General

There are things you learn about writing from books and courses and craft guides. And then there are things you only learn from years of doing it — the slow lessons that accumulate in the bones of a career. Here are mine.

The craft guides tell you about structure and character arcs. Nobody tells you about the existential dread of chapter twelve, the strange grief of finishing, or the fact that the book will change you whether it sells or not. Here's what they left out.

The feeling that you're not a real author, that someone will eventually find out, that everyone else knows something you don't — it's called imposter syndrome, and it's nearly universal. Here's what it actually is, why it shows up, and what to do with it.