New on This Itch of Writing for supporters - what is "TV Brain prose" and how not to write it. open.substack.com/pub/emmadarw...
27.02.2026 08:31
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New on This Itch of Writing for supporters - what is "TV Brain prose" and how not to write it. open.substack.com/pub/emmadarw...
New on This Itch of Writing for supporters - what is "TV Brain prose" and how not to write it. open.substack.com/pub/emmadarw...
Isn't it heavenly? I have a ton of work to do, but I might just channel my Inner Mole and run away...
Writing a novel like this?: “The text is built from two or more narratives, alternating or just one after the other.”
Novels like these can be so powerful, but they’re harder to get right, and ask more of the reader. Have you stress-tested how yours is working? Help here:
buff.ly/g18cb8S
With apologies again for the IT meltdown, hoping that people will be receiving our newsletter right now, and with links to all stories to follow - we're delighted to announce the 2025/26 GBP Short Story Prize longlist:
Hi, if you’re asking AI to write your book you’re not actually writing. You’re poking a Frankenparrot fashioned from rotting flesh on stolen bones covered in the feathers of a million other birds. You’re condoning theft. You’re trashing our planet. You’re robbing yourself of the chance to grow
Absolute shocker of a rights grab - academics may want to push back hard
Lincoln Michel's “TV-brain prose” is exactly right: the kind of prose which is awful in a way which is hard to pin down unless you recognise how it comes about. You really, really don't want to be reading it, let alone writing it:
buff.ly/kZQteLN
Brand-new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: how verbs work as the engine-room of your prose and your story, and how working with them can raise your storytelling from just OK to something special: buff.ly/oG0TP2c
Brand-new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: how verbs work as the engine-room of your prose and your story, and how working with them can raise your storytelling from just OK to something special: buff.ly/oG0TP2c
Nice one! Although I think I would always add, ignore the rule, but try to understand the consequences of ignoring it.
e.g. If a "rule" currently declared by a lot of readers or industry folk is contradicted by a book you adore but written a century ago then you may find yours hard to sell.
Brand-new on This Itch of Writing for supporters: how verbs work as the engine-room of your prose and your story, and how working with them can raise your storytelling from just OK to something special. buff.ly/oG0TP2c
Has it occurred to Meta that the utter uselessness of their Windows desktop version is NOT driving me towards the phone app so they can get a better grip on my data, but driving me away from Threads altogether?
Not a journo, proper or otherwise, but 'consistently' does imply that he's denied it in several contexts, over time, which could be relevant. 'strenuously' less so... Though I suppose you could say it's an attempt to capture the flavour of the denial: a bland 'No', vs 'absoute, total nonsense'
Cartoon
“When someone says ‘must’, or ‘don’t’ about writing (rather than ‘try’ or ‘maybe not’) spend a moment thinking of a circumstance in which it would be exactly what you should do.”
How to parse the “rules” that get bandied about, and my own tools (not rules, never rules!) of writing: buff.ly/bCwK3bp
Ever wondered about chapter length? About where to place that break...? Here is @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social on just that question! #booksky
This is an excellent exploration of the writing-prize ecosystem, and a checklist for how to tell the good and useful prizes from the bad and useless ones.
Chapter breaks are an unexpectedly powerful tool in your writing tool-kit. The average length in contemporary fiction is only one thing to think about, and probably not the most important. So what should you be thinking about, when you're wondering how to structure your chapters? buff.ly/kAop6rA
There's still time before 11am to
a) become an Itch of Writing Supporter here: emmadarwin.substack.com/subscribe
b) make coffee/pour a drink
c) post your question on today’s Ask Me Anything Q&A Chat: substack.com/chat/2036854...
And if you do, you'll find me A-ing the Qs until noon! Do join us!
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 126556:
Conflict in a story doesn't necessary have to be violent. Internal conflict can drive a plot as well as external opposition. Same goes for conflict with Nature, or society, or family, or a disease, or mental illness. Find your conflict, find your plot driver.
Wow! That's very young for a first memory, too.
Of course! They just pretend to be trains so they don't get spotted.
Ah, I know that feeling: it's home, isn't it! Although I was actually born 3mins from the Picadilly/District/Circle lines, but after 30 years in the Tubeless wilderness of South East London, being above the Northern and 8 mins from the Victoria line is bliss!
Many writing-craft terms are confusing to new writers. And then comes a separate question: what do they do about the feedback? Here @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social unravels the term ‘conflict’. emmadarwin.substack.com/p/q-and-a-wh... #writingcommunity #writingtips
The northbound Northern Line passes under my house - I can feel and hear it, the way you can in the stalls of many West End theatres. As a born-and-bred Londoner it makes me feel comforted and at home.
A screen snip. At the top is a sentence pointing out that the Northern Line tube line closely follows the route of the Roman Road, Stane Street. Beneath are two maps, on the left Stane street is shown with settlements including Morden, Tooting, Clapham and Kennington marked. On the right is another map with the modern northern line shown. All of the settlements on the stane street map are duplicated on the tube map.
We've been on the Northern Line. The idea that it's 2000 years old seems completely reasonable.
So you’re basing your story on a real place - but should you disguise and fictionalise it, or stick to the real geography, names and details? Help here to think through what you’ll gain, and what you might lose, with either approach:
buff.ly/Ivmsmps
New on This Itch of Writing for everyone: when you’ve been told there’s “not enough conflict” in your story, what can you do?
buff.ly/BYB7aqN Link in bio or search this itch of writing
Q&A: What to do when you've been told there's not "Not enough conflict" in your story, by Emma Darwin emmadarwin.substack.com/p/q-and-a-wh... @emmadarwinwriter.bsky.social #writing #WritingCommunity