Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/31/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/31/20

Happy New Year!

Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/28/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/28/20

Making New Year’s Resolutions? Resolve to Follow This Advice!

Will you be writing new year’s resolutions that will support your writing practice and help it flourish?

Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/14/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/14/20

Do You Have Title Envy?

Most authors function perfectly well putting the story first, and that actually may be exactly the way it should be. Yet here I remain.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/7/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 12/7/20

Is Fiction a Lie?

The fact that these truths are wrapped up in a story is what gives them power. It contextualizes them and shows, sometimes dramatically, what they mean to us.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 11/29/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 11/29/20

Lose Yourself in a Story—And Find Someone Else

So—read fiction. Read lots of fiction. Read about life on imagined planets and life in 12th-century France. Read about people who build castles and people who are driven to madness. Read about good people, broken people, strong people, evil people.

They’ll all make you a better person. Promise!

Jeannette de Beauvoir 11/25/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 11/25/20

Finding Stories by Excavating the Past

There’s nothing more annoying than reading a novel and coming across a glaring mistake—it makes you lose trust in the writer. So it’s always been important for me to create fiction that nestles inside fact, so to speak.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 11/3/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 11/3/20

The Truth is Often Inconvenient

Any attempts to restore truth as a functioning part of the cultural landscape have been only marginally successful… I recognize there are times when lying is both unavoidable and necessary. But it should never happen because the truth is inconvenient. It should never cause a government, a country, or a person to betray their humanity.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 10/13/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 10/13/20

The Marvelously, Impossibly Dark Magic of Twin Peaks

I’m all for escapism at the moment, and recently I managed to dig out my DVD set of the original David Lynch Twin Peaks series that became such a cult classic. And it drew me in all over again. I’m not a film-maker, but I am a fellow storyteller, and this time around I didn’t just immerse myself in its magic, but tried to analyze how it did what it did.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 9/29/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 9/29/20

What Makes Empires Die (and why we’re up next)

So what do we do? The United States under Donald Trump (and he did not create the empire, but has mismanaged it to the point of accelerating its decline) is essentially a “dead empire walking;” it’s all but impossible to return to a healthier point in the trajectory.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 9/11/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 9/11/20

Stop Writing Their Words Inside Your Head!

if I read one author for too long, I start thinking/daydreaming/trying to sleep, and whatever it is I’m imagining, however far from the author’s own setting and characters, I do it in their voice.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 9/6/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 9/6/20

Finding Your Muse

Someone or something inspires you—to feel, to seek, to grow, to write. To write better. You may have different names for this entity—spouse, friend, teacher. For many of us, the name is muse.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 8/23/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 8/23/20

Should Fiction Be Divorced from Politics?

Politics are shaped by people, and people can be shaped by the fiction they read—though not always in ways the author intended.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 8/17/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 8/17/20

Is That Hope?

I didn’t finish watching the series this time around, and a thought came into my head: they couldn’t have done this show now.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 7/31/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 7/31/20

The Cards You’re Dealt

Knowing what to do with the cards in our hand may not be as efficacious as being able to determine what they are, but it’s a hell of a lot better than just giving up because you don’t like them.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 7/23/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 7/23/20

Crisis Creativity: Creating When the World is Falling Apart

With so much going on, creativity can either thrive or vanish.

Jeannette de Beauvoir 7/9/20 Jeannette de Beauvoir 7/9/20

Language and Racism

I am a white woman who grew up not only with white privilege but with economic privilege as well. And until fairly recently, I’ve also been something of a curmudgeon when it comes to language usage and grammar.

That’s not a very good combination.