Writing About Writing About Writing

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Perdido can be divisive on plot, people either love it or hate it. But is absolutely 100% there on the mushroomcore aesthetic.

Your Brain Is a Story Machine Note: When I wrote about being a neurodivergent writer last time, many of you told me it was the first time you felt truly seen. That meant so much to me. I realized I had more thoughts about it, s…

No matter how weirdly different our methods, our brains do something AI will never accomplish. Author Kelsey Allagood unravels the awesome weirdness, today at WU.

Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement: An Update for Authors - Writer Beware The searchable list of eligible works is available at the settlement website (also see the update below): https://secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup BACKGROUND A year ago, a group of autho...

The list of works eligible for the Anthropic copyright infringement settlement has been posted on the settlement website. I've updated my blog post on the settlement with inks, general info, and what happens next writerbeware.blog/2025/09/26/b...

For mushroom core are you thinking like What Moves the Dead and Perdido Street Station?

Am I the best writer? No.

Maybe that will help. Sometimes the best way to learn is to notice the mistakes of others.

Each step in the process will be broken down, explained, and posted unpolished. An I'll talk about what I learned and what I'd do differently. Because it's hard to find rough and final manuscripts for comparison.

Spiral Story: Ideation Inspired by Meander, Spiral, Explode I'm writing a short story with a spiral plot structure, from idea to final draft.

I'm excited to start sharing a series I've had in the wings for a while now. Proof of Work takes a single book and works through the prompts. I'm starting with a series of short stories inspired by Meander, Spiral, Explode.

💙📚 #writingcommunity #shortstory #writingq #author #writingabtwriting

Never Say You Can’t Survive - Charlie Jane Anders If you need a rallying cry or a shoulder to cry on to help you create right now, Never Say You Can’t Survive might be the book you need to read right now.

This week's #writingabtwriting review is Charlie Jane Ander's 'Never Say You Can't Survive.' Part writing manual, part survival handbook for our dumpster fire times, this one is for anyone who is struggling to create right now.

🪐📚💙 #writingcommunity #bookreview #writingq #author

Cartoon of a hand writing on a piece of paper with a bulleted list. The list is illegible but the title says "My Spring Projects" with the word Spring crossed out, replaced by Summer, which is also crossed out and replaced by Fall.

I'm ready to start on my fall projects 🍂

The National Hurricane Center wants us all to know that Gabrielle is "still struggling" over the central Atlantic and...I don't usually identify with hurricanes, and I'm in Florida, close to the Atlantic but not over it, but otherwise - I hear you, disorganized storm. I hear you. I get it.

Your occasional reminder that Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip K. Dick were in the same year in the same high school, liked each other’s writing, but never met in person.

Firing Chekov's Gun - A Gentleman in Moscow A Gentleman in Moscow contains a set of literal Chekov’s guns, but many of the other objects, people, and places in the story set up the ending. So let's talk about how this type if story is built.

Today's #WritingAbtWriting post went off early. Appropriate for an article about setting up a Chekov's Gun?

💙📚🖋️ #writingcommunity #bookreview

Amber-colored fritillary butterfly on purple-flowered ironweed

Native bumblebees sipping nectar from blue caryopteris blossoms

My garden this morning. The world’s on fire but there are still butterflies and bees

Protecting Your Intellectual Property: What You Need to Know About Copyright - SFWA - The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association by Victoria Strauss of WRITER BEWARE®. Learn why official copyright registration matters, how to protect your work, and what authors need to know to avoid scams and qualify for remedies in the US lega...

Copyright is a front-and-center issue in the ongoing class action against Anthropic. Thankfully, @victoriastrauss.com of SFWA's Writer Beware® was kind enough to outline the basics, myths, & issues for us this week.

Writers: Share widely! Some of our best creator-defense lies in everyday education.

Ooh! I'm adding it to my list.

Oh yes, I am certainly that person at times.

We chose to prioritize ease of entry for the main group early on to be encouraging to new folks. The goal is more writers in the world and we found (with an earlier group) that too much emphasis on meeting requirements scared off the timid and the new.

But we are a looser group overall and we have a smaller long form group with stricter requirements. They meet once per month and submit things that are being prepped for publication. But if we only did this group we'd rarely see new people and I'd personally have been out long ago due to my work.

We do allow spectators for two reasons. 1) we are working on longer form works and would prefer folks build a habit of coming even if they haven't finished anything and 2) it lowers the barrier of entry on what is already a pretty scary idea for most writers, especially new ones.

Amazing readings last night at Fantastic Fiction, which is also my favorite podcast.

💙📚🪐 #booksky #shortstory

www.kgbfantasticfiction.org/category/aud...

This is wonderful, thank you! It sounds like a wonderful group. I love the idea of random pieces for a comment period. And the group no comments read at the beginning is a nice way to do poetry.

No Such Thing as a New Idea This isn’t the essay I thought I’d be writing for WriterUnboxed. As I was pondering what I should write a few weeks ago, I had one of those brilliant late-night ideas. You know t…

Twain insisted there were no new ideas, that we only give old ones a new and curious twist. Which has author Kasey LeBlanc wondering why we’re so hard on ourselves about striving for newness, today at WU.

If you're not a writer, consider this a template for starting any kind of group. Book club. Knitting meetup. Fountain pen ink exchange. Plein air painting group. Nose flute enthusiast collective. Whatever.

Your life will be immeasurably enriched by doing something you enjoy with other people.

How to start (and keep) a writers group If you are looking to start your own writers group, for whatever reason, these are my notes on what I would do if I had to start a new group today.

My writers group is coming up on our 10th anniversary and I've had several people tell me recently that they'd love to start a group but don't know how. So today's #writingabtwriting post is explicit instructions on what I'd do if I was starting a new writers group today.

#writingcommunity 💙📚

Gentle Writing Books for When Life Gets Rough Four books with a gentle approach and encouraging tone along with specifics about starting or maintaining a writing practice during difficult times.

Thinking about this list of gentle writing books again today. Wish it wasn't so necessary.

Are there any books you would add to the list?

#writingq #booksky 💙📚 #writingabtwriting

Tool: Always have something to write with One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten was if you want to get good at something, keep your tools with you all the time.

How do you find more time to write?

One way is to be ready to write when you have smaller moments of time. 20 minutes in the Drs office. 10 minutes while waiting for a friend. Carrying your tools with you is today's #writingabtwriting tool.

#writingq #writing #booksky 💙📚

It astonishes me how many people think it's ok just because it's the way they learned to do critique in college.

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Reading Report: August 2025 Hello subscribers! This is something of an experiment. I wanted to try a subscribers only post and I figured I'd add a link roundup of interesting articles on writing (and some not). I'm also includin...

New for subscribers at #writingabtwriting, there is now a monthly Reading Report of writing news, articles to spark your interest, and whatever books I've been reading for the month.

📚💙 #writinglife #writingq #booksky