For a long time, I resisted reading Murderbot, despite all the accolades (for reasons I’ll get into in a sec). I just finished watching it on Apple+, it’s brilliant, hopepunk AF, you should definitely watch/read it. I’ve read Science Fiction since I was a kid in the 70s, and I’ve been a huge fan of “sentient robot” stories all along…. Read More
Friends, Backup Your Backups
Friends, back up your stuff! This is my semi-regular PSA to make sure you’re backing up all that data you would be miserable if you lost. After several hard drive failures in succession in the early 2010s, I put together a triple redundant backup system that I use to this day to make sure I don’t lose irreplaceable things —… Read More
Climate-Conscious Gift Giving
In case you didn’t know, I have a podcast/substack! Bright Green Futures is all about lifting up stories about a more sustainable and just world and talking about the struggle to get there. So it’s mostly about stories and climate stuff, both of which inspired me to put together a Climate-Conscious Gift Guide for the Holidays. Subscribe to the substack… Read More
Make Something BETTER
I’ve been processing a lot since the election. My latest take is that radical disruption often opens up the possibility for change that you normally really would not make. Things you’ve been putting off. Ways of limping along that worked okay. But disruption shoves you out of the comfort zone and makes you do stuff—and sometimes that stuff is really… Read More
Hopepunk Musings
Hopepunk as a genre is still struggling to be born. It’s popping up in books like Becky Chambers’ Psalm for the Wild-Built, TV series like the third season of Star Trek: Discovery, and movies like Free Guy. In retrospect, I’ve been writing hopepunk for many years, but it was only in 2017 that I started writing it in an intentional… Read More
Writing Hopepunk When Everything is Uncertain
Do I start now or wait until the apocalypse is over? You know what makes me laugh? And by “laugh” I mean “chuckle knowingly but shake my head.” The idea that being hopeful is naive, childish, starry-eyed, PollyAnn-ish, or whatever disparaging term you use to tear down someone who dares to do something you’re too afraid to do. This makes… Read More
4 Kinds of Hope
We have a very tangled relationship with hope. It’s like hot ex-lover we can’t quit. We deny we have it or even want it—we’re too cool for that! But we desperately, ardently do, and when there’s even a flicker of it, we leap up, hearts aflame, ready to tumble into love again because it just feels so good. Then we… Read More
On Vulnerability
Oh, how vulnerability terrifies us. And writing something called “hopepunk” opens you up wide to all the criticisms society lobs to keep us from hoping for better, daring to change, and worst of all, organizing collectively to make a difference in the world. “That will never change.”“It’s hopeless.”“You’re silly/foolish/naive to think anything like that could work.”“Work together? Have you met… Read More
Writing in the Time of Insanity
It’s a testament to the hard reality of the last couple years that you could write a blog post titled, Writing in the Time of Insanity, and literally not know WHICH YEAR you were referring to. 2020, when SARS-COVID-19 shook the world to a standstill? 2021, when we had an armed insurrection at the Capitol? And a vaccine for the… Read More
Reality: We’re All Connected
The more I learn about this Anthropocene we’re living through and how we’re changing our world—how our soils are depleting, how our oceans are overfished and filling with plastic, how the “forever chemicals” are truly forever, in both the body of our planet, and our own bodies—the more I see in granular detail the reality that we’re intimately connected to… Read More
The Heroine’s Journey
Not Just the Hero’s Journey But With a Girl Since I first discovered Gail Carriger’s Heroine’s Journey in 2020, I’ve written exclusively Heroine’s-Journey-structured stories… I can’t promise I’ll never write another Hero’s-Journey-structured novel, but given that I’ve pretty thoroughly found a genre-home in hopepunk (and climate fiction), and my penname writes romance (which is all Heroine’s Journey), I don’t really… Read More
The Hero is All of Us
Hopepunk: collectivism in storytelling We live in a hyper-individualist world, especially in America. This extreme focus on individualism has many costs—an epidemic of loneliness, the fracturing of the social fabric, the breakdown of communities—and yet we’re still convinced that “rugged individualism” is the pinnacle of American virtue (rather than, say, working together, organizing for a larger cause, compassion for the… Read More
Hopepunk vs. Dystopia
It all comes down to the purpose of violence. There are so many aspects to our world that we simply take for granted, until the world is turned upside down and nothing makes sense anymore. A worldwide pandemic sweeps through, halting everything for a few breathless moments, and suddenly people rethink their lives and decide to go back to school,… Read More
On Writing Hopepunk
Writing has always centered me.Writing hopepunk* is saving me in a whole different way.*”A Brief History of Hopepunk is the first in this ongoing series of blog posts about hopepunk as I write it. Disruptive compassion. I don’t know about you, but these two words ignite something inside me. It sets alight the rebellion I have against the cruelty of… Read More
A Brief History of Hopepunk
2017: A term is coined WHAT IT’S NOTNaive. “Nice.” Sunshine and rainbows and utopia (at least not the kind you’re thinking). Hopepunk may be the opposite of grimdark, but that doesn’t mean it’s not grimy. WHAT IT ISWeaponized optimism.An understanding that the fight never ends.Radical compassion, cooperation (as opposed to violence) as an organizing principle, and a conscious choice to believe… Read More
Ebooks Are Eternal?
Copyright lasts 70 years past the author’s death. This idea intrigues and bedevils me. For most people, your work provides for the needs of the world today–and often the foundation upon which future work will be built. This is true of janitors and CEOs, nurses and engineers. You are part of Project Humanity. For a famous few, your work rises… Read More
Embracing the Magic of You
After last night’s Writers Club meeting: A Friend: It’s like you know a secret language we don’t. Me: I do?? I’m still not sure I entirely understand what he meant–something about having the key to getting writing done, moving forward, etc. I had told my writing group that I’d only be there if I hit my writing goal target for… Read More
MEDITATION – 1-2-3 Guide to Getting Started
MEDITATION I keep talking about it because I truly believe it’s the antidote to the unique stressors of the 21st century–the “always on” lifestyle, the pressure to always do more, the idea that constant striving is the only way to live rather than a way not to live at all. But people hesitate. Maybe they think it won’t “work” for… Read More
Doing The Marketing Today
When I first started writing almost 10 years ago, I was quickly consumed by the need to write All. The. Time. It was an addiction, this putting words to page, creating characters and worlds and living in my own fully-interactive fantasy. I mean, really? How is this even legit work? Of course, my idea of what’s work and what’s play… Read More
Going into the Cave
I’ve been a Monk for some time now… not the religious kind, of course, and not truly isolated from society, steeped in contemplation–but kinda. And I’ve been easing a bit further into the cave over the last six months. I’m not done with that, apparently, because I’m going to take a bit of a social media break–or at least spend… Read More
Unlocking Your Greatest Gifts (As A Writer and a Human)
Sipping tea and listening to the podcast I did with Paul Sating (a lovely human being)… I talk about meditation and writing, how we have to get out of our own way, excavate our emotional selves so we can put it on the page, and find that inner acceptance (“I am enough”) that will allow us to unlock our greatest gifts. From… Read More
Introduction to Meditation
This 10 min TED talk is given by the “Headspace Guy”… that gentle voice you hear on the app. I didn’t realize he was actually the co-founder of Headspace (ie not just voice talent hired for the job) and that he was also a monk. This 10 min video is a wonderful introduction to the concept of mindfulness and the… Read More
On getting out of the business… of giving advice, that is.
The indie publishing industry is changing. Of course, it’s always changing, but there’s a seismic shift happening in the indie publishing community right now. Many authors are pulling back from public engagement (with other authors), retreating to smaller groups for more intimate connections. The industry is maturing. The scammers are multiplying like rabbits, and there’s a turn toward more and… Read More
On Seeing Clearly
It’s amazing what you can do when you’re willing to see clearly. (This bears repeating, although my previous rendition of this had a different nuance. “The problem with clearing your mind is you see more clearly.” It’s the “willing” part that’s key to the above–seeing clearly can have an emotional toll, one most of us spending our time avoiding when… Read More
ON GROWING YOUR BUSINESS
I’m finally putting some “smart” in the data collection for my author business (some visual basic scripts to make it faster). With 35 novels and a host of short fiction across 2 pennames (each of which is a business of its own), I’ve surpassed the catalogs of some small publishers. I’m Nora-Roberts-level prolific, which means the catalog is going to… Read More
Battling the Demons
Summoning my inner shield maiden Yesterday was a visceral reminder that Daring Greatly=Vulnerability. And that before you can even step in the arena, you have to battle the Anxiety demon and his more blood-thirsty cousin, Terror, who are guarding the gates. Those guys weren’t messing around, either. My first battle weapons (frequent breaks, exercise) didn’t even make a dent. When… Read More
Guardians of the Galaxy (Vol 2): Theme Mirroring (Analysis by Sue)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2 When my son (the writer) and I walked out of viewing Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2, we turned to each other and said (literally simultaneously), “Theme mirroring!” In other news: The Quinn House is a House of Geeks. We formulated a plan to re-watch the movie when it came out on DVD so… Read More
GRIT – Passion and Perseverance for Really Long-Term Goals
It’s hard to overstate how important grit is to success in life – for kids and adults. People sometimes look at me and think (or say out loud!), “Well, sure you’re successful at fill-in-the-blank. You’re smart or have a Ph.D. or work hard or fill-in-other-attribute.” Very seldom is GRIT identified as the supposed magic ingredient for my success (however you… Read More
Altered Traits
Made my doctor’s day this morning. I led with: “I’ve been meditating daily since I saw you in September.” I was a wreck then, limping around with major back pain. Today I was effusing about the change in my mind/body over three months of rigorous healing/rejuvenation, including all kinds of exercise, yoga, meditation, at-home PT, etc. She was like, “Now… Read More
Being is the Foundation for Striving
“A[n] assumption of self-actualization theory is that it very strongly requires a pluralism of individual differences…. Such a true acceptance of individual differences has several key implications that should be stated briefly… it means that we try to make a rose into a good rose, rather than seek to change roses into lilies.” –Abraham Maslow, creator of the famous hierarchy… Read More
Analyzing Your Own Work
I’m analyzing my own work today. Lots of people think you can’t be objective about your own work, especially in the arts. Personally, I think developing an objective, evaluating eye is *exactly* what artists need to do. Not an internal editor that’s climbed up your back like an unwelcome hippo, but the ability to know what you’re aiming for and… Read More
POINT OF VIEW
As a writer, exploring POV is intrinsic to what I do – a story is first and foremost the perspective which is telling it. (Something that is also true for politics, love, and reviews of Last Jedi – I still haven’t seen it, so don’t spoiler me!) As a parent, I’m used to the dual POV (me-as-adult and me-as-child) that… Read More
What’s Your True North? (Or How To Change Your Bad Habits)
I change goals all the time – but that’s because I’ve rethought what my purpose is and then re-align my goals to follow that compass heading. As we near the end of the year, it’s natural to look back, see where we’ve been, then look forward and set a new direction. I’m in the middle of a seven-week goal… Read More
Mindjack For Real
Amazon “The amygdala, a key node in the brain’s stress circuitry, shows dampened activity from a mere thirty or so hours of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) practice.” —Altered Traits by Goleman and Davidson This books is a fascinating collection of all the science studies of meditation, including a historical look at how far Western understanding has come. There are… Read More
Defining Reality Situationally
“People define reality situationally a lot of the time, and the further someone is from self-awareness and accountability, the more dramatic that can be from the outside.” – from my friend JC Andrijeski Related: this Burger King Anti-bullying ad will wreck you. This applies to people in general, to characters in books, and to writers themselves. To write is to attempt… Read More
Let’s Talk About Failure…
I do things with a high probability of failure built into them just for the learning experience. So, let’s talk about failure. I fail—all the time, in fact. I’m constantly daring, risking, and there’s a certain amount of failure that comes with that. I don’t like it, mind you. It’s painful. Monetary loss can hurt, personal pride hits are hard,… Read More
On How to Listen
A lady in a lake gave me a sword. I know its power and its secrets. My mind says, “We can unlock everything with this!” And I agree. I can see it, and my ambition is already halfway down the path. My body says, “You’re not strong enough to wield that sword.” I ask my brain, “Are we afraid? Is… Read More
That Time I Finished A Book In A Month Without Stressing Out
In June of this year, I had a crazy deadline I had to meet—a book from start-to-finish in a month, with a hard deadline in the form of an Amazon pre-order (let us not discuss the foolishness of setting up that pre-order, as I am currently repeating said foolishness). Long story short: I made the deadline. And the book was… Read More
The First 200 Words Are The Hardest
Because I’m a nerd at heart. Also because humans are made of chemicals so this intrinsically makes sense to me. Translation for the non-nerds: There’s a thing called “activation energy” in chemistry (also applies to any couch you’re trying to move to find the remote)—it’s a lot harder to get the thing (say a reaction) going than to keep it… Read More
Writing is an Exploration of Self as Much as Story
“It is impossible to become like somebody else. Your only hope is to become more fully yourself. That is the reason for practicing meditation in the first place.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living So many authors suffer from comparison-itis—I did it myself early on, especially in those first painful years when you’re still struggling to find your voice and yourself… Read More
Do The Thing You Love… Every Day
Do the thing you love. Connect with the people you love. Put these things at the top of your To Do List every day, color-coded an urgent red or sunny yellow or peaceful sea-green. This is what life is made of, and it’s more important than any “urgent” thing on your list. A day when you can’t spend an hour… Read More
Tidbits from the Emotional Craft of Fiction Workshop
Emotional Craft of Fiction – book and workshop (you can attend the next one in Irvine, CA in Jan 2018!) My back going out on me kept me from one day of the three in this workshop, but the other two were attended propped up in a wheelchair among friends and relatively pain-free with the help of modern medicine. Not… Read More
No STRESS, just FOCUS
This is my new motto. Also, read this: CLICK HERE TO GET IT “The signs of mental fatigue, such as a drop in effectiveness and a rise in distractedness and irritability, signify that the mental effort needed to sustain focus has depleted the glucose that feeds neural energy….The antidote to attention fatigue is the same as for the physical kind:… Read More
Community, Isolation, and Time Alone With One’s Thoughts
In our hyper-connected society, the art of being alone seems almost scandalous. And yet, there are studies which show people are even more isolated than ever before. Paradoxes—our world is built on them. For writers, isolation can be a serious issue. At the same time that you’re struggling with the emotional demands of writing well, the solitary nature of the… Read More
TRILOGIES vs SERIES
In my book BOOT CAMP, I really emphasize that writing a “trilogy” is the best way to launch a career. Perhaps too much. My point was to write a SET of books—3 book trilogy, 4 in a series, etc, so you have a plan and because it’s much easier to build a career on a series. Standalones don’t do as… Read More
CONNECTION
An essential human need. Babies wither without it. Adults blossom with it. Just now, I witnessed the most adorable thing at the Panera. An older woman—at least 70—and a 20-something man embraced after an effusive “Good morning!” They both have Panera aprons on. All smiles, they set to work, doing the things Panera employees do. How delightful. And these two… Read More
On Reading as a Writer
The Initial Love Affair My relationship with reading is lifelong and fraught with drama. I was madly in love in my youth and early adulthood, mostly SF but also philosophical tracts. Just as I was beginning to want more from books—more romance, more emotional content, more sweeping dramas where humanity was tested at its worst and brought to its best—SF… Read More
Living Every Moment: Keys To A Creative Life
“Once we realize that the boundaries between work and play are artificial, we can take matters in hand and begin the difficult task of making life more livable.”—Daniel Pink, DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Work is play. Play can be made into work. This applies up and down the spectrum. Cleaning out the garage (as I did… Read More
Special Recommendation: EDITOR
Adam Heine is a long-standing critique partner of mine. His insights into storytelling and command of craft always take my novels to a higher level. He’s recently started an editing business, and I highly recommend him. He’s also a published author. HE’S ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS NOW! Read about his rates here: http://www.adamheine.com/p/editing-services.html HINT: I especially like his “Just the Editorial, Please”… Read More
Editing on Your Kindle
Thanks to Jewel Punzalan Allen and Song Palmese for teaching me a new thing today! Turns out you can export your manuscript notes from your Kindle now! This specifically applies to Kindle Fire (not sure about other kindles). You can send a Word doc to your kindle, edit/make notes there, then export the notes – it will email a file with your highlights and… Read More
CLEAR WRITING
If you haven’t read Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”… you should. It’s less about politics, per se, and more about astoundingly good writing. (I just sent this to my son, who is having to read some painful literary book over the summer for Junior year in High School. His assignment isn’t even fiction – it’s non-fiction! Which seems a… Read More
IF YOU HAVE A CHILD WHO WRITES… (advice on navigating that in the age of indie publishing)
My best advice on how to encourage and support a child writer in the age of self-publishing… THE OLYMPIC APPROACH A friend asked me this morning about hiring a promo company for her friend’s Middle Grade book (h/t to JA Belfield for looking out for her friend). After dispensing my normal advice about MG being a For Love Only field of publishing… Read More
TRAINING YOUR INTUITION
I wrote this blog post 3 years ago, but I’m still using the concepts today. I’m about to start a new book, and I have to incorporate a big twist I unexpectedly conjured in the last one. *Unexpected* because it wasn’t in the outline, but when I got to writing the penultimate chapter, I realized there wasn’t enough substance in… Read More
TAKING YOUR CRAFT UP A LEVEL
I spent a whole lotta time on my retreat talking about story and craft, something I enjoy only slightly less than the writing itself. My usual advice is to JUST WRITE because I think there is huge value in going through the process of story creation multiple times. But I have to remember that I naturally fold learning into everything… Read More
USING EBOOKS FOR REFERENCE MATERIALS
I’m a huge fan of ebooks for obvious reasons – I make my business with them. But I’m also a huge convert from buying paper for reference reading/research to preferentially (and exclusively) buying those books in ebook form. Why? Highlighting and note-taking is so much better in ebook form. ELECTRONIC NOTE-TAKING I used to buy all my reference books in… Read More
Writing Workshops
Once you’re not a beginner at your craft anymore, it’s really hard to find workshops that are worth the time and money invested. EMOTIONAL CRAFT OF FICTION 2017 (How to Write the Story beneath the Surface) I just signed up for this one because I *know* it’s going to be worthwhile. I took a 4 day workshop with Donald Maass… Read More
Series and Serials Workshop
Editing Software
Okay, ran a quick analysis of various editing software packages – Grammarly (which I was already using), Ginger (which I had stopped using), ProWritingAid (new to me), and Whitesmoke (new to me). AutoCrit had a pay wall, so I didn’t evaluate that. And I also compared to my own eyes – the proofreader in my head. RESULTS: **I analyzed one… Read More
MEDITATION AND WRITING
So, already I feel like a fraud just typing those words. Because who am I to talk about meditation? Or mindfulness? I use both in my writing – I *believe* in the power of both – but it’s not like I’m a Tibetan monk or a Mindfulness Guru. (^^the crazy that plays in my head sometimes^^) The following is my… Read More
It Will Always Be Hard – The Struggle of Art
“When does it start to get easier?” the newbie author asks me. “Never. It will always be hard,” I say. I feel like the Harsh Mistress of Author Truths in that moment. But it’s better to slay that expectation in the crib than let it grow into a monster that will cripple that new author. Example: I’ve written a lot… Read More
ACHIEVING THE FLOW STATE
“A composer of music, for instance, may know that he wishes to write a song, or a flute concerto, but other than that, his goals are usually quite vague. And how does he know whether the notes he is writing down are “right” or “wrong”? The same situation holds true for the artist painting a picture, and for all activities… Read More
FINISHED NOT PERFECT
This video focuses on art, but is just as appropriate for the author. I think of the years I spent writing but never finishing my stories because they weren’t perfect. I still struggle with this, but I’ve finally found that place where I can accept the fact that my stories will never be perfect, but at least they’re finished.
BEING OBJECTIVE ABOUT YOUR WORK
By popular request, I’m reposting this from my “Ask Me Anything” thread. Harlow Cyan Fallon had a SPECTACULAR question. Here it is along with my response. Harlow Cyan Fallon: “Is there a way to recognize whether your own writing is good or not? It seems I don’t have the capacity to discern it myself. I may write a story or a novel… Read More
RESISTANCE: How to Overcome It
I’ve just lost two days to battling Resistance. I’m telling you this to 1- let you know that this still happens to writers who have been writing for years and have many novels under their belts and who consider themselves Highly Trained Resistance Fighters (TM pending), and 2 – to give you some insight into how I do battle. KEY… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing – Part 4 – OUTWARD MARKERS OF SUCCESS
DRIVE by Daniel Pink is all about internal motivation and how autonomy, mastery, and serving a higher purpose are things that fulfill us. I’ve always been very internally motivated. I’ve also always been driven. These are two separate things – you can have ambition but be motivated by external rewards, or you can have internal motivation but no ambition that’s… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing, Part 2 – Turning Work into Play and Play into Work
“Once we realize that the boundaries between work and play are artificial, we can take matters in hand and begin the difficult task of making life more livable.” – DRIVE by Daniel Pink I write full-time, which I often call “playing full-time” but in reality, I have three teen boys and a husband and home and a life, and it’s… Read More
DRIVE and Indie Publishing – Part 1 – Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
I have many thoughts about Daniel Pink’s book DRIVE and how its theories of motivation intersect with indie publishing. MANY THOUGHTS. So many I have to break this into parts. A PRIMER DRIVE is about Motivation 3.0 – the autonomy, mastery, and purpose that drives our intrinsic motivation to work, play, live, and create. Motivation 2.0 is your typical carrots-and-sticks… Read More
Writing Craft Books You Need On Your Shelf
my brain on storytelling Inspired by this post by Sarah Allen, “Tips for Editing Your Manuscript from a Real-Life Editor,” as well as an email from a writer-friend asking about reference books on the craft of writing, I’ve put together a list of craft books that have each had a profound impact (at one time, and often ongoing) on my… Read More
WRITE THE STORY
Sometimes, especially when I’m struggling with a story, I have to write myself notes to keep myself on-track. For some reason, I write them in ALL CAPS. I’m not sure if I’m yelling at myself, drill-sergeant-style, or if I simply want to differentiate them from the rambling prose and notes on either side of these clarion calls in my manuscript…. Read More
Brainstorming a Book
Need ideas for your book? Unsure where your plotline is going next? Feeling stuck? I’ve had several writer-friends recently have troubles with getting stuck with their books. Each time, I was able to help them get going again with a straightforward brainstorming exercise I learned in Kat Fall’s class on screenwriting. I’m posting it in hopes it will help others… Read More