Category Archives: Writing Advice

Cartoon: Why Democrats Lost

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Ampersand

It’s another timelapse drawing video! See me change my mind about the final figure’s pose! See me make a last minute decision to add in a kicker panel! See me go through dozens of possible colors which felt to me like … Continue reading →

Posted in brains, Cartooning & comics, convention, dog, Dogs, Elections and politics, friendship, Guest of Honor, Interviews, Jenna Moran, Mandolin, metaphior, My publications, Patreon, science, SFF, Writing Advice | 21 Comments

Cartoon: Personal Vehicle Arms Race

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Ampersand

This comic was drawn by my most frequent collaborator, Becky Hawkins. Becky writes: I’ve been a bike-commuter for twelve years and in that time I’ve noticed the average vehicle size getting bigger. There’s something unnerving about waiting at a red light … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Interviews, Mandolin, My publications, Patreon, Writing Advice | Leave a comment

Cartoon: Things Were So Much Better Then

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Ampersand

This cartoon is drawn by Jenn Lee, who added so many great 1970s details! Jenn and I sometimes work sharing a table at a coffee shop, and she’d sometimes laugh aloud as she thought of more 70s details to squeeze in, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Interviews, Mandolin, My publications, Patreon, Writing Advice | 6 Comments

Cartoon: The Criminalizing Homelessness Cycle

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Ampersand

On Governing Magazine’s website, Thea Sebastian, Hanna Love and Tahir Duckett wrote: Criminalizing homelessness is bad financially and bad for public safety. Homelessness and incarceration have long been linked, as many people shuttle between jails, prisons, emergency rooms and the streets. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like, Interviews, Mandolin, My publications, Patreon, Writing Advice | 4 Comments

Learn the Rules Before You Break Them. Or Don’t.

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Mandolin

I’m teaching my class on how to break the rules on Saturday, May 25th. Rules can put fiction in a box; let’s talk about ways to explode out of it. There’s an old adage: Learn the rules before you break … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in classes, Essays, Writing Advice | 3 Comments

The Words Are Always There — Poetic Tools for Prose Writers

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Mandolin

Poetry is focused on words. So is prose! But the way we talk about words in poetry is different from the way we talk about them in prose. Merging the perspectives of poetry and prose has benefitted me enormously as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Writing a Recalcitrant Character

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Mandolin

(This essay was posted 7 days early on my Patreon. Thank you to all my patrons!) I wrote this on a writers forum, about my current progress in writing my Tor.com novella, “Woman in the Tower Window.” It’s an interesting … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Why I Write in Cafes

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Mandolin

I’ve been writing a lot in cafes recently. Well, mostly one cafe, but I’ve dallied with others. It’s a nice cafe. It’s located next to a bus stop that has a route to most of the places I want to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Why I Write in Cafes

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Mandolin

Posted in Writing Advice | 3 Comments

How do you handle writer’s block?

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Mandolin

There are a few different kinds of writer’s block. One kind is medical. If one of my chronic illnesses is flaring up, I may not be able to write. It’s hard to write through a migraine, for instance. It’s also … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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