First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

Trying to apply lessons in fight scenes and creating tension from my study of Leviathan Wakes vs. the screenwriting in The Expanse. Also discussion of midpoints, climactic scenes, and poking at the d…

How the adaptation of Leviathan Wakes to screen in The Expanse is a great lesson in tightening story and increasing conflict and tension. Also updates on a free workshop and my various projects.

I'm …

I'm trying a transcript! (And not editing it. Okay, I made two edits, but it spelled my name wrong...) I'm also musing about creativity, how that can be measured (and NOT), and a possible trend in mo…

A blooper-filled Monday podcast today, but I do offer some coherent thoughts on why "send your best work" is one of the two pieces of advice I hate most. Also, what's needed to make a living from you…

I forgot to mention I'm doing a workshop at Beastly Books in Santa Fe on Feb. 5! What I do talk about is one-hit wonders, what they are and what success and failure do and don't mean. 

See the attach…

Observing my own process and how tweaking the variables has enabled me to increase my productivity this week! I'm discussing what factors I've identified as most important for best productive creativ…

The DARK WIZARD audiobook is out! More on what readers bring to a book, thorny female leads, ageism,  subjectivity and anecdotal evidence vs. empirical data and how I'm not actually slowing down, it …

Thoughts on Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood as a memoir (and autobiographical novel), and what makes memoirs work - or not work! Also a report on my mini-break, GREY MAGIC, and writing speed.

You can ord…

More on Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and why some books and films hold up where others don't. Also reflections on my old day job, how memories work, and why treating assistants well is a key courtesy…

Discussing my reread of Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood and how differently I'm seeing it now as opposed to when I first read it in my early 20s, and other musings on mood reading and why we bounce off …

Retellings vs. tropes and what illuminates a story. Also thoughts on friendships, and how they can be situational (occupational?) and thus pass away when the situation does. Do professional relations…

Thoughts on ways to actively engage in compassion for other people and what they might be going through, regardless of how they treat you, and final resolution on my health care rollover debacle.

You …

A report on my weekend, including why I didn't post yesterday, and dealing with the insurance marketplace, one of the great frustrations of being a self-employed writer, and balancing the good with t…

Happy Friday! I'm talking about the beauty of in-person conversations and how that simply can't be replicated online. Also a bit about fight scenes vs. sex scenes, and whether art can be objectively …

What I've been doing this week to improve my concentration and return to my previous wordcount output - and other thoughts on doomscrolling, the attention economy, and choosing the happy.

The Santa Fe…

I'm sharing thoughts on what it really means to be a "full-time writer" vs. actually supporting yourself (and others) entirely with your writing income, what kind of planning is involved, and the vag…

What we can learn from population biology on strategizing our writing careers, why there's so much push to track ad spend and sales but not investigating our own creative process, and a big F**K OFF …

My final installment on tracking the metrics of your creative work. If you track ad sales numbers, why not the fundamental work that makes the rest possible. As promised, I give a summary of my own m…

How to ensure that setting goals isn't "setting yourself up for failure," more on our relationship with observing ourselves with compassion and scientific distance, and what this has to do with knife…

Continuing my series on tracking your productivity and why I think it's super important for both traditionally published and self-published authors. I delve a bit more into the metrics I track and wh…