Tim’s_Write_Here

Tim Norton (@timnorton) Morel Bay, Chapter IV - A Queer Cat A new chapter on my birthday week about Adopting A Cat while in Grief! Follow along for more Morel Bay and odd, quiet fiction (well, till the whales start washing ...

Morel Bay, Chapter IV - A Queer Cat

A new chapter on my birthday week about Adopting A Cat while in Grief! Follow along for more Morel Bay and odd, quiet fiction (well, till the whales start washing up).

open.substack.com/pub/timnorto...

substack.com/@timnorton/n...

Eastern Coast would be amazing!

In a music mood today and this seems like a fun excuse to avoid editing!
Top 10 Bands/Artists no order

- Jeff Rosenstock
- Bear vs Shark
- David Bazan
- Laura Stevenson
- Circle Takes the Square
- MF DOOM
- Tyler, the Creator
- Young Statues
- Kurt Travis
- At the Drive-In
- Chris Farren

a new jeff rosenstock album would fix me

Met with a cinematographer friend randomly today and he got me inspired… guess I’m writing a horror script?

Crossroads of Truth and Beauty: Flannery O’Connor and Leena Krohn Cronica II Summer ‘25, 06/15

Cronica II is out now! This week I look at where authors find their own personal crossroads of greatness focusing on Flannery O’Connor with a bit from Wise Blood, and Leena Krohn with a bit from Tainaron.

timnorton.substack.com/p/crossroads...

A Problem Within My Process, or Why Cronicas, Why Now? Cronica I Summer ‘25, 06/08

If you haven’t read Cronica I feel free to check it out! Read, share, subscribe, and come back every Sunday for a new Cronica. ‪ open.substack.com/pub/timnorto... ‬

Cronica II is all drafted out! Imagining An Impossibility; Krohn, Moshfegh, and O’Connor dropping tomorrow!

A Problem Within My Process, or Why Cronicas, Why Now? Cronica I Summer ‘25, 06/08

Started doing a weekly Cronica! Read along with me below 😁

open.substack.com/pub/timnorto...

We’ll be covering modern Flash CNF, Memoir, Literary Column Writing, Essays, and more! Here’s a list of some of the writers we’ll learn from:
Joan Didion
Hannah Arendt
Yuri Herrera
Mary Kidd
Truman Capote
Mark Twain
Clarice Lispector
Jorge Luis Borges

I’m teaching a new ONLINE class! We’re exploring Creative Nonfiction at @musewriterscenter.bsky.social
🗓 Begins June 25 | 🕒 7-9:30 pm |⏳ 6 Sessions| 🧭 Hybrid
🔗 Register here: the-muse.org/event/muse-w...
🎟 Use code HEAT25 (35% off) at checkout.

No one gets me like Lispector does:

Not me getting choked up at the idea of Bellamy living a regular life 🥲

Bear 600 chapters in and I can clearly claim that Oda has successfully adapted the Eastern Epic format to Manga.

Bon Clay was one of my favorite parts of the Alabasta Arcs, so happy to see him return in Impel Down with such fierce force

*Sweats in Journey to the West*

Oda out here making me shed full tears over a boat this morning:

Oda’s strength in these knock out dialogue panels is the use of what one of my teachers and I called “Narrative Body Blows” - small narrative steps that create base damage, leading to a more powerful KO. It’s also another potential strength to serial writing that Oda Executes masterfully.

Such a lovely thing about spring in costal virginia!

Dear god this has no right being this good of a panel. Oda taking the time to reaffirm the message in a two-page spread, focusing on prose with an excellent deployment of negative space, is a masterstroke.

#OnePiece #OnePiece225

Oda truly is a Master of Serialized Narrative. It’s only due to his complete commitment to the serialized format, and his own belief in the longevity of his narrative, that moments like this become possible.

Writing is fun, dreaming to Jazz is fun too! Be a writer out in the world; this revelation brought to you by John Toomey and Chloe Youtsey at Cafe Stella preforming awesome live Jazz at Cafe Stella.

My revelation for the character came down to this: What does it mean to be so close to the truth, yet still not within grasping distance?

That’s his core driving lack, ie fulfillment in the Lacanian sense, and it’s also been - apparently this whole time - the third major narrative interest.

Like on a narrative level this is the third rail in a three rail novella I’ve been working on for over a decade, and it clicks major parts of the narrative into place so that’s nice.

But on a character level that extra level of depth and empathy with your character is what makes stories shine.

a black and white photo of a woman laughing with her mouth wide open . ALT: a black and white photo of a woman laughing with her mouth wide open .

That feeling when you CRACK a characters core and all their actions fall into place and it’s heartbreaking yet affirming all at the same time -

Oda’s Q&A sections Re by far my favorite part of the One Piece read through so far! Like how wholesome is this exchange?

Lol here’s a Saturday Chain Literary Essay for y’all! Back to Novella writing for the morning!

I truly just let my characters be themselves and want what they want without judgement. One’s want gets in the way of another’s, and each must find a way forward in spite of each other. This creates the plot I follow, and my stage dressing can focus, escalate, or distract each character as needed.

Ultimately I think this style comes down to a base respect for character over plot, or character as plot, or perhaps character as Capital-N Narrative (personal preference). Focusing on this let me let my characters go, and lead me forward in story crafting.