The write stuff
This one's for the writers (and would-be writers) on my list!
In this newsletter…
📚 A rundown of my Write Now Workshop series!
🐎 A short story from my next collection!
🌆 Free urban fantasy set in Texas!
First off, today is Thankfulness Day for my U.S. readers and I just want to say: THANK YOU for sticking with me! Now, I know not all of you reading this are writers as well as readers. That’s okay—if you’re a dedicated reader, you can skip this section. Hop on down to the promos and freebies!
Though I shared a bit about AND, SCENE! before its launch on November 1, I haven’t talked too much about my writing craft books in general.
I think everyone should try writing and see if they like it. And for those of you who also aspire to tell stories, I’ve created the Write Now Workshop series. They’re short, actionable craft books, the kind I used to hoard from Writer’s Digest back in the early 2000s. I wish I could have picked these up at my local bookstore!
Instead, I wrote and published them over the last few years.
Writing craft books—especially while I’m not famous or particularly successful—might seem kind of egotistical. But for me, each one serves a dual purpose:
It becomes something I can send friends or colleagues who ask me to explain my approaches (this happens more often than you might think!); and,
When I teach others, I reinforce the lessons in my own mind. Win for me!
While I’d love to see my fiction get consistent four- and five-star reviews (because I’ve found and targeted my audience), I don’t really care about the reviews on the Write Now Workshop books.
Why? Because they’re not really for general readers. I mean, sure, I do hope that anyone who picks them up enjoys and gets something out of reading them! But truth be told, they’re more like conversations to me—conversations I had with myself, and that I would have otherwise had to painstakingly write out to new friends and potential collaborators. Each of the Write Now Workshop books encapsulates lessons from a specific era of my life as a writer and having them captured as booklets means I’ll never lose those lessons.
PROMPTLY: WRITE FAST, WRITE NOW! represents my prompt era. My imagination has always been expansive and restless, demanding that I place restrictions on it before it will function in a logical and contained fashion. Thus, PROMPTLY, representing the many daily challenges, impractical restrictions, and invocations of chance with random number generators that I imposed on myself in the 2010s.
SHORT STORY BOOT CAMP represents my short story era (duh!). Jill Corddry and I wrote shorts furiously for several years; I was practicing completing fiction end to end every two to four weeks for half a decade, which proved one of the most profound leaps forward in my ability and skill as a writer. BOOT CAMP is how I’m passing on the spirit and the substance of those lessons to anyone who is willing to practice 50+ times.
ROBOTICS FOR WRITERS represents my “ah, shit, I have to be a professional” era, wherein I took a detour down Day Job Lane and focused on the technology that was changing my industry under my feet. Although I ultimately haven’t found that generative AI helps me draft better or faster, it does offer creative brainstorming partnership that I outlined in ROBOTICS for others to benefit from as well.
Finally, AND, SCENE!, freshly released this month, represents my Story Genius era. Lisa Cron’s book unlocked everything for me, compounding the effects of other approaches and processes I’d learned and applied in the previous thirty years of my life, and suddenly it all clicked. I was asked by enough friends and new cohorts alike how I approached drafting that I figured I’d bookify it so I would never forget it. And now I have recognizable vocabulary to apply to my four stages of drafting (the Reporter, the Listener, the Feeler, and the Artisan)!
Here are a couple of quotes from happy readers of AND, SCENE! (emphasis mine)…
“Finding out how to move forward tempts me to write longer pieces.” ~ ArleneAndrews
“What makes the system stand out is its practicality and adaptability, allowing writers to refine their draft without feeling overwhelmed.” ~ Skyrock
Do any of my books as “conversations” resonate for you? Hit reply and tell me about it!
If you’ve been getting my newsletter for any length of time now, you know that I love animal stories. Are you here because you’re the same way? Get your fill of stories featuring animal friends in the FOR THE LOVE OF ANIMALS bundle!
Maybe you don’t have much fiction budget right now, or just want something quick and free. Right here on my Substack, you can read a free short story from my upcoming collection WISHES, a fantastical tale set in the Silver Rush era called “If Wishes Were War Horses.”
Or, jump in to my serial story, THE ADVENTURES OF SEEKER AND THE SERPENTS! Chapter 7 dropped this week… and now I’ll be taking a break until some time in the new year. (More on taking breaks and giving myself grace in my next newsletter…)
The Free-zer
It’s another installment of THE FREE-ZER—the section where you’ll find something that will cost you zero monies. (That’s no dollars, cents, pounds, pesos, Republic credits, Monopoly money, latinum, or dubloons.)
👉 Here’s some badass urban fantasy for you, set in the wild cities of Texas… Midnight Voices is author L.K. Latham’s collection of free short stories in the same universe as her Midnight Whispers series. Sink your teeth into these shorts featuring vampires, werewolves, goblins, and humans living side by side—and keeping the peace—in the Lone Star State. 🐺👺🧛
👉 Looking for a fresh dose of free speculative fiction? Head on over to Bookfunnel’s NOVEMBER: FREE FANTASY & SCIFI bundle—where you’ll find my collection SPELLBREAKERS, along with eye-catching covers for titles like Bayou Bounty Hunter, In Between, or The God Heist…
👉 You can still grab some free books from these bundles—there’s no time to lose!
Grateful for you and your continued support!
August
SO MANY SHORT STORIES!!!!! Those were the best 10 years!!! :)
I love hearing about your approaches! Everyone's way of tackling writing is SO different.