HeyJaredYou CAN write a book!
Hard truths, solid tips, and zero fluff for fiction writers tired of spinning their wheels.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 16, 2026
- Audience
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 15, 2026
Latest issues
What if My 50% Finish Average Might Be an Act of Resistance? (opens the original)
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I’m shocked to discover that my last post here was August 19th. Yes, my summer has been one of utter chaos but time still marches forward (as my grandfather used to say).So here we are. I’ve been on the road a bit the last few weeks and have had uninterrupted reading time (I’m looking at you, five hour delay in Chicago!). My batting average for finishing a book is under fifty percent, as in I have quit more than half the books I’ve started. Why? Oh, any number of reasons! Poorly written. Predict
It’s Not the Pregnancy. It’s the Predictability (opens the original)
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I’ve read a bunch of novels recently where an unwanted pregnancy is the plot’s load-bearing wall. The last two I abandoned the book completely. I recognize that unwanted pregnancy is a complicated, high-stakes thing that happens to real people, but I’m still irritated that fiction keeps bringing it up in stories where it feels like a plot device, a way … Read more
Stop Asking Me to Prove I’m Not a Robot (opens the original)
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There’s a concept from behavioral economics that had its cultural moment from 2008 to the mid-2010s. It’s called the nudge. The idea is that by making small changes to how a choice is presented, you can steer a person toward a particular behavior without banning anything or touching the underlying incentives. Auto-enroll people in a retirement plan. Put… Read more
The Gift She Gave First (opens the original)
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My mother died last week.I write about publishing and books and writing on this Substack. My mother was a librarian for her entire career, first for elementary kids and then for high schoolers, and everything I think about books, I think about because of her. So this feels like the right place for this post.You CAN write a book! is a reader-supported pu…<input class=
The Em Dash Was Mine First (opens the original)
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I have this conversation with writers at least once a week. We talk about those AI tics. The contrast sentences. The em dashes. The quotation marks around words that don’t need them. And we wonder about those of us who were committed em dashers before the bots showed up. Yeah. I’m mad.The em dash was mine before it was a red flag. And now I have to inte… Read more
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