Or "How My Vacation Spread Across Time." Welcome to 2026, folks. Here's to it being better than 2025. That's a low bar, too, so it should be that hard to clear, right? Insert the Star Wars Anakin-Padme meme here. Okay, so why title this The Slow Return? Well ... I got sick. I returned from visiting family last Thursday, and immediately got to work on readying a personal project.

Hey writers! Welcome back! We are on the last days of our vacation here on the site (even if it is a staycation in many respects) and celebrating the New Year, so this week is once more a visit from a Classic Being a Better Writer post of yesteryear. However, as the last two posts have dug nearly a decade into our archives, today we're looking at something that is…

Hello again writers! We're away from our keyboard this week enjoying the holidays, but that doesn't mean the writing advice needs to slow down, especially with a backlog as deep as Being a Better Writer's! So, while we're catching up on our reading and gaming backlog, have this near decade-old Classic BaBW post to enjoy! Hit that jump, and we'll see you with fresh content again soon. Read More ...

Well, this is it. Another year on Unusual Things. Another Christmas is upon us at last. I'm not going to wax nostalgic about the site's performance over the year here, don't worry. As my schedule has gotten more packed with work and the site has grown, such posts have increasingly become less important. Especially now that I have to manually filter out AI scraping hits, which are an everyday occurrence and completely skew the numbers.

Welcome, writers! I'm off this week for Christmas, so this week won't be a new Being a Better Writer post but a returning classic. And it'll be the same next week as well. But, being topical, we've decided to dig back into an old worldbuilding post on the concept of holidays themselves! Oh, but really quick, there IS one item of news.

Welcome again writers! We're back for our last non-Classic post before the Christmas Break ... and interestingly enough it's about breaks. Go figure! Something that, if you check out last week's news post, you'll hear a little more on. But, that news post was pretty sparse because of this post being so topical, so today we're just going to jump right in and talk about it!

Yeah, the title is a pun. I ... took this week off. Until today, which is why there's a Being a Better Writer post coming Monday, as promised. Why? Well ... Sunday night I realized that I was in the depths of burnout. Bad. And I thought "I'll take a day. Really take a day" (rather than "taking a day but working on other writing projects" like I did during Thanksgiving).

Welcome back, writers! Monday here, post-Thanksgiving break, and that means we're back delivering Being a Better Writer for you to read. Or, more accurately from the site traffic these days, for AI to steal and barf up as part of the slop somewhere else that someone paid a couple of bucks for. Yes, I'm still getting inundated with AI scrapers and quite unhappy about it.

Hey folks! Got some cool news for the Holiday season here: Axtara - Armies and Accounting has official entered the first round of Alpha Editing. Invites have been sent out, Alpha Readers have access, and the first bits of feedback on Axtara's third adventure have begun to trickle in! Unfortunately, that's almost all the positive news? I'll note that I'll be taking my usual Christmas to New Year's break soon, which is further made a big deal by the fact that I'll be out of town and spending time with family for Christmas.

Hey writers! As foretold with last week's Being a Better Writer, this week I'm off from making a new post on account of Thanksgiving weekend. That said, we're taking a look at a classic BaBW post that still sees a regular number of hits because ... Well, just look at that title. No preamble, nothing else to discuss (as said, I'm off for the weekend). So without further ado, hit the jump, and let's revisit this classic. The Jump (AKA Read more) ...

Welcome back writers! It's Monday once again, which of course means it's time for another installment of Being a Better Writer. You know, as evidenced by that title up there. Now, as you may also have gathered from that title, we've got an interesting topic to cover for today, one that's been on my mind for quite some time. Even before it ended up on the Topic List, in fact.

Yeah, this one's late. I decided to write next week's Being a Better Writer first. Also, there's not too much to talk about. Obviously editing work on Armies and Accounting continues as I move toward the Alpha. I'm at a tricky spot where I want to split a chapter into two ... but there's no clean point to do so.

In case you haven't heard, editing on Axtara - Armies and Accounting, aka the third Axtara book, has begun! Which is why today, below the jump, you'll find an excerpt from the opening chapter in the form of a letter received by Axtara from her older sister Finix! Who you may or may not meet in this book. Yeah, that's pretty much the news.

Welcome back writers! After last week's live Being a Better Writer Q&A session (which actually spent much of its time talking about the upcoming Axtara - Armies and Accounting), we're back to the classic written posts for this week. As always, there was a news post last week that you should probably check out, especially if you're curious about a very interesting (in a bad way)AI move from Amazon that directly impacts authors.

Hey folks! Sorry for the quiet week. It's just been work work work mostly as usual, with not a lot to report on that angle that you haven't heard before. Draft work on A Pirate Planet has been completed, which means Pre-Alpha editing has begun on Axtara - Armies and Accounting. Also known as "That third Axtara book." Oh yeah. It's coming.

Hello writers! Today is going going to be a bit different here at Being a Better Writer. While we're going to link to a classic post below the jump and at the bottom of the post, the real attraction today isn't a post, but rather a live question and answer session held on the Makalay Camp (the site's Discord). That's right, you'll be able to hear the sound of my voice answering your writing questions.

Hey folks. Not too much to report on the news end of things. I'm doing some closing work on the draft of A Pirate Planet (I got so excited to reach the end I forgot I'd dropped markers for some interlude/flashback chapters, and now I've been writing those), so I haven't quite started editing work on Axtara 3 yet. Next week, then, as there are only two interludes left to go (and the interludes are shorter than full chapters).

Welcome back, writers! Monday is here, and with it another installment of Being a Better Writer! As usual, there's last week's news post to check out, so if you'd like to do that (and I recommend it, obviously), that link is here. Unfortunately for you, if Monday is the only time you see these, then you missed out on an event this last weekend.