HeyJaredHappy Writing
Happy writing for serious writers. Craft analysis based on published novels, honest takes on the mindsets to support your ambitious stories. Developmental editor for literary, upmarket, and speculative fiction.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 8
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- Sep 30, 2026
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- Jul 9, 2026
Latest issues
I’m a Developmental Editor. Here’s Why Cars Is A Masterclass in Character-Driven Plot. (opens the original)
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I don’t watch a lot of TV with my toddler, but during our family visit to France, we caught a stomach bug from friends which wiped me and my partner out for two days. My son had just taken a three-hour nap and the evening stretched endlessly before me and my lurching stomach. I begged: “Can we watch some cartoons?”And this is how I ended up watching Cars, which I had never seen past Lightning McQueen’s arrival in Radiator Springs.How shocked I was to realise that, underneath the talking cars and
I stopped writing for 10 years. Then one change got me from 0 words to 8 full drafts. (opens the original)
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Between the moment I discovered I wanted to become a writer and the time I actually started writing stories that were more than 3 pages long at the back of my notebooks, exactly a decade passed.Every time I pressed the point of my ball-pen to the page, the verdict was even more overwhelming for being so obvious: I sucked.Which was actually kind of hard to believe. As a Certified Good Girl©, I was good at applying myself to set tasks and, you know, accomplishing them. In school, teachers praised
Your first pages have one job (are they doing it?) (opens the original)
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The first pages of your novel have one job: convince the reader they have to keep going.Whether you’re querying agents or publishing independently, your opening shapes every first impression. It introduces your protagonist, establishes the story’s promise, and creates the momentum that carries readers into Chapter Two.A lot to ask of a few pages.If you’re wondering whether your opening starts in the right place, builds enough curiosity, or is asking readers to
Before You Worry About Your Story’s Originality (opens the original)
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One of the most paralysing anxieties I had when I started writing my novel was the feeling that I didn’t just have to come up with something exciting and execute it well, it also had to be something nobody had ever thought of before. Ever felt that? It's a lot. This ties into our cultural expectations of artists, usually something to do with geniuses and one-of-a-kind, more-than-humans humans. Underneath the anxiety that our creations must be truly original, sits the fear that we must be truly o
The Wedding People trick that makes a "passive" protagonist interesting (opens the original)
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Repeat after me: the worst thing a protagonist can be is boring.But how does boring happen?One of the most common ways a protagonist becomes boring is when we don’t give them a clear goal (and motivation for this goal). Without something to strive for, our attention starts to wander.There’s an extra challenge, then, in writing protagonists who struggle with depression, grief or any condition that deprives them of the energy necessary to pursue a goal.Add another layer to this challenge: the diff
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