Hi Reader, Make Money (and Magic!) with Magazine ArticlesBecause your brilliant words deserve more than a dusty hard drive. You already know I’m a big fan of turning one creative idea into multiple streams of income—hello, How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel! But here’s a format you may not have considered: writing articles for magazines. Yes, magazines! The glossy kind. The digital kind. The niche-local-weirdly-specific kind. All of them. Surprise! Print isn’t dead. In fact, there are...

Hi Reader, Inspired by the Fourth of July, let’s explore how American identity has shaped some of our most iconic fictional characters—and how you can use those archetypes (or subvert them!) in your own work. From noble heroes to scrappy rebels to underestimated underdogs, American storytelling leans hard into a particular brand of mythmaking. Here are a few of the most enduring archetypes in pop culture and how you can use, remix, or subvert them in your own work: The Idealistic Hero: Truth,...

Hi Reader, Happy Independence Day! While we’re celebrating freedom, sparklers, and possibly overcooked hot dogs, I’d like to propose another kind of liberty worth toasting: The freedom to write terribly.Yes, you heard me. Awkward dialogue, clunky exposition, inconsistent characters, plot holes you could drive a truck through—bring it all on. First drafts are supposed to be messy.Not “kind of messy,” not “slightly unpolished.”I mean leaving your notebook open during a windstorm kind of messy....