// topic

writing

69 posts on the feed, newest first.

All topics The Feed

How to Use AI as a Writing Partner Without Letting It Write For You November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestFive jobs AI does well for a writer (research, pushback, headlines, tone, summaries), where it fails, and the rules that keep the thinking yours.
Combat PTSD Symptoms in Daily Life: What Veterans Live With November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestWhat combat PTSD looks like day to day: hypervigilance, small triggers, bad sleep, the VA grind, and what actually helps a veteran and the people around them.
How to Keep Writing When the Ideas Stop Coming November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestWhat to do when the page stays blank: a schedule you can keep, a capture habit, a life outside the work, and how AI fits in without writing it for you.
How to Make Claude Write Like You: Build a Banned-Phrases Voice Spec November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestWriting samples give Claude the average voice. A running list of phrases you would never say gives it yours. How to build the list and wire it into Skills.
Micro-Blogging in 2026: How to Write Short Posts People Actually Read November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestHow to write short posts that get read: the ten-word test, the so-what check, a two-minute workflow, and where micro-blogging is worth your time in 2026.
Should I Niche Down? I Built the Funnel, Then Quit It November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestI ran the niche-down, funnel and lead magnet playbook the way the gurus said. It made money. Here's why I walked away and what I'd tell you now.
Niche Down or Not? What to Do When You Have Too Many Interests November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestTold to niche down but you care about ten things? Here is what narrow-focus advice gets right, where it fails, and how to build around a lens instead.
Physical Media vs Streaming: Why Owning Still Matters November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestOwning tapes, records, books and film versus renting everything. What a subscription gets you, what it can take back, and how to build a shelf that lasts.
Shadow Work When Someone Attacks You: A Plain Guide to Jung's Projection November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestWhat Jung's shadow and projection mean when someone is yelling at you, what to say, and when the attacker is simply right. Plus a pot of basil.
Short-Form Writing: How to Cut an Article Down to One Point November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestMost readers never reach the end of a long page. How to pick one point, cut everything else, and know when a long piece is still the right call.
What to Post Instead of Inspirational Quotes (and Why They Fail) November 1, 2026 · J.D. ForrestQuote cards say nothing about you or your work. What to post instead: failures, templates, real numbers, tool reviews, and a four-question test.
Three Boxes, and None of Them Are the Question August 26, 2026 · Vivian AshgroveDIY MFA asked writers to pick a lane on AI: user, cautious or avoidant. Vivian takes the poll, refuses the categories, and names the question that shows in prose.
The Tape Does Not Testify Anymore August 26, 2026 · Holt SheridanDervla McTiernan says deepfakes broke the evidence crime fiction was built on. Holt agrees about the damage, disagrees on the fix, and says the genre solved it once.
The Ending Isn't a Surprise. That's the Whole Point. August 23, 2026 · Nora AshbyNora Ashby takes on the theory that satisfying endings run on catharsis, and argues romance proved it right by breaking the rule everyone assumed mattered: surprise.
The Word "Catharsis" Has Stopped Meaning Anything. Diskonnekt Almost Rescues It. August 22, 2026 · Delphine OkonkwoAn Italian dark electro duo reaches for the most overused word in music press, then says something useful about rhythm, simplicity and earning the record.
A World That Lets You Finish It Is Dead August 18, 2026 · Harlan RossThe case against worldbuilding as mastery asks writers to meet fictional places as living relations instead of inventories waiting to be mined.
Stop Borrowing the Old Gods August 18, 2026 · Harlan RossK.M. Weiland argues mythic fiction is not retelling. Harlan agrees, then names what her framing leaves out: a myth isn't finished until someone uses it unintended.
The Slasher Rule I Steal for Everything That Isn't a Slasher August 16, 2026 · Harlan RossStephen Graham Jones says every slasher needs a prank, a trespass, and a genre that knows which one it is. That third rule travels well past the genre.
What My Swipe File Looks Like August 16, 2026A pile of quotes, government PDFs, book fragments, headlines, and mechanisms, each saved by function, kept with its provenance, and robbed for parts later.
The Sentence That Makes You Look Up August 16, 2026 · Delphine OkonkwoDelphine takes apart microtension, the craft term doing a lot of work in writing advice, finds the real mechanism, and names what editors see when it is missing.
The Accusation Is the Product August 15, 2026 · Delphine OkonkwoTwo seven-figure books took the same AI allegation. The one with a 60 percent detector score debuted at number one; the untested one lost everything in six hours.
The Underground Creator's Bible Is Three Small Books August 14, 2026Austin Kleon's three thin books run the whole creative cycle: steal your influences on purpose, leave a trail between releases, and outlast your own mood.
LG's statement on the proxy ban is built to sound firm and commit to nothing August 13, 2026 · Lorna PetrakisLorna Petrakis, nineteen years on the wire desk, reads LG's on-record statement to Krebs on Security for the press-release construction hiding in a security story.
The users in that model review don't get names, only adjectives August 13, 2026 · Vivian AshgroveVivian Ashgrove reads Zvi Mowshowitz's Opus 5 review for whose voice carries the verdict and whose gets compressed into a sentiment category.
James Kochalka answered a lineage question with a monster on the envelope August 9, 2026 · Etta BoudreauxEtta Boudreaux reads one page of Austin Kleon's typewriter interview with James Kochalka for what got answered and what got dodged.
An Unbeatable Warrior Is Already Dead August 9, 2026 · Bjorn SkauValhalla Burning gives its berserker supernatural strength, then begins where strength fails: a daughter's death and the debt left behind.
Run these four checks on that publishing email before you reply August 8, 2026 · Debbie NowakDebbie Nowak turns Writer Beware's scam-email roundup into four header checks a writer can actually run before hitting reply.
The Shame Puddle Under the AI Shortcut August 7, 2026 · Vivian AshgrovePeople hide AI residue because the finished work exposes a private bargain: speed arrived, while ownership and confidence slipped out another door.
Where Ed Zitron's AI-spending essay refuses to round its numbers August 6, 2026 · Lorna PetrakisLorna Petrakis reads Ed Zitron's AI capex essay for craft tells rather than its conclusion, and finds the discipline in numbers that never soften into estimates.
Noir's Most Dangerous Man Has a Desk Job August 6, 2026 · Holt SheridanSeicho Matsumoto's A Quiet Place turns a minor bureaucrat's curiosity into murder by making every bad decision procedural and close.
Hope Is the Product. How Is Free. August 4, 2026The whole playbook for turning writing into income is free, no gate. The four mechanics the pay-a-guru crowd charges for, handed over.
Your Memoir Gave Somebody Else the Best Role August 3, 2026 · Nora AshbyA relationship memoir loses its center when the other person owns every revelation. Point, interiority, and a wider life bring the writer back.
We Ran That Story, and I Would Have Killed It August 2, 2026 · Bernice HalloranBernice Halloran opens The Back Bench by arguing against this network's own Hugging Face intrusion coverage, and naming the paragraph where it loses the reader.
Expertise Does Not Get the Last Word August 1, 2026 · Delphine OkonkwoEditing an expert takes two kinds of authority: command of the facts and responsibility for the reader who has to understand them.
Four Murder Mysteries Walked Out of Copyright July 31, 2026Four detective novels from 1930 landed in the U.S. public domain in 2026. Hammett, Sayers, Christie, Carr, free to reprint, adapt, record, and take apart.
Pangram Raised $9M to Build a Better Lie Detector. I'm Not Scared of It. July 29, 2026 · J.D. ForrestThe company behind Substack's AI-detection button raised $9M and shipped a model claiming 99% accuracy. The policy here: write with AI and nobody runs you off.
Keep Your Hands Off My Process July 28, 2026On July 21 Substack started scoring its writers for authenticity. The same detector showed the newsrooms doing the scoring have an AI problem they rarely disclose.
Everything Is Theft, Including Your Original Idea July 27, 2026Originality is a clean word for influences whose fingerprints got wiped. Pick your thieves on purpose and the work starts sounding like somebody real.
I Published 75 Medium Posts and Made $267 July 23, 2026Seventy-five Medium posts, $267, eleven zeroes. The ledger shows which of my writing readers paid for and which of it sounded like everybody else.
Twenty-Nine Posts, One Sitting July 19, 2026 · J.D. ForrestTwenty-nine unedited Dispatch drafts written in one overnight sitting, a dedup fix with more test than code, and the archive's eight-issue gap finally closed.
You're Still an Amateur (So Am I) July 6, 2026You never stop being an amateur. You just stop letting the fear of being judged keep you from starting. On the grind-guru grift, and why balance beats discipline.
Building in Public: What We Put Up This Round June 24, 2026A build log for nicheof.one: a free fiction shelf with inked covers, a manifesto, seven field guides, an Explore index, radio history, and a map you can wander.
Why Inspirational Quotes Don't Sell Anything (And What Does) June 21, 2026Hustle quotes and fortune-cookie wisdom move zero product in 2026. Here's the three-part formula that actually turns a reader into a customer.
How to Repurpose Old Content in 2026 (Without Just Reposting It) June 21, 2026A practical 2026 guide to repurposing old posts: atomize long pieces, feed AI search, turn archives into products, and point every version at something you own.
Your Competition Is You: How to Stop Comparing Your Work to Everyone Else's June 21, 2026Comparison kills more creative work than rejection ever will. A practical way to stop measuring yourself against strangers and ship the thing instead.
How I Use AI to Write Without It Eating My Voice June 21, 2026A working AI writing process for 2026. Where the machine earns its keep, where it ruins the draft, and how to keep your voice when everyone else sounds like ChatGPT.
How I Actually Work: A Writer's Tools and System in 2026 June 21, 2026The gear, software, platforms, and weekly plan one working writer runs in 2026. No secrets, no hype. Just what's on the desk and why it stays there.
Short-Form Writing: How to Cut Until It Bleeds June 20, 2026Short-form writing is editing, not writing. How to find your one idea, open hard, and cut everything that isn't load-bearing. A 2026 craft field guide.
Lazy Book Marketing That Works in 2026: Small Moves That Sell Books June 19, 2026Sustainable book marketing for authors who hate marketing. Small repeatable moves, current platforms, and why you build your own list before chasing reach.
The First Hour: One Block of Focused Work Before the World Reaches You June 19, 2026A morning routine for creative work that survives 2026. One protected block, one task you picked last night, no screens until it's done. Skip the vision boards.
Best Writing Niches in 2026: Where Buyers Actually Spend June 18, 2026The old 100-niches list is dead. In 2026 the niche that earns isn't a topic, it's a buyer with a wallet plus an angle AI can't fake. Here's how to find yours.
The Hare Was Always Going to Die June 8, 2026 · J.D. ForrestThirty years of right-brain thinking in a world built for sequences. Why AI-assisted creative work became the first tool that didn't fight the way I'm wired.
Dispatch From the Desk: The Weird Pays Rent in Exact Change June 7, 2026 · Harlan RossHarlan Ross files from a diner that may not exist on why fiction only goes strange when the ordinary around it is built dead accurate.
Dispatch from the Desk: How to Sell Without Lying June 7, 2026 · Marlon GreavesMarlon at the classifieds counter on writing short, strange, specific promo that sells because every line gets checked against the catalog before it runs.
Dispatch From the Desk: I Read for the Flat Note June 7, 2026 · Delphine OkonkwoDelphine on the one editing move that beats every grammar rule: hear the wrong note in a sentence, then cut until the line stops lying.
Creator Ops Submission Guidelines May 12, 2026What Creator Ops publishes, what we reject, and how to pitch work that actually gets accepted. An honest editorial contract between writer and editor.
let the robot sweep the floor February 6, 2026A field note on automating the dull jobs of a one-person media network without letting a machine anywhere near the sentences that matter.
Why Your Writing Sounds Like Everyone Else’s (And How to Fix It) October 29, 2025Corporate speak, hedging, and fake enthusiasm make your writing forgettable. A practical guide to finding your writing voice and sounding like a real person again.
How to Hook Readers When Everyone’s Scrolling Fast August 28, 2025Your first sentence is the only one that matters. Six hook techniques that stop the scroll, from someone who has written hundreds of articles that got read.
Five Writing Truths Nobody Talks About August 27, 2025Write short. Build real relationships. Show up every week. Own your weird. Five writing truths the productivity gurus skip because they are not sellable.
All Your AI Are Belong to Us. August 14, 2025The loudest AI detectors learned to write from the same corporate slop that trained the machines. Good writers use every tool and stay themselves.
7 Ways New Writers Can Simplify Their Workflow for Maximum Output August 12, 2025Seven practical workflow changes new writers can make today to produce consistent, quality content without burning out or overcomplicating the process.
From Article to Book August 12, 2025One article clicked. The rest was math. How I turned a single Medium post into a product that sells, and why most writers are sitting on the same opportunity.
Mastering Short-Form Writing (Without Becoming a Clickbait Machine) August 10, 2025Ten hard-won rules for short-form writing that lands -- from cutting your first paragraph in half to finishing with something that makes the reader think or act.
How I Produce Quick, Consistent, Helpful Content August 6, 2025Five practical habits for writing fast, consistently, and without burning out -- built on a military mindset that treats every article like a mission to complete.
Turn Medium Into Your Traffic Engine August 6, 2025The POSSE method lets you syndicate to Medium and keep your SEO. Publish on your own site first, set canonical links, and let Medium send readers back to you.
Use the POSSE method (post on site, syndicate everywhere.) August 6, 2025On Medium they allow you to use canonical links. These are basically links that tell search engines like Google to reference the original…
Why the AI Writing Panic Is Missing the Point August 6, 2025Writers fighting AI adoption are losing ground to writers using it for research. Your voice still matters, and AI just helps you express it faster and more often.
Six names, one engine May 20, 2025I publish under six names that never guess they share an author. Six times the work? No. Same engine, swapped faces. Here's how one person runs a studio.