Jessica

There are a TON of skills you need to get better at to write a good book.

Structure, story-telling, dialogue, description, scene, suspense, explanation, character-building, word choice, energy flow.

If you try to get better at everything at once, you’ll get overwhelmed and not make much progress.

Instead, pick one or two things and focus all of you... See more

It is a commonly shared sentiment that running is like life. In What I Talk About When I Talk About Running , Haruki Murakami writes:

“If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual l

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But in my opinion, the best way to get more comfortable asking “dumb questions” is to ask them more, because then you’ll see the benefit and become addicted. I learned this skill at school because I noticed the deep sighs of relief from classmates when I sacrificed myself by asking my teachers or professors the dumb question we were all thinking. A... See more

A character should never get exactly what they want or what they're trying to get in a scene.

Instead, they either SHOULD get what they want BUT it has some unexpected consequence.

Or they should NOT get what they want AND it should have some additional unexpected consequence.

Just as someone with iron deficiency anemia craves ice (“pica”), I crave texture .

I yearn to feel the coarseness of sketch paper and the silky fibers of a floor rug more than ever before. I’m sitting at my laptop typing this essay, and what do I feel? I feel the base of my palm resting against the slight cold of my MacBook’s sturdy silver gray bas... See more

My biggest realization, particularly after my second baby, is that there is just a hard limit on energy that I have per day to do and make and care and build and grow . This is special energy, I’ll call it life force : the energy that powers creativity and relationships, dance parties and belly laughs, new writing and exercise. If I generally get e... See more

Braiding is One of the Highest Leverage Writing Skills

If you’re totally lost on what to focus on getting better at, focus on braiding.

Narrative-style writing (fiction and nonfiction) has four major components:

1. Action: Things happening


2. Dialogue: What people are saying


3. Description: The environment around the people and events


4. Interiority: The characte

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Remember, the creative act is all about long term progression. The only way to improve is through the consistent completion, and release of work. So learn what you can from your current project, click publish, and then start again.

Normal behavior is forgotten. Only weird behavior survives.

Nobody tells stories of when you did the expected — they only tell stories when you did the unexpected.

Normal behavior costs nothing in the short term — but it disappears into the abyss.

Unconventional behavior costs a social price in the short term — but the actions live on as story assets ... See more