The Drabble Iterations in Squiggle's Essays 2026-03-08 Or: the world in a grain of sand 7.0k words
A novelist sets foot inside a poet’s house and is at once jealous of the furniture. Rhyme schemes, meter, stanza forms — and what do we have? Word count?
Let’s go shopping.
Theories of Narrative Harmony in Squiggle’s Essays 2025-08-16 an étude for story structure 16.2k words
Three acts, eight steps, a hundred different takes. Everyone has their own way to butcher and rearrange the hero’s journey. I’m no different—I take that rearrangement to the logical conclusion. Also: aren’t dragons just the coolest?
Timelines That Twist and Fray in Twist, Define, Ramify 2025-05-07 Time Splices, Retrocausally Deepening A\*, and Toxic Yuri Selfcest 2.8k words
So, I thought of a neat little time travel mechanic. What I want to talk about today is yet another Fixed History Model. For mechanical reasons, instances of time travel are always paired sequentially. You could call this time splicing. Or better yet, a time share :\^)
Creative Extrapolation in Twist, Define, Ramify 2024-12-23 Quick Notes on Worldbuilding 1.9k words
For me, the key to developing a speculative element is to first associate, then extrapolate. Or, to put it metaphorically, I find a sapling of an idea, uproot it, graft it, then replant it in new soil to let it grow until even its branches have branches.
An Imitation on Three Levels in Write by Constriction 2024-10-04 Notes on Mimicking Character 2.6k words
Like my last tumblr post turned essay, this one is a bit more informal than my usual work. Context dictates form as well as style; these posts leaned on Murder Drones examples in contrast to my typical unexmplified abstraction. hi again! I have another question😭 do you have any tips on writing pre-existing characters? (while still adding more to the table of course.) How do you keep it in character? like how you write J or Uzi for example.
My Act Two Reversal in Write by Constriction 2024-09-10 Vindicating the Conventional Wisdom 3.9k words
I once decried the three act structure. I once called "beginning, middle, and end" the worst of high school english class truisms. And yet, when someone came to me asking for advice, what's the most appropriate thing I thought I could say?
Flesh on the Wrong Bone in Write by Constriction 2024-07-19 A Model for (Re)Writing Scenes 3.9k words
We've been over this before: a scene is people doing stuff in a place with a twist. But is that formula enough for a scene? No, it's missing something. This is a recipe, not a meal. So how do we get cooking?
Stylistic Annealing in Write by Constriction 2024-04-15 Why Even Bad Rules Lead to Better Results 2.7k words
Don't use adverbs. Don't use adjectives. Don't use 'was' or 'like' or 'which'. Don't follow these rules. I'm waffling. I want to talk about the process of writing better prose. Again.
Pacing is Madness in Write by Constriction 2024-02-08 A Breakneck Meditation 3.1k words
We say stories are slow reads or page-turners. Sections drag, or happen too fast. Every reader seems to have a speedometer -- except me. Does pacing exist? I've made a fool of myself by insisting it doesn't. It's a meme, we made it up as a joke. But I can hone the delivery.
The Twelve Prosaic Virtues in Write by Constriction 2023-12-15 An Analysis of Style 4.3k words
What is prose? How do you recognize it? Prose is the thoughtful selection and careful arrangement of words. But if you really want to understand it, you're better off ditching the word. It means at least twelve different things.
Notes on Drawing Mantis Dicks in Squiggle's Essays 2023-12-01 Dead Dove (Do Not Eat) 2.4k words
Anatomically correct bugfucking is in a dire state. It's time to fix that.
Wheels Within Wheels in Write by Constriction 2023-06-17 The Formal Art of Spinning Scenes 17.3k words
Once that snippet of prose runs out of steam, how do you continue it? What's the next sentence, the next paragraph? You have ideas, but nothing flows right, does it? And once you've outlined all the broad bits of plot, how do you actually start write it? You know what needs to happen next, but that next line isn't coming. Let's fix that.
Outlines as Temporarily Embarrassed Drafts in Write by Constriction 2022-08-03 A Guide to Planning 5.7k words
The second thing to always keep in mind is you don't want to be outlining. Your goal here isn't to produce a finished outline --- I never have. The only rule of writing is tell your story, and you only need enough outline to accomplish that. Here's what you need.
Actions are Louder in Write by Constriction 2022-07-10 Thoughts On Writing Characters 2.3k words
There are no characters, only actions. If the illusion of 'character' arises from an urge to correlate actions to some underlying reality beyond the page, then a problem of characters must be solved by improving actions, not the implied reality.
Dissecting the False Hydra in Twist, Define, Ramify 2022-06-25 an essay 7.4k words
Where do false hydras come from? Are they creatures that propagate themselves? spell effects? spontaneous generations? What, exactly, does a false hydra sing? What grants its these antimemetic properties? It's not about falsehood. It's about cognitive dissonance.
The Ur-Development in Write by Constriction 2022-06-06 Another Universal Theory of Plot 6.1k words
Surely the rules of writing are much more complicated? No, I think I could give them in a sentence. Writing — all writing, really, not just fiction — is on setup and payoff, question and answer, tension and release. The rest is corollary.
Xenodeterminism in Twist, Define, Ramify 2022-05-23 An Alien Manifesto 6.5k words
Xenofiction is a challenge for the imagination. It fails by failing to imagine. How do you allow a xeno to be like humans without it being falsely familiar? How do you make them truly different, rather than falsely alien? I've never found anyone giving a good answer. I'm going to fix that.
Sensory Reification in Write by Constriction 2022-05-19 The Advanced Lecture on “Show, Don’t Tell” 5.4k words
If you’re reading this essay, you’ve heard it. It’s the first piece of advice anyone in the market for writing advice hears. But don’t tell me to “show don’t tell”, show me.
Why does it work? Because it sounds better? Because it deeply engages the reader? Because it’s what Good Writing is? Sure, but why?
There are seven reasons.
A Small Theory of Detail in Write by Constriction 2022-05-06 What are the little moments for? 1.6k words
I’m not going to say much here that’s new, but the framing might be. I want to talk a bit about detail in stories. Why do stories need details? What purpose do they serve, and when is that detail unnecessary?
You could say stories are arguments, logical explanations of a series of events. You have a premise (a land of dragons and wizards ruled by a evil king, awaiting a chosen one), which poses some interesting question (how do they depose of the evil king?), and the stories exists to explain the answer to that question.
Some Thoughts on Fight Scenes in Write by Constriction 2021-06-10 an essay 1.3k words
What is a fight scene? Nothing more than dialogue by others means. There's spectacle, too --- after all, prose is a visual medium.
A Closer Look At Time Travel and Probability in Twist, Define, Ramify 2020-04-28 an essay 6.2k words
I discuss several models for assigning probability to timelines under the assumption that time travel is possible, but paradoxes are absolutely impossible, as is the case in many fictional worlds. The models are mathematically precise, and illuminate issues that have previously confused many people about what sort of timelines are "most likely".
Emphasis and Stuff in Write by Constriction 2019-06-01 an essay 1.4k words
I'm told I write good prose, and there are a few topics that come up again and again when I'm line editing for other people, so I decided I could write a short article or two about the sorts of things I think about when editing prose. Today I decided to write about emphasis and stuff.