#adviceforwriters — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #adviceforwriters, aggregated by home.social.
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Once Upon a Page
(With thanks to writer T.A. Barnes for the title of this post.)
How many pages are in your current manuscript? Every one of them is a momentary story. A story instant. For your reader, that story instant is as important as the grand problem, the giant premise that you established in your opening.
Your reader is only once on the opening page. After that, it is up to each page to tell the story: not the big story—the overall plot, although it may advance that one step—but the little story of right now. This instant. You can bring story effects to bear upon this instant, or you can cruise along on the presumption that, once hooked, your reader will read anything you set down for hundreds of pages.
Do you think that’s likely? Nah, me either.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/05/06/once-upon-a-page/ -
Keeping Conflict on the Page
Writing stories is like having a whole host of people in your head, each with their own mind, will, history, flaws, and needs. On the best of days as a writer, I feel like I am simply channeling my characters and that their truths are what take over the page. They feel strongly; they speak freely and in their own idiom; they do things their way; they have extreme highs and lows.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/24/a-conflict-averse-writers-guide-to-keeping-conflict-on-the-page/#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #bridgingconflict #conflict #inspiration
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Layer Cake: Writing Historical Fiction
Dateline: Budapest. Inspired by a recently discovered fresco in Pompeii depicting a delectable flatbread on a platter with a large goblet of red wine, a Budapest pizzeria crafted a pie using only ingredients that would have been available in ancient Rome. Although it wasn’t until the 1800s that the city of Naples introduced a street food of tomatoes, cheese, and herbs baked on a thin crust of leavened bread, Titus Caesar in his 79 A.D. toga could have eaten focaccia topped with nuts, savory sauce, dried fruit, herbs. More French Laundry than Dominos.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/20/layer-cake-writing-historical-fiction/#CRAFT #Inspirations #adviceforwriters #inspiration #writinglife
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Layer Cake: Writing Historical Fiction
Dateline: Budapest. Inspired by a recently discovered fresco in Pompeii depicting a delectable flatbread on a platter with a large goblet of red wine, a Budapest pizzeria crafted a pie using only ingredients that would have been available in ancient Rome. Although it wasn’t until the 1800s that the city of Naples introduced a street food of tomatoes, cheese, and herbs baked on a thin crust of leavened bread, Titus Caesar in his 79 A.D. toga could have eaten focaccia topped with nuts, savory sauce, dried fruit, herbs. More French Laundry than Dominos.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/20/layer-cake-writing-historical-fiction/#CRAFT #Inspirations #adviceforwriters #inspiration #writinglife
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Layer Cake: Writing Historical Fiction
Dateline: Budapest. Inspired by a recently discovered fresco in Pompeii depicting a delectable flatbread on a platter with a large goblet of red wine, a Budapest pizzeria crafted a pie using only ingredients that would have been available in ancient Rome. Although it wasn’t until the 1800s that the city of Naples introduced a street food of tomatoes, cheese, and herbs baked on a thin crust of leavened bread, Titus Caesar in his 79 A.D. toga could have eaten focaccia topped with nuts, savory sauce, dried fruit, herbs. More French Laundry than Dominos.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/20/layer-cake-writing-historical-fiction/#CRAFT #Inspirations #adviceforwriters #inspiration #writinglife
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Layer Cake: Writing Historical Fiction
Dateline: Budapest. Inspired by a recently discovered fresco in Pompeii depicting a delectable flatbread on a platter with a large goblet of red wine, a Budapest pizzeria crafted a pie using only ingredients that would have been available in ancient Rome. Although it wasn’t until the 1800s that the city of Naples introduced a street food of tomatoes, cheese, and herbs baked on a thin crust of leavened bread, Titus Caesar in his 79 A.D. toga could have eaten focaccia topped with nuts, savory sauce, dried fruit, herbs. More French Laundry than Dominos.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/20/layer-cake-writing-historical-fiction/#CRAFT #Inspirations #adviceforwriters #inspiration #writinglife
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Overlooked Tools
I moved recently. My new place is great. It’s all set up, but that took some doing. Unpacking. Arranging. Assembling some flat-pack furniture. Hanging pictures and art. Naturally, I needed tools.
What surprised me were which tools were the most needed. Like many, I have a toolbox. I’ve collected quite a few over the years. Chisels. Scrapers. Wire strippers. Plumber’s wrench. Vice grips. The workhorse tools in the box would be screwdriver and hammer, you would think, and I did use those but not as much as a couple of others. I came to appreciate those overlooked tools.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/01/overlooked-tools/ -
New Perspectives at 14,000 Feet (and Falling Fast)
The photo above is real.
Yep, that’s me, having just leapt from a perfectly good airplane 14,000 feet over Whitewright, Texas on January 15 th , 2026. My thought at that moment: “Well, I’m out.”
That’s it.
No prayer for a working parachute.
No refrain of ‘I’m going to die.’
No screamed profanity. Or screaming at all.
After 52 years of being stuck in constant narration mode, the only thing my brain had to say about plunging toward the ground at 120mph was a simple acknowledgment that I had left the plane.
Neurodivergence is weird.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/03/23/new-perspectives-at-14000-feet-and-falling-fast/ -
Lessons from hiring the wrong editor – and how to find the right match. Honest advice after the Indie Author Lab
A developmental editor is usually the first professional to see your book. Ideally they’ll help you nurture its strengths, tone up its weaknesses, get you writing your best work. But finding that person can be a minefield. This week I was one of the resident experts at the Alliance of Independent Authors Indie Author… Continue reading Lessons from hiring the wrong editor – and how to find the right match. Honest advice after the Indie Author Lab…
https://nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2026/03/15/lessons-from-hiring-the-wrong-editor-and-how-to-find-the-right-match-honest-advice-after-the-indie-author-lab/#Howtowriteabook #adviceforwriters #adviceonselfpublishing #authorlife #books
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My Brain is Not My Friend Right Now: the Challenges of Working with a Quirky Brain
I was in tears. Again.
I was tired of tears. I was pretty sure my husband was, too.
The problem is, tears are pretty standard for me, as an autistic woman (not for every autistic woman, but definitely for me). Masking; walking in a world that is usually overstimulating in multiple ways, just by virtue of being the world ; trying to communicate “normally” and read between lines I can hardly see sometimes…it all makes for a perpetual feeling of being lost/left out/left behind/left alone to handle what I’m handling.
That’s only a tiny piece of being a writer with a “quirky” brain.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/03/11/my-brain-is-not-my-friend-right-now-the-challenges-of-working-with-a-quirky-brain/#REALWORLD #Writinglife #adviceforwriters #neurodivergentwriter #neurodiversity
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Reading as an Agent
Two very recent WU posts ( HERE and HERE ) got me thinking about how I read. In one mode, I read manuscripts with an agent’s eyes. In another mode, I read novels (published or pre-) as a craft analyst and teacher. In still a different mode, I read as a fiction writer.
Once in a while, I read for enjoyment. It’s difficult to do. The other modes don’t like to shut up. And not all novels are so absorbing that my inner analyst forgets to analyze.
As agent, you might imagine that I am looking for work that matches the market’s needs. As craft analyst and teacher, you might think that I am looking for illustrative examples. As fiction writer, you might expect that that I read in awe, envy, or judgment.
In those presumptions, you would be wrong.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/03/04/reading-as-an-agent/#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #characters #DonaldMaass #inspiration
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Not Simon & Schuster: Deconstructing an Impersonation Scam
For writers chasing a traditional publishing contract, an email from Big 5 publisher Simon & Schuster inviting submission might seem like a dream come true.
J…
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/02/27/not-simon-schuster-deconstructing-an-impersonation-scam/#ArtificialIntelligence #REALWORLD #traditionalpublishing #adviceforwriters #scams
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Let’s Be Clear, Period
Lynne Truss, the respected author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves , once said: “There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken.”
I hope you’re all sober because we’re going to get into this.
Let me start with a meme that has become popular on social media.
We invited two strippers, JFK and Stalin.
Does this sentence refer to four people in total or are JFK and Stalin about to get naked?
It’s difficult to be sure when it’s written like that.
But if you read:
We invited two strippers, JFK, and Stalin.
Here, you could be pretty sure there are four people. Pretty sure. But you could still have some doubts.
If you got rid of the bad writing and read:…
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/02/18/lets-be-clear-period/ -
In the Beginning
It’s February, we’re on day 5,392 of snow/bitter cold/ice/biting wind (let’s not even get into politics), and all I want to do is lose myself in reading a great book. And yet I have picked up and put down three different books without getting sucked into any of them. Is it my current frame of mind, or is it the books?
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/02/11/in-the-beginning-3/#CRAFT #REALWORLD #adviceforwriters #KathleenMcCleary #novelopenings
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The Sentence and the Story: A New Year’s Fable
The Sentence
The sentence sat, unmoving.
The sentence was dissatisfied.
The sentence knew that it had untapped potential, but wasn’t using it.
The sentence longed to be metaphorical but it was feeling stuck, like a bluebottle in a room with walls of flypaper.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/01/07/the-sentence-and-the-story-a-new-years-fable-2/ -
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/ -
How I Learned to Stop Labeling My Process and Start Trusting My Story
#CRAFT #Process #adviceforwriters #creativeprocess #writingprocess
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How the Buddhist Principles for Right Speech Can Help Our Writing
#CRAFT #adviceforwriters #BarbaraLinnProbst #writing #writinglife
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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
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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
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When Good Guys are Bad Guys and Vice Versa: Contradictions
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https://writerunboxed.com/2025/10/08/when-good-guys-are-bad-guys-and-vice-versa-contradictions/ -
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/ -
How to Survive What Comes After the Book Launch
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https://writerunboxed.com/2025/09/29/how-to-survive-what-comes-after-the-book-launch/#REALWORLD #Writinglife #adviceforwriters #postlaunchslump #publishing
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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
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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 -
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 -
Stuck in the mud? Getting unstuck is never pretty—but if you want to get up to speed, you've got to break free.
#createit22 #adviceforwriters #adviceforartists