One year ago today, the #LAfires broke out. Lifted the paywall on this in honor of all those who lost so much — and have yet to recover.

#writingprompt : What would I learn if I held still, pressed close, tuned my eyes and ear, too, to the signals of stories on the far side of that fence? open.substack.com/pub/mfalore/...

#writingcommunity Here's what's happening at #mfalore this spring. If you're looking for #creativewriting and #bookpublishing advice from a bestselling author and veteran #MFA professor, consider joining our tribe of Loreates over on Substack! www.mfalore.com/p/new-mfa-lo...

#writingcommunity When we peer into the history of our lives or families or observations, we can know they’re worth writing about without having any idea which form that writing should take. #shortstories? A novel or #memoir? Collected #Essays? Each choice will require different treatment.

Music this week opened a hidden door for me to a revelation I have been missing my entire life. The experience also gave me new insight into the role that music can play as a memory synthesizer for writers generally and #memoirists in particular! open.substack.com/pub/mfalore/...

#writingcommunity Have you mastered the art of beats? If you think they only apply to #screenwriting , you're mistaken. Beats are the basic unit of #storytelling , whether you're writing a short story or an epic #novel.

I woke up this morning with the curious word JEOPARDY in mind. Hence, this #writingprompt for #storytellers and #memoirists and #novelists in the #blueskywritingcommunity

We’ve got the receipts on the #trumptariffs. Thank you @moveon.org

“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” Inexplicably, #Trump doubled down on this terrible message at a rally on Tuesday night, determined to hand #Democrats a gift. @nytimes.com

#Democrat Higgins led the Republican by about 19 percentage points. FIRST DEMOCRATIC MAYOR OF #MIAMI IN 30 YEARS!!! #bluewave apnews.com/article/miam...

#writingcommunity New free #writingprompt at mfalore.com : These are the equal and opposite forces that fuel what #Faulkner said is the only thing worth #writing about: “the human heart in conflict with itself.”

41 minutes of watching two shipwrecked men trying to flip a boat and signaling for surrender/help before firing on them again reminds me of the 9.5 minutes Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, in that it’s an agonizingly long time to be killing helpless people who clearly posed no threat.

NYC: “I’m born here! Kings County Hospital! Suck my d*ck!” Trump’s ICE goons grabbing brown and black people. Bounty hunters. Racial profiling is all they do.

Now at mfalore.com "Whether literal or symbolic, #stakes represent the reasons why your principal #characters are suffering, struggling, competing: what they have to lose if they don’t succeed, and what they have to gain if they win." #writing #writingcommunity #plot #storytelling #fiction

I did not know this writer before, but please, please read her vital story about the #humanity we all need to recover before we turn into a society of monsters: medium.com/age-of-empat...

It’s official! I FINALLY figured out how to change my Substack’s online brand/domain (subdomain? whatever). It’s now easily findable @ mfalore.substack.com #writingcommunity #creativewriting #writingtips #writingprompts #writingadvice

This Day, in Infamy and History As we approach another #PearlHarborDay, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto reminds us that we all share #moralcomplicity for the actions taken in our name. It is our duty as writers to expose the lies and tell the WHOLE truth about our collective #history. #WWII #stoplying

If you're planning to get an advanced degree BE ALERT to this massive obstacle in the #BigUglyBill: Trump administration proposes excluding #nursing and other fields ( #architecture !)from “professional” designation, capping graduate student loans. Spread the word! www.latimes.com/california/s...

If you’ve ever considered experimenting with #secondperson #POV or wondered whether it might work for your novel or memoir, you'll enjoy this post. #writingcommunity #writingtips #writingadvice #creativewriting open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...

The world of this #poem is the world we—despite our countless divisions— inhabit together. Here are the ruins of all our past lives, the impending collapse that will surely scar every one of us. And yet, the lace of memory connects us, too, beyond walls and across continents, transcending loss.

Democrats are in a position to end the year riding a wave of momentum, with one more chance to over-perform expectations and make the Republican majority in the US House even narrower.

🧵: (1/6)

ICE agents involved in another vehicle collision, this time in Mesa azmirror.com/briefs/ice-a...

“That’s the best piece of writing advice I ever had... It is the only absolutely 24-carat-gold-plated piece of advice I have to give you.” — #ZadieSmith #writingadvice #writingcommunity open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...

Good omen: In the first 10 months of this year, 20 House Republicans have announced they are leaving, versus 11 Democrats. #politics.

Consider a #character or someone you know who gets sharp and pointed when surrounded by perceived menace. Now peel off a layer. Underneath the spikes, is anger the predominant register, or is it fear? Does this reaction signify strength, or weakness; defiance, or submission; pride, or insecurity?

Writing Prompt: Pointed Some of us get prickly when we’re surrounded. We grow defensive spikes and make pointed remarks. Our voices rise sharply, as if attacking, when honestly we’re just terrified. Same is true of your #characters . Here, then, is your #writingprompt:

The good news is that the #Big5 publish as many as 1 million #books each year. Not all of them get the royal treatment, but they all do have access to the Big 5 #marketing advantage. It’s absolutely worth your effort to keep revising your book until it’s irresistible to #editors at major houses.

#writingcommunity Craft books for #fictionwriters offer scads of systems for mapping and psychoanalyzing #characters, but unpacking the inner life of people for #memoir can be more difficult because what we “know” can so easily distort what we don’t know about them. These tips will help:

Not many #authors will get this much #bestseller push from their publisher, yet it’s essential for all to understand what the essential #bookmarketing and #publicity cogs are and how they work together to propel a book toward success in the marketplace. substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com/@50501/note/... #boycott #spotify

Spotify seems to be deflecting here and trying to say "everybody's doing it". The point of a targeted boycott at one company is to send the message to anyone who is doing this: "If you piss us off, we can take you down like we did Disney or Spotify." Corporations need to fear us more than Tr*mp.

Spotify becomes resistance target as they continue to stream ICE ads. Americans begin to boycott.

@indivisible.org has asked us to boycott Spotify as long as they are running ICE recruitment ads. I think that is a good enough reason to do it, but I think this collective action does so much more than we realize. These are muscles and mindsets we are building now for bigger actions to come.

Boycott: Spotify for their ice ads T+Mobile for funding Trump's ballroom Verizon for raising their rates out of just pure greed.

Confessions of a #Playwright Cast as a #Dramaturg By the brilliant playwright Kyle Bass, a special for all #theater lovers and dramatic #writers! open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...

#writingcommunity There’s the promise of a new day, the sense of beginning, the coming of light and hope. Then there’s the pressure that mornings can inflict, to get up and go and prove yourself worthy. Whether you view morning with delight or dread, you can play with this #metaphor in your work.

Let’s all remember zillionaire Prince Muhammad, Ben Samine of Saudi Arabia cold bloodily, personally oversaw the assassination of WaPo journalist Jamal Kashoggi- assassins cut the body up in pieces with a saw. These are the kinds of people that Trump warmly invites to our people’s White House!

#writingcommunity. Looking for a #literaryagent ? Meet Kimberley Cameron! Full video and recap of takeaways in this post! open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...

@kaine.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov @johnfetterman.com @shaheen.senate.gov @hassan.senate.gov @cortezmasto.senate.gov @jackierosen.bsky.social @senangusking.bsky.social @schumer.senate.gov Corrupt 🤡🤡🤡

“I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words—not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.” — Don DeLillo #writingprompt #writingcommunity open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...

The most basic reason for writers to make a study of #personality is to avoid the fatal pitfall of writing all characters in your own mirror image. Use this guide to analyze your characters’ core traits when writing your story. #writingcommunity open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...

#writingcommunity and fans of #maxinehongkingston You will enjoy my reminiscence about Maxine with the brilliant Ben Yagoda in his #podcast The Lives They Were Living. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

#Democrat Aftab Pureval wins #Cincinnati mayoral election over Cory Bowman, half-brother of Vice President #JDVance ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT 💙💙💙💙💙💙

REPUDIATE REPUBLICANS WE DID IT TONIGHT WE CAN DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN

AMERICA TURNS AGAINST TRUMP!!! ELECTIONS MATTER! Always Always Always #vote

#writingcommunity What’s happening in today’s #writingprompt ? For me, it’s a near perfect representation of life under Trump. But maybe this picture summons entirely different references for you. Here’s your #mfalore prompt: open.substack.com/pub/aimeeliu...