First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

My musings on story openings today - how much is genre-specific, how much dictated by a culture increasingly accustomed to click-bait entrees, and how to draw the lines between what you want to creat…

I'm addressing the challenge of book marketing, how it varies by platform and how there's no formula and only one "trick" that works. Also about openings, cuing where the story is going, and the impo…

First podcast in a week! I'm back, talking about time off, unplugging our brains for maximum productive creativity, advice for creatives who can only work at the end of the day, Nomadland, and how gr…

A shout out to L. Penelope on the release of REQUIEM OF SILENCE. Also repairing Grace Draven's rep and a discussion of process types and why pre-plotting and outlining isn't the only or even best way…

Answering questions and responding to comments on Tuesday's podcast on success and our personal earnings ceilings. Thus I'm explaining a bit about how money in publishing works and how "good" books d…

My head is full of big thoughts on success, our personal ceilings of success and how those work, and how we can move past our self-imposed limitations to increase our reach as creatives. Or if that's…

An alternative to writing with a wordcount goal-and how to know which method is better for you as a writer-along with words to search for when polishing, and a pervasive device I really don't like an…

On making choices - how we decide what to prioritize in our lives and how making time to write fits into that. Spoiler: it involves sacrificing some things and making hard decisions. See also: why I …

On what a great tool tracking your own productivity can be, how to treat the information like useful data without emotional investment, and what I've learned about myself recently from over a decade …

I touch on a number of things today - being nickel and dimed (yet again) on workshops, writing our characters as avatars of ourselves and how it's a problem, and celebrating books like TWILIGHT and 5…

I geek out on the science lessons today, waxing nerdy on lily pad blossoms, phototropism, thigmotropism, and also the COVID vaccine. You never know what will be served for breakfast here! Also a hear…

Making the distinction between writing your way through a sagging middle and finding that path as an intuitive writer, and other thoughts on structure and productive creativity. Also Taoism and keepi…

On the great value of unplugging for a day, getting away from the To Do List, and rediscovering a mental space that isn't being online. Also the tale of my bookshelves and how I became a trope of mys…

How our author assistants are actual human beings with names, and who are our friends, treating assistants of all types well, the attempts at rebuttal and shaming I've been receiving, and an actual u…

I'm going full rant today because I'm just baffled by the bizarre responses - and cray pushback I'm getting - for daring to suggest writers should be paid fair value. And I'm emphasizing, people, YOU…

Examining the trope of the Reluctant King (are there ever Reluctant Queens??) and what we're really trying to show with that characterization. Also some interesting comments I've gotten on paying pre…

Why asking presenters to "graciously donate" their time creates a problem just by asking, and other thoughts on the price of volunteering, business models predicated on low or no pay, and how it disp…

How working slowly doesn't mean higher quality output, how what creators love best isn't always (or often) what their audience loves best or will buy, and how decoupling these ideas can be important …

One of the critical jobs revision should perform and other thoughts on seeding, layering, and creating internal consistency in a novel. Because writing a novel takes a long time and it's natural to f…

The importance of Platform for an author and what aspects of it are under your control and what isn't. See also: phenoms. We all want it to happen, but there are no magic formulas or handy algorithms…