The Blog
Essays, notes, and behind-the-scenes thoughts.
# The First Draft Is a Conversation A first draft is not a performance. It is a private conversation between you and the page — messy, repetitive, occasionally brilliant, and never required to make sense. ## Give Yourself Permission The...
# How I Research a Novel Without Drowning Research is seductive. It is warm and factual and never argues back. Left unchecked, it consumes whole writing seasons. ## Three Rules That Keep Me Afloat **Rule one:** research only what the...
# On Revision: Killing My Favorite Sentences Revision is the cruel kindness. It asks you to love your book more than you love your lines. ## The Beautiful Sentence Problem A sentence can be gorgeous and still wrong for the...
# The Courage to Write What Scares You The stories that matter are usually the ones we are afraid to tell. Fear is not a sign that you should stop. It is a sign that you are close to something...
# Reading Like a Writer Readers fall into stories. Writers fall into sentences. ## The Second Reading The first time, read for pleasure — the way the author intended. Then read again, slowly, with a pencil. Ask questions a locksmith...
# What My Lighthouse Keeper Taught Me Sometimes a character walks in fully formed and rearranges the furniture of your life. ## A Keeper of Light My lighthouse keeper never wanted to be found. She tended her lamp, wrote letters...