Process

What Survives After Editing
Writing usually starts out in a worse form than people ever get to see. It comes out messy, repetitive, overexplained, and half-formed. Editing is where you go back, cut what’s dead, fix what’s weak, and keep only what still holds. That’s the point where writing either gets better or gets abandoned.
By Annam M Gordon14 days ago in Writers
A truth
If you have a truth it could never be taken away from you no matter how quiet it sounds when you say it out loud, it could never be taken away from you no matter if people try and squash it down or dilute the tears it’s cried out, it will remain and be fulfilled, it can never be taken away from you.
By Ruhani Khadijah14 days ago in Writers
Forget the "Audience Building" Trap
There is a persistent, soul-crushing lie circulating in the writing world. You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Build a massive audience first, then figure out how to make money.”
By abualyaanart15 days ago in Writers
When USCIS Questions Roles That Seem to Span Multiple Specialties
A Multiple Specialty Occupations Request for Evidence is issued when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services believes a position may fall under more than one field of study. This raises questions about whether the role truly requires a specific bachelor’s degree in a particular specialty.
By Sheila Danzig15 days ago in Writers
How Editing Changes the “AI Score” More Than Writing
The first time I saw this happen, the draft itself was ordinary. A student wrote it in her own voice, with the usual uneven rhythm people have when they are trying to explain something they actually understand. Then she edited it for an hour. She cleaned every sentence, trimmed every extra word, made the transitions smoother, and ran the whole thing through a detector. The score went up.
By Karen Covey16 days ago in Writers
I Forced Myself to Write Every Day for a Year. Here’s What Actually Stuck
Creativity, discipline, and building habits that survive bad days On a Tuesday night last year, I opened my notes app and saw a number I didn’t expect.
By abualyaanart17 days ago in Writers
Text and Subtext
Haiku of Now challenge results were released on Friday. Haiku challenges are easy winners’ page reads, but good grief, the judges had to slog through over 1300, minus the ones that were disqualified for not adhering. A couple of mine probably fell into that pile—if you read beyond the blurb, it was a very specific challenge—no past, no reflection, no past tense, no interpretation—just a lived-in moment. Some of mine reflected or interpreted, may have even had a past tense verb somewhere.
By Harper Lewis18 days ago in Writers
A Year Later
This time last year, I was going out of my mind. Even had a bad mushroom trip on my birthday. Bad idea out of the gate, that one.
By Harper Lewis18 days ago in Writers
Rewriting My First Fantasy Novel and Getting it Right this Time
For some time now, I've had it in my mind to revisit my very first self published novel, in an attempt to rewrite the book and make it better.
By Justiss Goode18 days ago in Writers
“I Tried Automating AI News for a Year It Nearly Destroyed My Reputation”
Spoiler: the easiest money on the internet usually costs you your reputation first. Last November, I opened my email and saw the subject line:
By abualyaanart18 days ago in Writers
The Old Way: Random Scripts, Random Wins
Not because I learned some secret library — but because I stopped treating Python like a collection of tricks. The turning point was a pull request review with a single comment from my tech lead:
By abualyaanart18 days ago in Writers
The Journalism Standard I Still Trust:
I still remember being taught that words were supposed to do a job. Not decorate. Not posture. Not smuggle opinion into the room dressed as fact.
By Dr. Mozelle Martin19 days ago in Writers