Andres’s work when he was a student in my Writing for…

a simple story structure that works every time — I’d like to tell you about a simple, five part story structure that works for short stories in any genre. I learned this more than twenty years ago while teaching for Gotham Writers’ Workshop in New York City — back when you saw those yellow Gotham boxes on every street…

How I tried to train the language model Remember those days when you might secretly Google yourself to find out what the internet had to say about you? That is so 2017. These days, it feels somehow more genteel to have a conversation about yourself with the internet. I wondered…