Reminder! We're looking for volunteer Fiction and Flash Fiction Readers! Join the SLM FAM! This weekend would be a great time to apply! 😉

Loved being a Visiting Writer earlier this week at The Williston School, in Easthampton MA! I taught a lesson on speculative fiction & gave a reading to a very full house, in what felt like a Hogwarts hall! Big thanks to the students and faculty for being so welcoming!

Stuck in your writing project? Never underestimate the power of the smallest engagement with your story: read a paragraph, think about it while on a walk, record your thoughts. The smallest engagement can crack open the door to breakthroughs & flow. Whenever you struggle, lower the bar for yourself.

Ran a 5K up a mountain on Sunday, and it was a great time. Glorious views of the Connecticut River Valley at the top!

Loved hosting (and reading with) these incredible writers for the Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop fall literary reading, Words Under the Stars! Each reading was riveting. Thanks to all who joined us in Florence, MA!

Just hosted our first Writing Retreat at Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop and it couldn’t have been more wonderful! Such a lovely group of writers, perfect weather, a gorgeous venue, what felt like infinite coffee (first time brewing a giant urn of it!) Feeling grateful for creative community!

TOMORROW, Sat. 9/20 at 7pm at the Florence Civic Center, in Northampton MA! I'll be hosting this + reading alongside authors Allegra Hyde, Ariel Delgado Dixon, Melenie Freedom Flynn, Gail Thomas, Peter Medeiros, & Yago Colas! We'll also share kernels of writing wisdom! Join us if you're around!

Just got an acceptance from The Arctic Circle Residency! I'll be going to Svalbard in July to work on the final voyage sections of my mermaid novel, on a tall ship in the Arctic Ocean (between Norway & the North Pole!) & I couldn’t be more excited for this merging of writer-self and adventurer-self.

I need to be able to see the possibility in a piece of writing in order to invest myself in it and the process. That process, for me, is often a wild balancing between this (which leads me to go back and polish the beginning) and the need to let it be messy and fragmented and move toward completion.

Looks like I'll definitely be at #AWP26 in Baltimore in March! Three panels accepted, one that I'll be moderating (Speculating the Machine), with some of my favorite writers. Keep us on your radar if you're going to AWP and want to talk dystopias, AI, & teaching genre fiction!

Some good news this week! I have long known about the wonderful residencies and fellowships happening through The Porches, in Virginia, and I’m so excited to have this to look forward to! Thank you to the committee and to visionary founder Trudy Hale! Very grateful.

Can't get over how good this is: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...

10am writing time beginning! If you're here / writing, share what you're working on and/or thinking about in your WIP. I'm reworking the opening. Thinking about the balance between the plot moving, & what the reader needs to know to care (especially in a speculative story, where context is needed).

Anyone have a theory as to why the words flow better on rainy days? Is this true for most writers?

Morning writing situation:

"Learn your craft, and persist. The rest, as Henry James said, is the madness of art." - Kim Addonizio

From Substack: This is the way. Maybe the only way?

If you’re plodding onward in your novel or WIP, and the heat is getting to you, and the malaise is real, BUT the urgency is also real, comment here for solidarity. Let’s finish these books this summer! September 1st is my self-imposed deadline. Anyone else have a deadline they're writing toward?

"Your ex-lover has built a circus outside your window. It’s the kind of thing you might have found cute five years ago" Love the juxtaposition between the opening sentences in this piece by @joybaglio.bsky.social in PANK: pankmagazine.com/piece/night-... @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge

From earlier this month, on a mini writing retreat in Bennington VT! Sound on to hear me play! (Second residency where I brought my pipes!)

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/05/23/t...) What if you could look in on your romantic exes? They Could Have Been Yours by Joy Baglio (2023) — 6,900 words (about 28 minutes for the average reader) Originally published in Apex magazine issue #136, March 2023.

Just spent a magical five days in Bennington, VT, at Prospect Street Writers House, with five other writers, including my wonderful friend (and amazing writer) Matthew Lansburgh, who invited me to join him! I worked on outlining and getting a handle on all three (yes) of my novel projects.

So this is kind of amazing: A Novel Blueprint for Building Your Book! janefriedman.com/a-novel-blue... via @janefriedman.com

Up today at 5am to write and work, and I do think there's some extra creative energy (and productivity energy) floating around in the air at this hour. Note to self to do this whenever I can!

We'd love for you to take a few minutes to fill out our Community Survey! We want to know what our community wants to see more of - and we're offering 10% off any/all workshops for those who take a few minutes to share their thoughts! Survey here: mailchi.mp/pioneervalle...

A short story is a whole universe, it’s just wrapped tighter than a novel, so each paragraph, each sentence, each word carries more narrative steering power, to point the story down its path, toward what’s at its center.

The response to my latest Substack have been so affirming! Today's comment that made my day, from Barbara Kumari: “Joy, you make the craft feel alive again. Like we’re building stories out of bones and breath.” 😭 Next post dropping soon! Subscribe if interested! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Writers trying to meet a daily word-count goal: If I created a Zoom room where you couldn’t leave UNTIL you met your daily goal, would you attend? (Of course individual schedules matter.) Though just curious if anyone would want to show up for this, or is it perhaps too medieval an approach?

This feels important to my work as a writer, so I'm taking a short (one day, two?) pause from other writing projects to sketch this out:

Some REALLY exciting (Zoom) workshops on the horizon at @pvww.bsky.social: Tomorrow (5/25), Landing Your Ending with novelist @bhurley.bsky.social! And Saturday 5/3, Whiting Award-winner Elwin Cotman teaches the Japanese Four-Act Structure (Kishotenketsu)! Info & links to signup in the comments!

Writers! I'm working on a Substack post on revision, and would love to consider BEST tips, strategies, ways of makign revision fun/easy, etc. from others. To contribute tips: DM me your tip, max a paragraph; include how you'd like to be referred to, and any book/link you'd like mentioned. :)

@joybaglio.bsky.social shows how writers who want to attend a retreat can take matters into their own hands. She lays out the nuts and bolts: picking a group of writer-friends, outlining a generative program, establishing sacred rituals, and making it a regular event. at.pw.org/WriterFriendsRetreat

Some thoughts on revision, for writers who struggle with or dread this part of the process - the key is to make it simple, routine, and somewhat technical!

Top two tips on how to improve a piece, from draft to draft:

Writers: What is the boundary(ies) you're working on setting (or have set) so that you can do the writing / finish the project you know you need to? Post here for accountability.

New novel-writing tool unlocked: Coggle! For brainstorming and story mapping. First three maps are free, and very intuitive, easy to use. Sharing an image here from their gallery, but I'll share my own novel's map when it's more complete. It is REALLY helpful for seeing my outline visually.

Elizabeth is doing such exciting things in screenwriting and novel-writing - I can't recommend this workshop with her enough, for experienced writers seeking a rigorous, feedback-centered group. (Plus, we're agent siblings! :)

Does anyone ever piece together fiction in reverse chronological order? Sometimes this is the easiest way for me to think through the story's events (specifically with short fiction). Doing this now while working on a very short piece, and it has me theorizing as to why this works...

Something I think about often when writing: No one owes me anything, least of all their time. Yet when I put a story out into the world, I'm saying “This is worth your time.” At every stage of the process, we need to remember this reader whose time we’re asking for.

While I’m not at #awp25, my latest short story is! You can go on a scavenger hunt for it (“Frog Heart”) in the summer 2024 issue of @pshares.bsky.social (table 44 in the book fair), edited by the brilliant @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social!

@joybaglio.bsky.social shows how writers who want to attend a retreat can take matters into their own hands. She lays out the nuts and bolts: picking a group of writer-friends, outlining a generative program, establishing sacred rituals, and making it a regular event. at.pw.org/WriterFriendsRetreat

I can't say enough good things about this writing residency! The house, neighborhood, people, the overall feeling of being (for a brief time) part of this community. I wish I could apply to be the writer-in-resident again (can I?) Regardless, I highly recommend applying!

One of my novel projects is having a particularly energized moment, and I've been outlining / planning for two days straight, and let me just say: there is no way this story could come together without an outline / plan / story map, whatever you want to call it.

Coffee recipe for anyone needing to switch things up: Add a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cocoa powder, and cayenne pepper to your coffee. I also add allulose (a healthy sugar substitute). It's actually astounding.

Had a marvelous time reading and discussing writing with visionary writer Allegra Hyde a few days ago, at @forbeslibrary.bsky.social in Northampton MA, as part of the Readers & Writers Live series. Read from a new short story forthcoming in One Story! Allegra’s reading was 🔥

14 Tips on Writing Speculative Fiction, by me, for all who write and dabble in the magical! Biggest thanks to the amazing writers quoted throughout for sharing their wisdom! Hope you enjoy! Read here: joybaglio.substack.com/p/14-tips-on...

I don't write linearly / chronologically in early drafts, and embracing that - allowing fragments of the story to come however they do, in whatever order - has been huge for me in getting initial drafts down. Basically, capture kernels of story, scene, voice however they come to you!

Had a new idea for a reading series! Writers, who's interested? And where would your reading be?

Do something every day (no matter how overwhelmed or despairing you feel) that unburdens you, that releases the stress, that adds to your sense of aliveness. Mine is bagpipe; nothing frees me from overwhelm and despair like blasting music meant for battle. Would love to hear what others do!

Feeling this, and don't have the energy to shorten it...