HeyJaredThe Narrative Thread
Practical advice and creative encouragement for writers who want to craft better narratives.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 8
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest issues
Stop Letting Your Brain Sabotage Your Progress. (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Happy Wednesday one and all.Yes, this is meant to be my Monday post, but anyone who has been following me closely will have seen that I took a couple of weeks off- well… everything. My last post was all about dealing with anxiety, and [spoiler alert] I didn’t deal with it that well.In all of my life having anxiety, it has hit me the hardest in the postpartum period. Maybe it’s the hormones, maybe it is the lack of sleep, maybe it is the pressure of having this beautiful little soul look up at yo
Are Reading & Writing Escapism or Avoidance? (opens the original)
Read excerpt
This is not the post I had planned to write this week. I actually had a really good post all planned out on how to make your story more complex and less complicated. But then I read the news. I won’t mention the specific article that triggered me, let’s be honest, there’s enough going on in the world that it could have been any number of things. I’m no stranger to existential dread. As Mrs Bennet would say, it has been my constant companion these last thirty years. It’s not, however, something I
Have You Been Killing the Wrong Darlings? (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Happy Monday all! I took all of August off posting, but it is wonderful to be back and in some sort of routine. I don’t yet have school age children, but even so, summer always seems to slip past me in a haze of lazy days at the park and on the beach, eating neverending ice creams and wrestling with the sunscreen. And while that is lovely, for a time, I really look forward to September. It’s my favorite time of the year, reminiscent of the nostalgic back to school feelings and bouquets of sharpe
Get To Know Me In 20 Writerly Questions... (opens the original)
Read excerpt
I might be showing my age here, but who remembers those fun, but sometimes insidious, nineties chain emails? 💌⛓️ They would start off harmless, then tell you that you would suffer terrible consequences if you did not reply and forward them on.Well, this week, , a fellow countrywoman who runs a lovely stack all about her journey to opening her own bookshop, recently did a post where she said she was bringing back the nineties chain mail with 20 questions to get to know her (bookish themed). As I
Why I’m Imposing a Reading Ban to Make Me a Better Writer (opens the original)
Read excerpt
First, let me say: reading is one of my greatest joys. In fact, it’s why I wanted to become a writer in the first place. And I firmly believe that if you want to write well, you need to read widely, both inside your genre and outside it. You need to read classics, new releases, books you adore and books that don’t quite work for you. Each one of them has something to teach you.So why am I considering a reading ban?Because I’m drafting.See the thing about me is the my writing state is a fragile b
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.