It’s that time of year again: when the lifestyle choice that is writing comes under interrogation by the rest of the world asking, “What’s your New Year’s Resolution?” So we buy new notebooks, and we ...

Nobody wants cool books. Thought-provoking—yes. Genre-bending—bring it. Heartfelt—always. Virtuosic examples of form and craft all, filled with compelling characters and well-realized settings. But...

I use Sun Tzu as an excuse to be a burrowing rabbit of a person. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says that you should always leave yourself a means of escape. When you get into a fight, knowing you’ve got ...

I want to empower you to start your marketing as soon as you finish reading this blog.

There is a clear and precise reason why writing a query letter feels like experiencing a break from reality. They’re not just hard: they feel like being broken. We know how to write. We just wrote a b...

I’m nearly ready to tie the bow on a creative project. A novel in this case.

ALT: a man in a green shirt is sitting in a chair and making a face .

Test your ideas for a few years. That’s how you know if they work.

ALT: a man wearing glasses and a suit says that wasn 't terribly funny ..

This is how you know if your idea will work: test it for a few years. And since you can’t do that for every thought, try this instead. It’s a rigorous, safe, and much shorter process.

Radkey · Single · 2025 · 1 songs

Rise Against · I Want It All · Song · 2025

I collect stories about stories. One of my favorite ones is the story that none of the successful Die Hard movies began life as Die Hard movies. The first Die Hard movie’s script started as a sequel t...

illuminati hotties · Nickel on the Fountain Floor · Song · 2025

Laura Jane Grace · Active Trauma · Song · 2025

ALT: a group of star trek characters are standing around a man in a yellow uniform

ALT: a bald man in a purple uniform is smiling .

ALT: a man with a beard and mustache is holding a cup of coffee .

ALT: a man in a purple jacket is fishing in a swamp

ALT: a black and white photo of two men standing on a dirt road holding swords .

Tropical Fuck Storm · Teeth Marché · Song · 2025

RJBarker published a post on Ko-fi

ALT: a man with glasses and a ponytail is standing in front of a body of water

I decided a few years ago that I needed to take my career more seriously. I knew how to write sentences, and sort of knew how to write stories. What I was missing, I decided, was open mic nights. I kn...

ALT: a man wearing a hat and scarf is smiling in a scene from the only murders in the building

ALT: a black and white photo of a samurai holding a sword in his hand .

Box Car Racer · Album · 2002 · 13 songs

Mclusky · the world is still here and so are we · Song · 2025

Led Zeppelin · Physical Graffiti (Remaster) · Song · 1975

I’m new to this. Already having a lot of fun, though. I’m excited to start seeing books from the RMFW community. I have pre-emptive glee at the sense of being a small part in discovering one of the gr...

Wall Of Voodoo · Guilty Pleasures · Song · 2010

A field guide to the beings humanity populates the shadows with.

Two guys quit their jobs, then space zombies in a casino.

A phrase stitched together one of the more mind-altering critiques I ever got on a story. Half of it was a common phrase, and an often maligned one. Maligned by those of us of the “you must have a thi...

A phrase stitched together one of the more mind-altering critiques I ever got on a story. Half of it was a common phrase, and an often maligned one. Maligned by those of us of the “you must have a thi...

Cosmo Jarvis · Think Bigger (2020 Deluxe Edition) · Song · 2020

Small talk sucks. The reason it sucks is counter-intuitive. “Because I prefer deeper relationships,” is the reason we share with each other, right? That’s sort of wrong.I’ll tell you why. It came to m...