Sentence Enhancers and the Art of the Well-Placed F-Bomb Science, SpongeBob, and the strange poetry of profanity It's called a Grawlix #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack There’s a SpongeBob SquarePants episode called Sailor Mouth where SpongeBob and…

Did You Know You Have to Pay to Go to Prison? And yes, that’s exactly as messed up as it sounds. Photo by Oxana Melis on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack I was today years old when I found out that people in jail and prison are being billed…

Goals, Schmoles: Why My Writing Process Looks Like a Dumpster Fire (and That’s Okay) How I Learned to Stop Counting Words and Just Write (Mostly) Photo by Julia Joppien on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack A friend asked me the other day, hi…

What Happened to the Universities That Were Supposed to Serve Us? How the race for grant money hollowed out the mission of Land Grant universities Photo by Abhi Umrawal on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Land-grant universities were supposed…

When Tropes Collide: Finding Harmony in the Hybrid Why readers are ready for mashups and how to make them work #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack For years the common wisdom was don’t tell anyone you’re blending genres. If you admitted your book was…

Trading Intellect for Popularity On attention, outrage, and the slow death of thoughtful conversation Photo by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack I’ve listened to my share of Joe Rogan podcasts. He’s a decent interviewer, can…

Want Readers Hooked? Hit Them Right in the Gut Writing Is About Making People Feel Something Photo by Emilia Rahmatullina on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack When you peel away all the tricks and techniques, fiction comes down to one thing:…

AI Can’t Scoop City Hall The danger of letting AI curate our reality Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Let’s talk about the slow, sneaky shift in how people are getting their news. Everybody’s buzzing about AI news…

Your Narrator Is Gaslighting You And you’ll love every second of it. Why Writers Love Unreliable Narrators Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack There is an ancient story from the Indian subcontinent. A group of blind…

A Friendly Reminder to Touch Grass (Digitally Delivered) Why we can’t outsource connection to a screen Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack I read a fascinating piece Saturday by Ted Gioia about David Foster Wallace, how,…

If You’re Bored Writing It, We’re Bored Reading It Tricks for keeping the in-between scenes alive #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack I’ll confess something. I’m smack in the middle of one of those “boring” stretches in my own manuscript right now. The…

How do you know if you’re winning? Rethinking success before someone else defines it for you Photo by Chad Stembridge on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack How do you measure success? And by whose standard? For me, one obvious milestone was…

Violence on the Page: Consequences, Clarity, and the Temptation to Go Full Tarantino When Fictional Bite Meets the Narrative Dentist Bill #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Violence sells. Books, movies, video games, you name it. If there’s blood,…

I Found Your New Favorite Band Lake Street Dive, Lawrence, and a theater with more magic than Miller High Life ever bottled #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Earlier this year we found out Lake Street Dive was playing sort of nearby. And by “nearby,” I…

The Art of Exposition Or, How to Make Worldbuilding Feel Like Dessert, Not Vegetables #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Too much exposition is like being cornered at a party by a guy who says, “Let me tell you about my D&D campaign.” Ten minutes later,…

50k Word Nerds A writing community for November and beyond #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Hey all you writers out there! It’s that time of year again. I wrote about NaNoWriMo and Novel November here. But my good friend Leah Salyer and I wanted to…

Famous People, Dancing Monkeys, and the Cancel Button Bros, Swifties, and the Culture Clash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Celebrities are our modern gladiators. They perform, we cheer, we gossip, and then—when they misstep—we sharpen the knives.…

50k Word Nerds A writing community for November and beyond #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Hey all you writers out there! It’s that time of year again. I wrote about NaNoWriMo and Novel November here. But my good friend Leah Salyer and I wanted to…

NaNoWriMo to Novel November: A New Chapter for the Write-In The joy of reckless writing lives on Photo by Ajay Deewan on Unsplash #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack I first attempted National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for the uninitiated) back in…

A Life in Stereo Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Black Sabbath #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack I’ve had a strange road with music. As a kid, it wasn’t all that important. We had a fading stereo console that sounded like its speakers were…

Plot Twists: The Art of the “Wait, What?! Whoa.” The Sneaky Joy of Surprising, Yet Inevitable #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Bad plot twists are like soggy fries. You expect crispy, salty glory, and instead you get limp disappointment. Readers know…

Lindsey Halligan says I’m not a journalist. But if you think I am, and you value our our non-profit legal news and analysis, you can support our work here: givebutter.com/journalism/a... You can also follow me on Substack: annabower.substack.com/about

A Post About Nothing A masterclass in wasting your time (kindly) #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfettered Treacle on Substack Two months ago, I was sitting on a mountain of Substack drafts, enough to last me … well, two months. You can do the math. Two whole months of posts…

What I’ve Learned About Relationships (So far) The Ultimate Long-Form Character Development Arc #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle You don’t stay married for nearly 30 years without learning a few things. Sometimes the easy way, sometimes the…

Pacing Isn’t Just For Runners How to keep your readers turning pages instead of checking their notifications #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack Let’s talk about pacing. Not the kind you do in your kitchen while waiting for the kettle to boil and…

Still Rock and Roll: The Impact of Billy Joel From The Lost Souls to Madison Square Garden #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack In 1980, I was a sophomore in high school when Glass Houses dropped, and it hit me like a brick through a plate-glass window.…

Don’t Let Chapter One Kill Your Book Your beginning matters, but not as much as finishing the damn story #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack You want it perfect. I get it. The first line. The first page. That sacred, glowing doorway where your book…

When the Blackbird Sings My Blackbird Tattoo: A Tribute to Love and Loss My Blackbird Tattoo, Still Raw #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack I’ve always had a soft spot for heavy guitars and deep, growling vocals. So when My Own Prison dropped in 1997,…

Yes, It’s All Been Done. So What? When it feels like every story has already been told, tell yours anyway—because your voice still matters. #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack We’ve all heard it. “Everything’s been written already.” And in some ways,…

Death Becomes Her: Remembering Aeon Flux From Liquid Television fever dream to Hollywood reinvention, why this leather-clad chaos agent still lives rent-free in my brain. #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack This is the third installment in my MTV…

Building Stories One Scene at a Time A Scene-First Approach to Stronger Storytelling #writingcommunity  #booksky #amwriting  #writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack I build every story in scenes. After I build my story structure, but before I write chapters, before I polish dialogue, I break down…

Still Sick, Sad, and Perfect: Why Daria Still Matters Cynical, Sarcastic, and Exactly What We Still Need #writingcommunity #booksky #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle on Substack Do ya’ll remember Daria? I actually own the complete series on DVD. The grainy late-90s animation and those…

Why Your Character’s Choices Matter More Than Their Backstory We Get It, They Have Issues. What Are They Gonna Do About It? #writingcommunity #booksky #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle We love a juicy backstory. That tragic childhood, that long-lost love, that formative betrayal, these are…

How to Actually Fix Education Ditch the Tests, Teach for Mastery #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle This is a little different from my normal posts. I got a bug up my butt a few weeks back about this and I did some research. Here are my conclusions. I welcome…

Story Static and the Need to Move Or, Why My Fitness Tracker Thinks I’m a Novelist on the Run #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle Are any of you what I call kinetic writers? You know the type. The kind who can’t seem to stay in a chair for more than ten or fifteen…

The Advice Loop Proof that self-awareness is not the same as self-discipline #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle You know what’s easy? Giving advice. All you need is a little confidence and the ability to say things like you mean them. That’s it. That’s the whole…

The Dirty Truth About Smut (Unless you’re thinking of corn fungus. In which case: wow, same page.) #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle “Smut” is a gloriously loaded word, half taboo, half wink, all marketing power. It’s the kind of term that makes people lean in…

The Dirty Truth About Smut (Unless you’re thinking of corn fungus. In which case: wow, same page.) #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting#writing#writing Unfetterred Treacle “Smut” is a gloriously loaded word, half taboo, half wink, all marketing power. It’s the kind of term that makes people lean in…

What Makes Good Writing? (Revisited Again) Originally posted August 1, 2019 | Reflecting on a 2011 post #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle This reflection goes all the way back to January 26, 2011. And as I reread it now, I still think it’s mostly on the mark.…

Finding Your Voice (Without Getting a Throat Injury) Or: how to sound like yourself without sounding like everyone else #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle Writers love to talk about voice like it’s some mythical creature that lives in your laptop and only appears…

How Do You Title a Novel Without Losing Your Mind? Seriously. If you know, please email me #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle I’ve finished four full manuscripts and numerous stories that aren’t complete, and I still think titling a novel is somewhere between…

Transported to 1986 by a Song (A Look Back at a Look Back) Originally posted in 2019. Revisited with a little more grey hair—and maybe a little more wisdom Music has this magical quality. It can yank you across decades in a single chord. I wrote the bones of this post back in 2019 after a…

The Blob Under My Bed How I Learned to Sleep Without Dangling Anything Ever Again #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle When I was eight years old, my parents took me to the drive-in to see a little film called Beware! The Blob. You may not remember it, and…

What I’ve Learned About Relationships (So far) The Ultimate Long-Form Character Development Arc #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle You don’t stay married for nearly 30 years without learning a few things. Sometimes the easy way, sometimes the…

The Case for Complicated Villains (Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Antagonist) #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle For a long time, I wrote stories without proper villains. Not out of rebellion. It just sort of...happened. The tension in my books…

The Case for Complicated Villains (Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Antagonist) #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle For a long time, I wrote stories without proper villains. Not out of rebellion. It just sort of...happened. The tension in my books…

Writer Brain: A Survival Guide for the People Who Love Us A Field Guide to Your Friendly Neighborhood Narrative Goblin #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle If you live with a writer, love a writer, or just occasionally share space with one, you may have noticed…

I’m Always in Deep POV (A confession, a defense, and possibly a warning label) #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle The other day, my wife said something to me. I don’t know what it was. I didn’t hear it. Didn’t even register the sound. I distinctly remember her…

The One Thing Indie and Trad Authors Agree On (Besides Coffee) Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mailing List #writingcommunity #booksky💙📚🪐 #amwriting #writing Unfetterred Treacle Writers don’t talk about mailing lists at cocktail parties. We talk about story ideas, bad reviews, and…