HeyJaredLife of a Writer
My monthly take on what I'm writing, reading, watching, and what new things I've tried. May include some writing tips for fun.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 3
- Latest publication
- Sep 22, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest issues
The Creative Writing Workshop (opens the original)
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I’m taking the side of a sometimes unpopular opinion. I listen to enough podcasts to know that there are writers who never set foot in an MFA program let alone a critique workshop. They may avoid going to workshop-based writing conferences and don’t have writer friends who know the craft well enough to form their own group. So they go it alone. And then find a few friends or family members as beta readers.Or maybe they put a call out on a Facebook writing group looking for strangers willing to s
I Went From Memoirist/Essayist to Historical Fiction and Sci-Fi Thriller Writer (opens the original)
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Are you a “pantser” or a “planner”? Ever get asked this question? I have. Many times: writing conferences, classes I teach, with writer friends. Sometimes it’s by people who don’t write but know I do (maybe they don’t use that terminology, but I know what they mean).The more I think about it, the more I wonder does it matter? And more importantly: how can I keep changing my approach to writing?When I first came into the literary world—guns ablazin’!—straight out of my 14 year clinical ps
The Publishing Route That Gets a Bad Rap (opens the original)
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When I first looked into publishing my memoir, Mosaic, I was dead-set on finding a traditional press. I started querying agents because I had heard that was the only way to get a traditional book deal. Turns out, I was wrong. Also turns out, the market doesn’t support many awesome memoirs because they won’t make the publisher and agent much money. (Spoiler alert—they weren’t wrong. I lost money on my memoir if you factor in the travel expenses to promotional book events versus what I actually so
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