Welcome to the Writers Roost!

Thanks for subscribing and welcome to your first entry in the Writers Roost. As an introduction, here’s a bit of background on what this newsletter is and what you can expect from it.

So why, “Writers Roost”? Well, Writers Roost is a play on words with Robbers Roost, the famous hideout for outlaws in the American Wild West. Notably, it was a hideout for the outlaw Butch Cassidy, someone I’ve been obsessed with since I was a kid. Since in my experience, creative writers are a bunch of chaotic rule breakers, this seemed fitting.

This outlaw connection seems to fit with what I plan on writing about too, since Butch Cassidy’s gang was known as the Wild Bunch, and a lot of what I have to say is a wild bunch of tips and advice, some of which you might be familiar with, but some of it will be fresh. I’m going to talk a lot about what I view are the fundamentals - but because it’s me, and because there’s always going to be a part of me that rebels against anyone saying “this is the only way you can do things,” I’m going to teach those fundamentals, but hopefully with a different flavor than you’re used to.

I’ve been very lucky in my journey of creative writing to be mentored by and taught by some people with very impressive resumes. I’ve learned a lot and would love to pay that forward. You can expect a lot of my newsletters to focus on distillations of the advice I’ve gotten over the years, mixed with my own perspective on everything from act structure in stories, to even being mindful of some complex philosophical ideas and how to implement that in your writing.

I hope that there will be a level of collaboration to this newsletter too. I like the idea of the Writers Roost being a place for creative writers to hang out, so even though there isn’t really a way for that to happen currently, every newsletter I send will come from an email address you can respond to. This way you can give me feedback, ask questions, and expand on ideas you thought were interesting. I might even feature something you say in a future newsletter.

Depending on the success of the Roost, I have further ideas for content that could be valuable. I’d love to create a handful of short podcast type content pieces that go into deeper depth on topics people have questions about. I’ve thought about writing some ebooks on fun topics I’m sure I’ll cover briefly in this newsletter, but people might want more of (expect several entries on how the Ninja Turtles are a masterclass in storytelling). We might even see opportunities in the future to watch my writing process and see how I outline, how I draft, and my process for completing a story. I’ve got a lot of ideas, but I’m only going to pursue those if it seems worthwhile to people.

I’m sure this will evolve as I go, but you can expect an entry once every week, or every two weeks at the very least. Also, since we are a bunch of outlaws, forgive any grammatical issues, as at least initially, I don’t plan on having an editor take a look at these before sending them out. Feel free to point out any mistakes so that I can revise them for the archive, but also let’s just relax and be grateful copy editors exist. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

Welcome to the Writers Roost.

-Jacob