Lmst

Joy to the World—and Sorrow

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/12/10/joy-to-the-world-and-sorrow/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #KathleenMcCleary

Keeping Score

[Note to Keith Cronin: I am dictating this post while commuting in my car, simultaneously listening to The New York Times being read aloud. I’ll finish this post by the time I arrive at my office.]
Did you watch any football on Thanksgiving? If so, did you turn off the sound on your TV?
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/12/03/keeping-score/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass #writing

How I Learned to Stop Labeling My Process and Start Trusting My Story

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/11/11/how-i-learned-to-stop-labeling-my-process-and-start-trusting-my-story/

#CRAFT #Process #adviceforwriters #creativeprocess #writingprocess

The Staircase & The Story

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/11/05/the-staircase-the-story/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass

How the Buddhist Principles for Right Speech Can Help Our Writing

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/15/how-the-buddhist-principles-for-right-speech-can-help-our-writing/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #BarbaraLinnProbst #writing #writinglife

The Glee of a Life Under Deadline

To be a novelist is to live in a world of external and self-imposed deadlines, whether you’re under the gun with a seven-figure contract like Taylor Jenkins Reid or stabbing out your first attempt on a commute to the city.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/14/the-glee-of-a-life-under-deadline/

#REALWORLD #adviceforwriters #boowalker #deadlines #writinglife

Creativity in Brevity

It’s very difficult to tell a story in just a few hundred words, to fit in all the elements that go into a good, rounded tale, to develop a plot with a setting, character development and a theme, for example.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/13/creativity-in-brevity/

#Fictiontherapy #adviceforwriters #characters #CRAFT #creativity

When Good Guys are Bad Guys and Vice Versa: Contradictions

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/08/when-good-guys-are-bad-guys-and-vice-versa-contradictions/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #characters #KathleenMcCleary

The Uses, and Abuses, of Ambition

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/03/the-uses-and-abuses-of-ambition/

#Business #REALWORLD #UnConference #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass

Can Set Up and Backstory Actually Work in Chapter One?

Short answer: no.
At least, those oh-so-necessary-feeling dumps of information do not work in 99.9% of manuscripts. But anything is possible if done right. Let’s start with some definitions.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/01/can-set-up-and-backstory-actually-work-in-chapter-one/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass #writing

How to Survive What Comes After the Book Launch

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/09/29/how-to-survive-what-comes-after-the-book-launch/

#REALWORLD #Writinglife #adviceforwriters #postlaunchslump #publishing

What is Truth in Fiction?

It’s an absurd question. Fiction is made up, an invented and exaggerated show of human experience. Any “Truth” it presents isn’t grounded in science or ethics, but might be better deemed any individual writer’s idea of what has veracity.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/09/03/what-is-truth-in-fiction/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass #inspiration #writing
@indieauthors

All That Glitters Is Mostly Gold Foil

…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/08/26/all-that-glitters-is-mostly-gold-foil/

#Inspirations #adviceforwriters #ElizabethHuergo #readingsforwriters #REALWORLD
@indieauthors

The Summoned Writer

When I returned from several weeks in India, people asked if I’d gone there to gather material for a new book.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/08/20/the-summoned-writer/

#Inspirations #REALWORLD #Writinglife #adviceforwriters #BarbaraLinnProbst
@indieauthors

What I Wish I'd Known Before Publishing My First Book
#WritingCommunity #WriterCommunity #Writer #Writers #WritingAdvice #AdviceForWriters #Publishing

http://georgelthomas.com/2025/08/19/what-i-wish-id-known-before-publishing-my-first-book/

If, Just, Maybe

There’s a word in this essay you’ll start to see more boldly every time… and it’s unavoidable. And I could apologize for it in advance, but I won’t. You need to see it. You need to feel it.
“If” you are a writer, you’ll fully understand.
There’s a big problem with “if.”…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/08/12/if-just-maybe/

#REALWORLD #Writinglife #adviceforwriters #inspiration #JillianForsberg
@indieauthors

Interplay in Openings

As if you haven’t heard enough about openings…yeah well, here’s something more to think about…
Openings are critical. They have to accomplish a lot. That’s the common wisdom and there’s much advice available, including from me. However, there’s one piece of advice you probably haven’t heard before: do less.
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/08/06/interplay-in-openings/

#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #DonaldMaass #novelopenings #writing
@indieauthors

How to Take Criticism

Writing fiction is an intensely personal process. The characters are literally in the writer’s head; nowhere else. Writers are often too close to the work to see the flaws; and they have read the passages of their story draft too many times to judge them clearly. It’s not like any writer tries to write something off-tone, not…
https://writerunboxed.com/2025/07/31/how-to-take-criticism/

#CRAFT #Process #Writinglife #adviceforwriters #critique
@indieauthors