How to Keep Writing After Rejection: Martin Short’s 80% Rule
Reading Time: 3 minutesIs failure normal in a creative career? In the Netflix documentary Marty, Life Is Short, Martin Short calls his own career 80% failure. This article unpacks his 80% Rule for writers: why endurance matters as much as talent, how to build creative confidence that survives rejection, and four better questions to ask than “Did this succeed?”
Why AI Makes Your Creativity Matter More
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhy does creativity matter more in the age of AI? Because AI can generate answers, but it can’t decide which questions are worth asking. AI can generate answers, but it can’t ask the questions behind great stories. Learn why curiosity is a writer’s edge, plus 4 quick creativity exercises. Drawing on James Taylor’s SuperCreativity, this article shows writers how to train curiosity like a muscle, with story examples from Back to the Future and Inside Out plus four quick question-asking exercises.
How to Test Your Logline: Try the Ten Page Swap
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhat is the Ten-Page Swap? Two writers trade loglines and each writes the opening pages of the other’s story, then swap back and compare. It surfaces your automatic choices, tests whether your logline stands on its own, and shows you where the story wants to start. Seven rules for running it, plus what to expect.
How to Write Female Friendship Stories: The Engine Behind Every Great One
Reading Time: 6 minutesMale friendship stories get interrupted. Female friendship stories get outgrown. Every great women’s friendship story runs on the same engine — identity and belonging — and the same underlying asymmetry: one of them got something the other didn’t. Here’s how that engine works across the weepie, the coming-of-age story, and the obsession thriller.
Why Spontaneity Boosts Creativity: 3 Exercises for Writers
Reading Time: 3 minutesSpontaneity can boost creativity by bringing novelty, play, and surprise back into your writing life. Try three simple exercises to break your routine, quiet your inner critic, and spark fresh ideas for your next story.
How to Write Male Friendship Stories: Buddy Action, Bromance, and Drama
Reading Time: 6 minutesMale friendship stories come in three powerful forms: buddy action, bromance, and drama. Learn how mission, forced proximity, emotional stakes, comedy beats, and straight-up heartbreak shape the way male friendships work on the page and screen.
How to Write Believable Friendships: Old Friends vs. New Friends
Reading Time: 5 minutesNew friendships and old friendships need different storytelling tools. Learn how to build believable bonds from scratch, show years of history without backstory, and use trust, inside jokes, shared action, and friendship tests to create emotional stakes in your story.
Best Friends Love: Best Friends Forever
Reading Time: 5 minutesBest friend stories turn friendship into high-stakes love. Using Project Hail Mary and Ride or Die as examples, this article explores how Buddy Love stories create emotional stakes through shared missions, sacrifice, conflict, and transformation. Learn how to build best friendships that feel as powerful, intimate, and story-driving as romance.
How to Prompt AI for a Developmental Edit of Your Book or Screenplay (With Copy-and-Paste Examples)
Reading Time: 8 minutesA developmental edit is the big-picture pass that checks if your story works: structure, pacing, character, and stakes. You can get one from AI before you pay a human editor. Story coach Lindsey Hughes shows how to prompt AI for a professional-level developmental edit of a novel or screenplay, including the real prompt she used on her own book and copy-and-paste prompt templates.
Syd Field’s Paradigm Explained: Plot Points, Pinches, and the Midpoint
Reading Time: 5 minutesSyd Field’s Paradigm turns story structure into a map. Learn how plot points, pinches, and the midpoint guide your screenplay or novel from setup to payoff.
Hi I’m Lindsey!
