My hot take is that none of these are structure. These are all recipes that describe structure.

Structure is the Salt, Fat, Acid Heat of writing.

3-Act/Hero's Journey etc are recipes.

You can make great meals without using a recipe if you understand the principles of structure.

🫡 hope you have a restful Sunday!

Good news, story breakthrough in the middle of the night.

Bad news, it was the middle of the night and I couldn’t get back to sleep.

Something I wish other writers would understand is that you do not need to take advice/feedback you're given, but if you get the same feedback repeatedly, you should probably listen.
I understand wanting to maintain your voice/vision, BUT that also means limiting your audience.
1/3

Just more thoughts on romantasy... I think if you read both genres extensively, the current crop of popular books feel very cliche? Too tropey, but not in a surprising way?

2025 was a bad reading year for me. More DNF's than usual. It's probably me, not the books faults.

However, I love reading fantasy and romance, but none of the romantasy I've tried scratches either itch well. I want YEARNING for days & a smart FL. Gimme character tension, not growly alphaholes.

Every time someone gets on Beyonce's internet to whine about adult fantasy by blaming YA, I they should have to read one (1) recently released YA book first.

Research is a skill! Here is a great guide from Bookriot on how to become well informed about your local elections. Maybe the way you help protect the right to read is by taking these skills & making a voting guide or candidate scorecards to distribute to your neighbors.

Sold some of my first short stories bc of Twitter, made some real life friends, found a bunch of creative opportunities (including my first publishing deal), learned about querying, and the publishing industry. It's been good to me in the past - though lately, I don't know if it's still true.

Working on a new first draft between edits for The Isle of Teeth. No idea when I'll finish this book, but it's making me happy. I missed writing. It's horribly clunky and my brain feels rusty, but there are 46k words on the page so far.

One rule I have for a 1st draft: Don't go back to fix things. I'll note the change in my chapter outline and keep going as if it was changed. By the end of the draft I'll know if the chapters I wrote still belong in the story, and what else needs changing. Structural/Plot fixes are for draft 2.

We're thrilled to present the shortlist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction:

Thanks for sharing!

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

I mean they all look delicious

Another twist in the cover process for The Isle of Teeth. I'm glad to be a part of it, and none of it is bad, it's just interesting to see how the revisions and ideas change with input from different publishing areas.

(It will be traditionally painted, which, YES please)

Take the 5 min. I access everything except slack, the public library, medical device monitor, and email from my browser these days

It is with great pleasure that we share with the world the cover for Memory and Magic, the romantasy debut novel of American author D. M. Beucler, created by the amazing Tara Bush! Pre-orders will open in July and the release date is October 7th, 2025. @dmbeucler.bsky.social @tarabush.bsky.social

Out today!

Happy Book Day! Congrats!

PSA:

If reading wasn’t political, they wouldn’t be banning books.

Such a cutie!