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Naked Writing – 9
By Jennifer Lawler • September 29, 2026This week, I was re-reading an Ed McBain novel, Bread, and I came across a sentence that for some reason struck me: “like a stray would that you fed and now follows you home.” And that made me think of giving the narrator a grim who doesn’t leave. Then later I realized it could be… -
The Work of Middle Age
By Jennifer Lawler • September 25, 2026If youth is learning to spread your wings and fly, then I would say to be middle-aged is to fall back to earth. Once you reach a certain age, the future is no longer a limitless horizon; there is no longer your whole life ahead of you. In fact, most of it is behind you,… -
Naked Writing – 8
By Jennifer Lawler • September 22, 2026In this writing session, the idea of having Marissa turn out to be a mermaid was unexpected, but I liked it. It helps cement the idea that now that the narrator (sorry, still no name for her) has come into her power, she can see the world as it really is. It also gave me… -
What Are You Looking At?
By Jennifer Lawler • September 18, 2026Some years ago, I used to read a productivity guy’s blog and he randomly veered into proselytizing about the laws of attraction – you know, the idea that if you just think about something hard enough, you’ll manifest it. While I agree that we’re more likely to get the things we focus on, I don’t… -
Naked Writing – 7
By Jennifer Lawler • September 15, 2026This week, I decided that something needed to happen to make the narrator’s situation feel more urgent and dangerous, so I decided to have something bad happen to the investigator, Mickey. But since I don’t want there to be dead bodies already, I decided just to have him be threatened and to assume it’s because… -
Life’s Insoluble Problems
By Jennifer Lawler • September 11, 2026A while back, I ran across this quote from the French poet Christian Bobin: “I was peeling a red apple from the garden when I suddenly understood that life would only ever give me a series of wonderfully insoluble problems. With that thought an ocean of profound peace entered my heart.” I am sure the… -
Naked Writing – 6
By Jennifer Lawler • September 8, 2026This week, I wanted to give the Narrator (still no name) a bit of backstory. I decided she would be childless (though she’ll probably think of it as “child-free”). I typically don’t go that route with my protagonists but it seems to fit what I’m trying to do here, which is to focus on the… -
Just So You Know
By Jennifer Lawler • September 4, 2026My memoir is available for preorder and releases October 6, 2026. This is a happy story, although no one ever believes me when I say that. They think happiness is about piling up money in the bank, or finding your one true soul mate, or redeeming your life from sin, or praying hard enough/resonating at… -
Naked Writing – 5
By Jennifer Lawler • September 1, 2026Earlier I had the Narrator going to see the doctor because she thinks she’s hallucinating these fairy creatures. The doctor schedules some tests and recommends that the Narrator think about attending a support group for menopause. That was just going to be “things a doctor might realistically propose” but then I realized that the Narrator… -
On Writing Strong Female Characters
By Jennifer Lawler • August 28, 2026One of the reasons I’m so drawn to writing strong female characters is that it’s all too easy to absorb messages from the world around us that say we’d be happier if we gave up our power, or that we’re overreacting to treatment that everyone experiences, or that other women have always suffered from misogyny… -
Naked Writing – 4
By Jennifer Lawler • August 25, 2026In this section of the ms, I’ve given the Narrator (still don’t have a name for her) a project to do – researching a candidate from the opposition party. I’ve decide that the candidate will have something to do with the story problem so that this isn’t just a pointless side quest, but I don’t… -
Just So You Know – Releases Oct 6!
By Jennifer Lawler • August 21, 2026I used to think that I could help people understand my daughter Jessica’s situation (and not incidentally my own) by talking about it. But over the years I realized that I couldn’t make people understand if they didn’t want to understand. I came to learn that if I had to explain to grown adults why…
