Lit Lessons on Flight School

Welcome into Flight School:Week 1: What your hero fights for (and which level your story actually reaches)Week 2: Which plot you’re actually writing (not the one you wish you were)Week 3: The egoic trap you can’t see yet (but your writing will reveal)Over these three classes we had fifty people sign up. WOW. Unheard of. And yet, as you’ll see from the classes themselves, only four to six showed up in person each week. And those who did show up did a great job thinking together. In this last meeting, we had a great conversation that was raw and personal. I shared fresh material from a tiny book called Born Only Once by Conrad Baars, a Dutch psychiatrist who survived Buchenwald.I hope you get a lot out of this group with two novelists and two memoirists who covered the full terrain of story. The question that drove this entire class: What is the egoic trap your hero is caught in? And what will it take to set them free?The Setup: Marilyn Monroe and HitlerMarilyn Monroe: abandoned by her mother, raised in a house of horrors by mentally ill caregivers, never knew her father, beaten with religion. She had spunk, determination, a strong will. But she was the tragedy of the unaffirmed person attempting self-affirmation. Walking around saying “I’m okay, I’m okay” when she had never been shown her basic goodness.Adolf Hitler: raised by an authoritarian father (one shot, that’s it) and an indulgent mother (no limits, no boundaries). Average intelligence, failed entrance exams, years of poverty and unemployment. Emotionally deprived at the key formative years. Also had a strong will.Same foundational wound. Different manifestations. Both destroyed themselves in the end.The six egoic traps Konrad pulled from the text:* Amassing material possessions* Becoming a millionaire many times over* Success in studies, oppressive array of degrees and titles* Reaching the top of the ladder* Attaining fame (or associating with famous people)* Gaining power over others through authority, dictatorship, gangsterdom* Promiscuous behavior (there were actually seven)These are the compensations for feeling worthless, lonely, inferior. And after class, Konrad sent me this terrific chart: The Counter-Example: Pope John XXIIIConsidered unattractive by the standards of the world, yet anyone who met him walked away feeling their own goodness.Why? He was affirmed. And he carried these qualities:* Sensitive (not discouraged sensitivity, but awareness of what’s happening in every moment)* Open to the goodness of life* Calm, unhurried way of life* Unselfish and humble (the humility to be wrong, to say “I’m wrong and I’m okay with that”)* Moral self-restraint (meeting people where they’re at, not expecting them to be beyond that)I gave my daughter these qualities on a 3x5 card when she was struggling: Be yourself. Stop repressing emotions. Don’t hang on your fears. Be assertive. Don’t put people down to make yourself important.The Example That Landed: Cast AwayTom Hanks. Go-go-rush guy. Time is his God. Gets stranded on a desert island. Talks to a volleyball for years. Wants to take his own life because he can’t control anything (same egoic trap as Marilyn and Hitler: Control).But nature affirms him. Survival tests him. He comes back a quiet man. At the end, he’s at a crossroads. Literally. And it’s enough. He doesn’t need all the answers. He’s been freed from the egoic trap.Then We Worked on Real Stories* David (tragedy): “My hero longs for power. Gets it. Blows it. Betrays himself and everything else. Which prompts the rise of an antagonist who becomes the hero in the second book to defeat him.”Clear when it’s tragic.* Konrad (novel): “My midwife wants to write the first book about midwifery by a woman. Her husband says women don’t write books. So she becomes unaffirmed by her husband and pushes her daughter to become a doctor instead.”I gave him the Jung quote: “Children are driven unconsciously to fulfill everything that was left unfulfilled in the life of their parents.”Konrad: “I never thought of it that way till this piece. Crazy.”* Chrissy (memoir): “I’m befuddled.”Me: “It’s almost impossible when it’s about yourself. The lines will show you. Don’t worry.”* Sarah (memoir about adoption): “My trap was a desire to appear fine. Everything is fine. We were a successful adoptive family. We were fine. We were NOT fine.”* My own trap (from Blackbird): Blind loyalty to the point of self-sacrifice. So loyal to my mother and father that I created truly dangerous circumstances for myself. Why? Years later in therapy I discovered my father tortured me with cold showers if I didn’t take good care of my mother. I was three and four years old.That loyalty was a three-year-old’s interpretation, not a grown woman’s understanding. The RevelationA woman told me yesterday on a podcast: “I read your book so many times and it gives me courage to recontextualize my own experience. I felt like I was the only one.”My heart soared. Because that’s the job. We bring forth the human experience. Truth. Goodness. Or in David’s case, a cautionary tale about abject awfulness—but written in such a human way we go, “I know that guy.”Remember, this is a long-game art form: Your book could last fifty years. A hundred. I just celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary and nothing is more powerful than knowing I wrote something that asked the tough questions and pushed beyond what was comfortable in my era.All handouts and teaching materials below.We Have Room in the Live Bones of StorytellingWhen: Wednesday March 25 at 5 to 7 p.m.These three classes are a taste. Bones is the full meal deal. A direction-changing class that will inspire you to go the distance. If you’re a subscriber, you get 20% off. Check the footer of your last email.Handouts: ✍️Your Turn:What is the egoic trap YOUR hero is caught in?Don’t panic if you can’t answer yet. The writing will show you. It showed me ten years after I wrote Blackbird. It showed Patricia in this very class. It might show you on page 200 of your draft.But start asking the question now. Watch for it. The lines will reveal it.Drop your thoughts in the comments.Thanks for three weeks of this work. You showed up. You engaged. You’re on your way.Jennifer 🐦‍⬛Blackbird's Flight School with Jennifer Lauck is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome back to Flight School:Class two of our series was so different from class one. We weren’t just learning framework now, we were applying it to real stories in real time. I opened with a review of Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots and asking them to think about: Which plot best fits what I’m writing?Don’t be fooled, these aren’t old-time templates, they’re living structures for what’s happening in contemporary literature and in your life right now.Case in point: James by Percival Everett.This new novel is trying to replace Huckleberry Finn as the foundation of American literature. And it’s a Voyage and Return plot. A close look at the template and it’s a story as old as time. Jim, now James, falls down the rabbit hole of what true slavery looks like when he runs away. The horror. The violence it forces him into. But in the final moment, he grabs his wife and daughter and brings them to freedom in Iowa.He escapes the rabbit hole shocked at himself, at what he’s become, and at this world. He saves his family, which is the redeeming moment, but he’s unable to embrace his identity.This is a Voyage and Return that doesn’t end with the hero transformed and whole. It ends with him fundamentally altered and unable to reconcile who he was with who he’s become. I wrote a whole post about that here. Check it out. Plots are not formulaic. They’re archetypal. And nested within one another: The Quest contains Overcoming the Monster, Tragedy is Overcoming the Monster in reverse, Rebirth is comedy turned on itself. Then we worked on Patricia’s novelPatricia has been studying with me for four years. I know her story inside and out—the tests she’s been through, the companions she’s gathered along the way i.e.,: the “band of merry brothers” she finds in a pantry meeting I mention in the class.She thought her book was one thing. But as we talked, it revealed itself. Her novel might be a Quest.Why? It’s test after test after test. A long journey. Companions. Ordeals. “You have seen so much in my work that I had no idea,” Patricia said. “I just turn around all the time and go, what? what? You just see so much.”That’s the power of having someone who’s done the work, has cultivated great tools (like these about the heroic hero) and who asks the right questions. I’ve been an investigative reporter for years. I’m always going to say, “Wait a minute. Are you sure? Let’s dig a little deeper.”This is a long-game art form.Why this depth of work and these questions matter: Your book could last way beyond you. It could be literature on the shelf somebody picks up in fifty years.I know, I just celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of my first book. Nothing is more powerful than knowing I wrote something that asked the tough questions and pushed beyond the realm of what was comfortable in my era.All handouts and teaching materials are below.One more shot: Class 3 - From Ego to Other When? Saturday, March 21, 10am PSTThe truly heroic hero sheds ego and inward hungers for a greater good. Christ. Gandhi. King. What is the egoic trap your hero is caught in? What will it take to set them free? Or if writing tragedy, how can you deepen that trap?I’m bringing brand new teachings from Born Only Once by Conrad Baars—a concentration camp survivor who examines Marilyn Monroe, Hitler, and Pope John XXIII to understand what makes someone truly heroic versus tragically lost.P.S. Bones of Storytelling starts March 25These three classes are a taste. Bones is the full meal. A direction-changing class that will inspire you to go the distance. If you’re a subscriber, you get 20% off. Check the footer of your last email from me.✍🏻Your Turn:As you watch the recording, ask yourself: Which plot am I actually writing? Not which one I want to be writing—which one is my story naturally following?Drop your answer in the comments. Thanks for being with me. See you next Saturday.Jennifer 🐦‍⬛PS, PS: This is a reader-supported site, if you are not a paid subscriber, or just feel moved, tip your writer. She’ll appreciate it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome into Flight School: Fourteen writers signed up for this first class and all had one question to ponder: Who is your hero, and what do they want most?The answers came fast: A 19-year-old seeking to assuage existential guilt (Carrie). A 12-year-old girl navigating grief and secrets (Kristen). A medieval midwife fighting for equality in Islamic Spain. An anti-hero chasing unlimited knowledge and power (David). A memoir about survival.Then we asked the harder question: What’s pushing against them?Because here’s the truth: Your hero is only as compelling as the forces of antagonism working against them. Not just external obstacles but the layers that run deeper. * The innermost self (body, mind, emotions). * Personal relationships (family, friends, lovers). * The extra-personal world (society, institutions, environment).This is why writing a big project (novel or memoir) feels impossibly hard. You’re not just telling a story, you’re capturing the extraordinary complexity of being human.The four levels of value progressionMost stories operate at level two: hero wants love, faces indifference. Hero wants freedom, faces restraint. It’s conflict, but it’s not enough to carry a whole book.Push to level three (love vs. hate, freedom vs. slavery) and you’ve got real stakes. Push to level four—the negation of the negation—and you’re writing stories that devastate: hatred masquerading as love, slavery perceived as freedom, self-deception instead of truth.Then one of the writers, David, asked about ambition which isn’t on McKee’s list. We worked through it together: ambition → hubris or laziness → indifference → vengeance. Conrad added: “He harmed himself to achieve his ambition. Or harmed those he loved.” That’s when we saw it—the tragic arc, the hero who throws away everything he believed in and joins the evil force.Now the writers were co-creating. The breakout rooms continued this and were where the real breakthroughs took place. Three writers—Chrissy, Carrie, Conrad—all discovered they were working with justice as their core value. “A lot of injustice in the world that we got to write about,” Chrissy said. We closed by looking at examples: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Till They Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, the films Missing and Big. And I shared a Blackbird Lit Lesson breaking down C.S. Lewis’s value line (truth/wisdom) and introduced the outlier plot “Rebellion Against the One”—for stories like 1984 and Brave New World where a solitary hero confronts an immense power and is crushed, forced to recognize the limits of their perception.All handouts, slides, and teaching materials are below. Do not miss the next class. Get your spot now. Class 2: Seven Heroic Journeys Save the Date: Saturday March 14, 10am PSTWe’ll map how heroes transform differently across the seven basic plots—and help you identify which journey your hero is actually on (versus the one they should be on). Class 3: From Ego to Other Save the Date: Saturday March 21, 10am PSTChrist, Gandhi, King—what they have in common with Marilyn Monroe and Hitler. The egoic trap and what it takes to break free (or if writing tragedy, how to deepen it). Plus: Pope John XXIII through the eyes of a concentration camp survivor. Bones of Storytelling starts March 25These three classes are the framework. Bones is where you build the complete structure. Ten weeks, live teaching, draft plan for your finished book. If you are subscriber, you get 20% off. Check the footer of your last email from me in your mail box. Handouts: 🤔 Your turn: As you watch the recording, work through your own value line. What’s your hero fighting for? Where does your story currently reach? Where could it go?Drop your answer in the comments. Let’s keep working the problem together.Thanks for being with me and I’ll see you all next week, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛PS: This is a subscriber supported site, if you are not a paid subscriber, or just feel moved, tip your writer. She’ll appreciate it and continue with this great writer-to-writer service. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to this speedy, but deep, masterclass on the core image that holds your entire story. You’ll be watching an excerpt from an advanced writing workshops at Blackbird, where I share a prologue titled Boxes that opens my new memoir Revert about my three-years in a self-imposed retreat on the wild coast of Oregon escaping not only Covid madness but a long madness of control long imposed on my life. The prologue, Boxes, is a moment at seventeen where I’m drawing boxes on notebook paper in a first attempt to both organize but also control my entire life.I’d lost both my parents by then and was living in a crowded split-level with my aunt, uncle, grandparents, and my niece DM. While Bonanza blared on the TV and life hummed around me, I tried to contain everything—money, school, college, housing, my car, my boyfriend Danny—into neat little boxes with to-do lists.The whole piece is full of details: the cheap laminate desk my dad gave me, the ponderosa pines outside my boyfriend’s house across the street, my niece hopping around outside my door calling,“I’m a bunny. Look at me.” Key teaching moment: After I read the prologue, I explain that I was using it as a prologue because that image of boxes was the singular image that contained my entire life as a woman trying to organize everything into manageable boxes, while fate knocking them over and scattering me and my stuff everywhere. How I know this is a core image? It’s from testing the flow of the following chapters. Does the image fix, can I keep hauling it forward, repurposing and recycling, progressing and escalating. And 13,000 words in the answer is yet. It’s perfect. It’s it. This singular image delivered me a core truth and now I ride the wave of a draft that’s pretty much writing itself. The key image in Blackbird: Yes, there was a similiar thing that happening in my first memoir that we’ve been talking about here on Flight School for the last couple weeks. That image: A house. Open the book and go part by part, and you’ll see the depth of description around each house young Jenny lives in. While I didn’t write a prologue for Blackbird, I did write this opening line: The only house I’ll ever call home was the one on Mary Street.This is also called The Attack Sentence, as taught by Gordon Lish and is part of consecution. At the time I wrote Blackbird, which is now enjoying it’s 25th Anniversary, that line delivered what I needed. The key image: House. And while writing, it was perfect. Jenny would be moving a dozen times and once would find herself near homeless. Prologue or Attack Sentence? It’s really up to you. Decide what works best but first, start looking for yourself. * Find the one image that defines your whole life* Make it concrete and visual, not abstract* See if it naturally recurs through your writing* Write scenes about your image instead of explaining itMy students start finding their images right here in class—the medical caduceus, the hole in the soul, the pack of dogs. It’s pretty magical when it clicks.✍️ Your Turn: Like the writers in the teaching, have you starting thinking about an image? What’s popping up. Comment in the chat and let’s see if we can suss this out. Thanks for being with me, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛PS: I’m gearing up for three mini-master teachings, live, titled The Heroic Hero. Interested? Here’s a sneaky first shot at signing up and locking in your spot. More coming soon. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

…you are giving us a unique perspective in class by studying Blackbird. I wonder how many NYT best-selling authors would be so honest about perceived flaws in their work and in so doing give us baby writers some practical knowledge from your experience. Thanks.~ Richard Peeples, SIIWelcome:In this post, I tease back the outer wrappings of my first book and share where I got things right and where I missed the mark. Yes, Blackbird did well. 500,000+ in sales. Oprah. International publication in 20+ countries and languages (I personally love the Japanese edition most). But success doesn’t make me, or my work, immune to closer examination. In fact, I miss out on serious growth by not looking closer. As Jane Smiley writes in 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel: “All books have problems.” True. True. There are pros and there are cons in all creative writing, but to believe that even the most successful Pulitzer Prize Winner doesn’t have issues is missing a huge growth opportunity. This is demonstrated here on Flight School again and again with closer examination of works from Anthony Doerr and Percival Everett, to name a few. Check them out, and see how I lean into the classic tools literary discernment: Value. Structure. Plot. Go to this link for foundational teachings on all of these or simply get started with Bones. It’s a class that will change your writing life.The video on this post is a discussion among SII writers (a long term workshop) which asks the question: Did this book go the distance or not? Value. Structure. Plot.In the study of a memoir or a novel, the first step is focusing on the primary character or the protagonist. In Blackbird, it is “Jenny” age 6-11, and I’ve laid the forward moving story on the W chart I use in class. It’s not the only structure tool but it works when we are getting started:ValueBased on the setup in the first few chapters, the core value (loyalty) can be seen in Jenny’s motivation. Double checking myself, I pull up the Principle’s of Antagonism from Bones of Storytelling.If loyalty is the core value it will drive the story through split allegiance, betrayal, and self-betrayal. And it does: We start with loyalty to the sick and dying mother, and when the mother dies, loyalty continues through protection of objects left behind (jewelry and a photo album). When the step-mother enters, Jenny goes into split allegiance, giving her loyalty now to her father via a rationalization that he is well-intended but lost, even blind, by grief. Then comes the father’s profound betrayal of Jenny when he sends her to a summer camp and leaves her there after she tries telling him about abuse she’s experiencing. Because this betrayal cannot be born by the child, she tips into self-betrayal after the father dies by telling herself the story of his being a “good man” despite how he’s left her (and her brother) at the mercy of the step-mother after his death. The stepmother tried to break through this blind loyalty and tells Jenny “Your father was not a saint,” but again, Jenny continues her path of destructive loyalty.Blackbird ends with Jenny “betraying” herself in the final scene when, on a Greyhound bus and shipped to an unknown future, she fantasizes her dead father rescues her—something he didn’t do when alive and with ample opportunity to do so. Why then, would he rescue her in this fantasy? This is the last, brutal tell. She cannot, will not, face the truth about her situation for doing so would likely shatter her more than events have already done.StructureNow I have the core value, I can study the structure of the book I wrote and in doing so, spot the core issue which is that overall, the story drags. Translation: It’s slow. Why? What went wrong? Based on the value, the answer is easy now. The inciting incident—the mother’s death needed to happen by pg. 100, but instead I get there at pg. 173 (28 pgs. from the mid-point).The mid-point (the father’s death) should happen at pg. 200 but is pushed down to pg. 287. It is then on pg. 321 that the stepmother ditches Jenny in the commune but it should have happened between pgs. 200-250.Interestingly, the climax (Jenny witnessing the birth scene) comes “right on time” on pg. 370 when she lifts above her own “loyalty fog” and the stories she’s telling herself to experience the profound grace of ultimate truth which is that—despite her personal sorrows (and she has many) everyone is interconnected by this powerful love that she feels in the room at that moment new life enters the world before her.PlotNow we have value and structure, what is the plot of Blackbird? This becomes the litmus test of going the distance. If it hits the basic plot structure (below), I have my plot. I feel confident Blackbird is Voyage and Return—Jenny falling down the rabbit hole when the family moves from Nevada to California and emerging “shocked,” like Peter Rabbit. Let’s double check. Corresponding to the above chart, the story lays out in this way:* The death of the mother is the launch, directionless, for Jenny and it is violent and shocking.* Life with step mother is puzzling and unfamiliar and yes, identity starts to disappear when she’s abused at the summer camp, continues at the death of father.* In Northern Ca. she faces worse and worse situations with collective abuse and rejection* Left to fend for herself in Central L.A, she gets sick, hears voices, things getting worse and worseBirth of babies awakens her, then rescued by aunt and uncle and sent back to family in Nevada. She’s circling back to the idea of father as rescuer and then grandfather confirms it.In sum, Blackbird did “go the distance” in two categories. Value and plot. Where it dropped short was structure. That’s two out of three and so, I’ll give it a C+ or a B-. Where it excels, without doubt, is in the application of scene (here’s that conversation) and voice. These two elements, as the video conversation shows, helped the reader overlook the structural challenge and stay connected to Jenny and the overall story. So, in the end, not bad. ✍️Your Turn:Are you able to name the core value and track how it manifests (in your scenes) in the contrary, contradictory and negation of negation line? If you cannot, what’s keeping you from getting there at this time? Answer in the comments below. Let’s talk. Thank you for being with me and if you’ve made it this far, consider how these kinds of depth teachings might serve your own work. This entire project, here on Flight School, is to spark your deepest hunger for solid, smart, accessible teachings that help you take your own creative writing project the distance. I’m ever on the hunt for earnest writers. If you are one of them, let’s talk. ~ Jennifer, 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

“Lauck has constructed a riveting narrative from the awful mess of her life.That she has managed to do so fills me with an admiration for which I cannot find words. The best I can do is to suggest that you read this book.”~ The London TimesWelcome into Flight School: The video is a conversation with an advanced Studio at The Blackbird Studio for Writers on this topic and the questions below. I hope you’ll dig into those questions too, and share your perspectives. The Creation of Blackbird: 1995-1999Thirty or so years ago, I unearthed the astonishing story of my adoptive mother’s illness and death, and then my adoptive father’s sudden death from a heart attack eighteen months later. With a background as a journalist, I knew the events were remarkable enough that they wouldn’t need much analysis or embellishment but how to do it as something creative vs. reported? Could I merge my journalism background into what I was learning about story, literature and creative writing as applied to non-fiction?How fortunate was I then to learn the art of writing scene in those early days of drafting and redrafting. My job was simple: Do a good job remembering and then reporting—moment by moment—and leave it to the reader to assign value and meaning.With a single-minded focus, I worked hard and was careful to follow the particular rules of description that included location, people, dialogue and the forward flow of action with something at stake. The process was write, read aloud to myself, rewrite, read aloud to a ground, rewrite, move on. I did this through about eight drafts of the full manuscript.The Power of Scene:When I started Blackbird, I had the data: The dates, the timeline, the medical reports, the death certificates, and our different home addresses. I also had accounts from my surviving family. What I didn’t have was the “feeling” of those times. The full immersion in the moments gave me what I was after, which was to re-occupy the skin of Jenny and tell the story from her perspective alone. This wasn’t something I intended to do but rather discovered as I wrote scenes.I wasn’t taught to write scenes with a method, with steps, but rather via example. “Stay present,” my teacher said, “move through time. Breath. Be. Go deeper here...” Only when I became a teacher did I develop the Scene Recipe Card to help others see and mark the components of a scene as found in most novels, short stories and many memoirs. What I’ve learned over these years is that, from the broadest perspective, the best part of writing scene is that it allows the writer (and later, the reader) into direct experience and bypasses the all-too-human tendency to explain, justify, twist, conceal, and even control the narrative. With scene, the moment is just the moment. Raw. True. Simple. But also complex. Like the painter uses canvas and pigment to create image, and interpretation is left to the viewer, the writer uses paper and words that shape moments-in-time and interpretation is left to the reader. No commentary. No rationalization. Just pure being.25th Anniversary Edition:Thanks to Peter Borland and his team at Atria, Blackbird re-releases in an anniversary edition on 2/10/26 (my adoptive father, Bud’s birthday). While the body of the book is the dame, it’s been updated with a new introduction I’ve written, new jacket copy and updates questions and answers in the readers guide. You’ll find those updates here.What strikes me, in retrospect, is what I say every day in our workshop at The Blackbird Studio for Writers: Scene is simply amazing. While you don’t ALWAYS have to write in scene, it cannot be underestimated as a tool of profound discovery. the present moment is what it is, and that’s hard for us to accept but this book and all the writing I’ve done after, has proved the premise again and again.My greatest suggestion to all creative writers is to devote at least a year if not more to learning, writing and perfecting your scene writing skills. You will not regret it. And you don’t have to come to the Studio to do this. You can take the video class now and get started on your own with my blessings.🤔 Your Turn * Grab a copy of Blackbird (see if you can get the 25th Anniversary edition) and find a scene that tracks the ingredients from the Scene Recipe Card (above). Tick them off, and then, standing back, think about what element of that “moment in time” impacted you? (IE: When Jenny is bringing the breakfast tray into her mother’s room, what about that moment impacted you? Or another scene?)* Scene requires the writer to give up a great deal of control, or perceived control, because you are not telling the reader what to think, or explaining events. How does this lack of control hit you as an artist? Where do you see yourself resisting that release of control and tumbling into telling/explaining? When do you think you can give up the need for control and simply allow the story “to be” as it is.I’m looking forward to your shares in the comments! Thanks for being with me, Jennifer Blackbird's Flight School with Jennifer Lauck is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

When we were kids, in school, most of had to read Huck Finn by Mark Twain. Book report required, too. But how many of us ingested what this book offered and what it means to the American debate on morality, race, and the original sin of slavery that we contend with in ever-changing degrees? If you are someone unnerved by the race conversation that never seems to resolve itself, it might be time to step back into the classroom as adults and reconsider what Twain offers us in his insightful and challenging book. This conversation narrows in the face of authority Huck reckons with: Father. Founding Father’s. And the side-kick. The Three Faces of Authority Influencing Huck FinnThe Father Does Mark Twain and his relationship with his own father play into what Huck experiences with Pap? This question arises because the father is key for every human being who has a personal father and later, father-figures expressed in the wider context of leadership in a society. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) appeared to have a complex but not particularly abusive relationship with his father, John Marshall Clemens. The elder Clemens was stern, ambitious, and somewhat distant but was an upstanding citizen overall, a justice of the peace who struggled financially but maintained social respectability. The elder did die when young Samuel was eleven, leaving the family in financial hardship. This likely made the younger Clemens take up the mantle of “the father” in his family and could have also got him thinking at a deeper level than others at the time. Founding FathersRather than autobiographical then, Pap and his intense representation of ignorance and even violence might be more about a serious and troubling digression in white men of the time. Was Twain critiquing these men that collectively drug down the founding-fathers ideals of all men being created equal? Yes, the country went to war to express and uphold that ideal but by the 1880s, Reconstruction was ending and Jim Crow emerged. America was then, in many ways, reverting to those reprehensible Pap-like attitudes. Could it be then that Clemens was writing Hucks moral growth as the individual reality of many that faced the equal and opposite pressure of Pap-like characters, and even friends like Tom Sawyer? Side-Kick: TomAnd let’s take a closer look at Tom Sawyer then, who make a reappearance at the end of Huck Finn. It is Tom, alone, who effectively stifles Huck’s remarkable moral reckoning. Huck learned, by experience, what he had done to Jim (dehumanized him based on color and social pressure) and was done with that, willing to go to hell before betraying Jim again. But here comes Tom. A hero. A role model. Well-educated and part of the elite of the time and then off-spring of the failed founding father’s. Not only does Tom dehumanize Jim but does so for sport.Let’s break this down: * Tom knows Jim is already free but prolongs his suffering for entertainment* Tom turns Jim’s desperate quest for freedom into elaborate theatrical performance and prioritizes his romantic notions of “proper” escapes over Jim’s humanity* Tom thus represents the educated “civilized” society that can intellectualize away human sufferingTom’s presence in the story makes Huck’s final decision to “light out for the Territory” even more significant. He’s not just rejecting Aunt Sally’s attempts to “sivilize” him, but fleeing a world where even his closest friend can be so indifferent to human suffering. Huck Finn is a powerful, complex story that allows each of us to examine the influences we face when choosing a path we know is morally wrong. We see, in Huck, the personal struggle we all face in our lives and in our society. ✍🏻Your Turn: Like Huck faces Pap’s crude violence, then society’s ‘civilizing’ pressure, then Tom’s sophisticated cruelty, does your protagonist face different forms of the same opposition as they grow? How might the ‘enemy’ become more subtle or insidious?Looking forward to reading what you come up with.Thanks for reading (and thinking), Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ PS: All this talk about Huck Finn now prepares us to dive deep into James by Percival Everett. What is it? An important novel of our time? A kick at the cornerstone of American literature? A political agenda? An experiment? We’ll talk about all this with a deep examination of plot in my next post. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome into Flight School:This is a terrific conversation with a wonderful writer, Richard Peeples, from my Blackbird Studio workshop. Richard’s writing a memoir about a wife who died at the height of their marriage, and explores what it means to love and lose. Here is a piece published in Men’s Health about his journey. Enjoy the Huck Finn teaching (below), Richard and my conversation, and at the end of the post, see if you are called to think about the question Your Turn. I want to hear what you are thinking. You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. ~ Opening, Huckleberry FinnThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Mark Twain’s 1885 novel that follows 13-year-old Huck Finn who escapes an abusive father and rides down the Mississippi River with Jim, an enslaved man seeking freedom. It’s widely considered the first great American novel written in authentic American vernacular.Huck tells his own story in his own voice, complete with dialects and colloquialisms that had never appeared in “serious” literature before.Historical Context & Publication: Twain wrote the novel between 1876-1883, publishing it first in Britain in 1884, then in America in 1885. This was the post-Reconstruction era. Slavery had been abolished but Jim Crow laws were taking hold across the South. Twain was writing about the antebellum period (the novel is set around 1835-1845) from the perspective of someone who had lived through the Civil War and its aftermath.Initial Reviews: The reception was deeply divided. Many critics and libraries condemned it as crude and inappropriate. The Concord Public Library famously banned it in 1885, calling it “trash and suitable only for the slums.” The Boston Transcript dismissed it as “a gross trifling with every fine feeling.” Critics objected to Huck’s vernacular speech, his casual attitude toward authority, and what they saw as the book’s moral coarseness.However, some reviewers recognized its significance. The San Francisco Chronicle called it “the most amusing book Mark Twain has written.”Why Huck Finn Endures?What about this book keeps the attention of the collective? Why is it still in print? Why does every generation take it on?I would venture the possibility that the novel perseveres because it grapples with America’s defining contradictions. Freedom versus oppression, innocence versus corruption, individual conscience versus social conformity. Huck’s moral growth, particularly his decision to “go to hell” rather than turn Jim in, represents one of literature’s great explorations of moral development that transcends in the way of the truly great novels of all time. Huck Finn, as an archetype, pushes on the highest values as represented in our Seven Basic Plots study (and we’ll get there soon enough) by this protagonist arc.Another possibility is connected to its use of authentic American speech that revolutionized literature and influenced writers from Hemingway (who said “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn“) to Toni Morrison who wrote extensively about the novel, particularly noting how it uses Jim’s character and the complexity of Huck’s moral awakening and observed that the novel forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths about American racism while recognizing Huck’s genuine moral growth. Like Twain, Morrison understood that authentic voice often requires breaking literary conventions to reach deeper truths.Finally, this is a novel continues to spark vital and difficult conversations about race, morality, and what it means to be truly civilized - questions that take us back to fundamental questions about power, exploitation, and human dignity.To better understand this endurance, let’s examine how Twain structured Huck’s journey based on the classic plot models.Plot Option 1: Voyage & Return1. Anticipation and “fall” into other world: Huck begins in his familiar but constrained world - civilization with the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, then his abusive father’s cabin. He’s the perfect “young, naïve, curious” protagonist who launches “directionless” into a strange new world when he fakes his death and escapes down the Mississippi River.2. Initial Fascination/Dream: The river world initially seems liberating and exhilarating to Huck. He finds freedom from societal constraints, enjoys the companionship with Jim, and experiences the romance of river life. The raft becomes their floating sanctuary.3. Frustration: Gradually, the river world becomes more threatening. Huck encounters the feuding Grangerfords and Shepherdsons, the Duke and King’s schemes, and increasingly complex moral dilemmas about Jim’s status as a runaway slave.4. Nightmare: The shadow dominates when Huck faces his greatest moral crisis - whether to turn Jim in or help him escape. The Duke and King sell Jim, and Huck’s survival (moral and physical) is threatened by the corrupt adult world he’s navigating.5. Thrilling Escape and Return: Huck helps orchestrate Jim’s freedom and returns to “civilization,” though famously he’s planning to “light out for the Territory” - suggesting he’s been transformed by his voyage and can’t quite settle back into his original world.Plot Option 2: Rebirth1. Huck falls under shadow of dark power when young: Huck is “infected” from childhood with the racist ideology of his society - he genuinely believes enslaved people are property, that helping Jim escape makes him a “low-down Abolitionist.”2. Things go reasonably well for a while: Early in their journey, Huck can rationalize his actions or avoid confronting the moral contradiction directly. The threat seems manageable.3. Darkness emerges in full force - imprisonment: The crisis peaks when Huck writes the letter to Miss Watson to turn Jim in. He’s completely “imprisoned” by his society’s moral framework, believing he’s damned for helping Jim.4. Nightmare/Crisis - doomed to living death: “I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it.” This is his moment of spiritual death - he believes he’s choosing hell.5. Miraculous awakening through love: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” - he tears up the letter. His love and respect for Jim (built through their shared humanity on the river) liberates him from the “dark power” of racist ideology.The “rescuer” here is both Jim himself (representing Huck’s recognition of shared humanity) and Huck’s own moral growth.This reading makes the novel less about physical journey and more about spiritual transformation, which might be closer to Twain’s deeper intent. Both plots can work, but Rebirth captures that crucial moment of moral awakening that’s so central to the novel’s power and likely contributes to it’s 150 years of endurance. Huck’s own pursuit of freedom first from Pap and then all the other oppressors teaches him that freedom is a human value that has no color and so Huck’s personal quest for freedom becomes the lens through which he recognizes Jim’s identical need, and right, to be free.The progression with Rebirth:* Huck escapes physical abuse from Pap* He escapes emotional/spiritual oppression from “sivilizing” forces* Through experiencing what freedom means to him, he gradually understands what it means to Jim* His own hunger for autonomy teaches him that this hunger is universal, not race-dependentParallel journeys that illuminate each other: Huck fleeing Pap’s violence mirrors Jim fleeing the violence of slavery. Huck resisting Miss Watson’s attempts to shape him into her vision of respectability parallels Jim’s resistance to being treated as property rather than a person.Huck doesn’t arrive at this understanding through abstract moral reasoning or religious teaching though, both of which his society has corrupted with racism. Instead, he learns it through lived experience and recognizing his own deepest needs in another human being.This is why his “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” moment is so profound. He is choosing his experiential truth over his society’s lies. Freedom is a fundamental human necessity and what the American experiment is all about. And I might venture to guess that it’s almost like Twain is showing that true moral education comes, not from institutions, but from genuine human connection and the recognition of our shared humanity. This is pretty sophisticated stuff for what some critics dismiss as a “boy’s adventure story.”✍️Your Turn:As a writer in the pursuit of writing work that stands the test of time, what is your theory on a book that stays in print for 150 years? Take a step further and ask yourself what is the enduring, time transcending message in your own work?What authentic voice is your story asking you to use that you might be resisting? What ‘proper’ conventions might you need to break to serve your story’s emotional truth? How might your characters’ real way of speaking differ from how you think they ‘should’ sound on the page?”See you soon, Jennifer PS: Did you know that Flight School has sharpened it’s focus? Check out the Start Here page to read more and thank you for being with us. Also, the next Bones of Storytelling Live Debrief is coming March 27th. Get your spot now. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome:Every teacher dreams of the moment when a student takes a craft lesson and transforms it into something wholly their own. Konrad Nau gave me that moment.A retired family physician with thirty-five years of patient relationships and one memoir under his belt, Konrad had never written fiction before taking my Bones course. When he encountered Flannery O’Connor’s Revelation through Flight School’s teaching, something clicked. Konrad understood the structure and the principle of how social hierarchy inversion forces character recognition.In one week, he wrote Fear in West Texas—a complete, publication-ready short story— that highlights every element I teach: clear dramatic structure, layered characters with focused motivations, thematic coherence, natural dialogue, and an earned ending that allows a beat of ambiguity.This is the magic of the right writer finding the right teaching at the right moment. Konrad didn’t need an MFA. He needed:* Serious reading (he’d never read O’Connor before Flight School)* Understandable teachings* A prompt that sparked recognitionThe result is his wonderful, clear, concise short story that tackles contemporary American tensions—fear, prejudice, immigration, mortality—without preaching. This is Blackbird’s Flight School working exactly as designed: bite-sized lessons, clear examples, space to practice, and a community that celebrates follow-through. Konrad proves that writing excellence isn’t about youth or formal degrees. It’s about attention, discipline, and doing the actual work.If you’ve been waiting for permission to start, or wondering if it’s too late, or questioning whether you need expensive credentials—this conversation with Konrad is your answer. ✍️Your Turn: The Follow-Through ChallengeKonrad took a prompt, wrote a complete story with beginning/middle/end, and submitted it. No endless revision, no waiting for perfect conditions, no ‘I’ll get to it someday.’ One week, one story, done. Pick any prompt from Flight School’s archive (find the index of posts here), set a one-week deadline, and write a complete short story. Then share it or report back on what you learned from finishing. Maybe you’ll be the next writer I feature here on Flight School. Go.I look forward to seeing what you create, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛PS: What is this Bones of Storytelling Konrad took and applied to his work with such stunning result? Click above and see for yourself. The first class is free. And, if you are paid subscriber, get 20% off when you buy the full series. Look for the code in the footer of this email. Save thousands of dollars, years of your life and become a better writer now (or Nau 🙂. Thanks again, Konrad). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Flight School and now and again, I’ll repost teachings that are powerful or hit hard. This post, from May, is one of those primarily because a writer here on Flight School responded to the prompt and blew my mind. Konrad and I talked about the story he submitted: Fear in West Texas and I’d like to incorporate it here in the teaching and invite you:1) Listen/read this post.2) Read Konrad’s response. Fear in West Texas. His gift is evident to me, right away. This is what Flight School offers, a landing perch for the serious writer to talk about their work. In my next post, TBA, Konrad and I will break his story down and discuss it’s promise and potential. If you, like Konrad, are so inspired, please post in the comments. I’d love to see the conversation that arises. Now to the original post (matching the audio).If you are a serious creative writer, O’Connor is a teacher who continues to educate and illuminate us sixty years after her death. Her teaching is in the writing itself for “those who have eyes to see.” To get the most out of this teaching, read the story first. You won’t regret it. The Last Shall March First"Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree line, Mrs. Turpin remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge. At last she lifted her head. There was only a purple streak in the sky, coming through a field of crimson and leading, like an extension of the highway, into the descending dusk. She raised her hands from the side of the pen in a gesture hieratic and profound. A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire." - Flannery O'Connor, "Revelation"Revelation is the last story O’Connor wrote, and like Jessica Hooten Wilson tells us in her commentary on this story (watch here), it was written in her hospital bed, hidden from doctors who didn’t want her to be working. At this point, as Wilson also points out, O’Connor had spent years of her life in such waiting rooms. She knew them in a terrible, intimate way. How perfect she would write this story then, her last, about what she knew so very well. The scenes in "Revelation" and how they progress:As a teacher, I’m always interested in the arrangements of the scenes and then in the progression of the action through each one:* The Doctor's Office - This opening scene establishes everything and plants the seeds for what follows* The Drive Home - Ruby begins the agonizing processing of the Mary Grace accusation against her. “Wart hog from hell”* The Bedroom with Claude - The confrontation progresses from shock to absorption to her psyche, culminating in denial. * The Front of the House - Ruby giving water to workers and sharing her next phase of absorption with the workers who agree with her about its unfairness (three phases of absorption, the number of transformation) * The Barnyard - Ruby questions God and receives her visionThis is a perfect template for all writers to both analyze and apply. Each scene builds on the next and rises to a form of resolution (in this case, lack of resolution because we don’t know how Ruby will fare with this humbling vision). Characters in the doctor's officeNext, let’s study the setup. I tell writers here at Flight School—and at the more advanced Blackbird Studio—that all the work lives in the opening. You are, in essence, telling the entire story in your first 20/25%. That’s why openings are so challenging to craft and why you need to get to your ending a few times to see what you are creating.O’Connor’s opening scene is long in contrast to others. Why? O’Connor is giving the reader that interminable sense of “waiting” that we all have to go through in our lives. In this opening, you feel like you’re tapping your own foot. Ready to go already. Checking your watch. But no…you must wait. O’Connor also uses this terrible waiting to build out a microcosm of Southern society, with each character representing a different social stratum and allowing the reader to see Ruby's self-perception:Ruby Turpin - Our protagonist, whose smug self-satisfaction and obsession with social hierarchy drive the whole story. She categorizes people and thanks God she wasn't made black, “or white-trash, or ugly."Claud Turpin - Ruby's husband with the ulcerated leg that brings them to the doctor and tries to temper Ruby's more blatant judgments.The "White-Trash" Woman - In dirty yellow sweatshirt and slacks, she is hostile to Ruby, and her statements about sending "them all back to Africa" reveal her bigotry.The "White-Trash" Woman's Boy - He has a"rusty" face full of sores and a running nose and embodies for Ruby the poor upbringing she associates with "white trash."The "Well-Dressed, Pleasant" Woman, who is also Mary Grace's Mother - Stands in for the "respectable" middle class Ruby aspires to be associated with. Mary Grace - A "fat girl" and college student reading a book called "Human Development." Her growing rage at Ruby's self-satisfied monologue culminates in throwing her book at Ruby and calling her "a wart hog from hell."The Black Delivery Boy - He is a brief but significant presence who shows deference to whites, reinforcing Ruby's worldview that everyone should "stay in their place."The Nurse - Professional figure who maintains order in the waiting room and tends to Mary Grace after her outburst.The Doctor - Mostly off-stage but represents professional authority who sedates Mary Grace. This is the sedation that allows Ruby (and others) to sedate themselves by such hierarchies that, in the end, do not exist in the higher realms. Social hierarchy rearrangementWhat makes this setup and opening scene so powerful is how O'Connor arranges these characters in Ruby’s mind. * Black people (at the bottom of her hierarchy)* "White trash" (whom she considers lazy and dirty, but a nudge up the ladder)* The stylish, wealthy woman (Mary Grace’s mother) is her equal. * Mary Grace is below her, by age, but not far, teetering next to the mother on the social ladder.The characters then serve as catalysts, with Mary Grace functioning as the unexpected prophet who delivers a divine message of harsh truth to the self-satisfied Ruby.Vision → InversionIn the final scene of this story, Ruby's vision is the reversal of her carefully maintained social order. Those she considered beneath her—"whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black [people] in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics"—all march toward heaven "with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for nothing."Meanwhile, "decent" people like herself and Claud bring up the rear, still maintaining their virtuous behavior but not first in this heavenward procession. Their "shocked and altered faces" show they recognize—perhaps for the first time—that their so-called virtues count for little in the larger economy of grace.This vision isn't labeled as Purgatory, but it suggests a purgatorial reordering of Ruby's soul. She must unlearn her pride and self-satisfaction before she can enter grace. The scene at the pig parlor represents Ruby at her lowest point, questioning the divine order, and this “revelation” is still in progress as the story ends. Will Ruby get it? Awaken? Transform with the few years she has left on earth? Or will she revert to her old, patterned, head-hearted ways?This is what we are left with in the end: Questions each of us could ask ourselves on the journey toward the inevitable. The Creative Writer's Gold: Notice how O'Connor reveals character through judgment. Ruby categorizes everyone around her—the "white-trash" woman, the "well-dressed lady," the "pleasant" Black delivery boy. These judgments tell us everything about Ruby and nothing about the people she's judging, and this keeps our eye on our hero the whole time. ✍️ Your Turn: Prompts that push us to look deeper into ourselves* The Waiting Room: Write a story set in a waiting room, or a line at the store, or in traffic, or the bus, or a train, where people from different social backgrounds are forced to interact. Create tension through judgment and have one character experience a profound shift in perspective by the end of the scene.* Hierarchy Reversed: Create a character who takes pride in her social position (you don’t have to go too far, grabbing from the extreme of Left and Right positions these days). Write a scene where this person experiences a vision or dream in which all assumptions about status and worth invert. How does this challenge change them?* The Unwelcome Prophet: Write about a character who receives a harsh truth from someone they consider beneath them, or unqualified to judge them. Explore how they reject the message but come to recognize its validity.Post in the comments and show me what you’ve created. I can’t wait. Thanks for being with me! Next stop, Everything that Rises Must Converge. Enjoy, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛Blackbird's Flight School with Jennifer Lauck is a reader-supported publication. 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Welcome to Flight School: Our third and final mini-class unveiled a key structural secrets behind stories that grip readers versus those that fall flat. 1. You Don't Have One Antagonist—You Have NineMost writers focus on the obvious villain but Robert McKee's model in Story shows us nine distinct antagonistic forces working against your protagonist:Inner conflicts: Body, emotions, mindPersonal conflicts: Lovers, friends, familyExtra-personal conflicts: Physical environment, social institutions, individuals in societyWhen Lori described her character—a woman who discovers her husband killed her best friend but must choose between loyalty to the dead friend or protecting her son from his father's legacy—she was mapping these multiple antagonistic forces. The husband isn't just the external threat; Edie's own thoughts including her deep maternal instincts, social expectations, and family loyalty create layers of resistance.2. Core Values Drive Everything (And It's Probably Not What You Think)Every protagonist has one core value that determines their choices under pressure. Justice, truth, loyalty, maturity, freedom and so on. And, these aren't arbitrary themes but the structural DNA of the human experience and thus all story.Conrad's medieval midwife story operates on justice: fair treatment evolves into injustice (different standards for men and women) and finally tyranny (unchangeable gender-based restrictions). Mary's WWII boy searching for his father likely centers on maturity—the journey from childish impulsiveness to adult understanding.The revelation here is that your core value often emerges through writing, not planning. Like plot, it reveals itself through your character's consistent choices across scenes.3. "Negation of Negation" Creates Unforgettable StoriesThe greatest stories don't just move from positive to negative—they go to "negation of negation," which McKee describes as "bad on top of bad." Think of it emotionally, not mathematically, or think of a a toddler's epic meltdown where everything feels catastrophically awful and you get a deeper understanding of what this term means.The Negation of Negation separates memorable literature from forgettable books. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (a stunning read for writers with eyes to see) doesn't just show slavery but reveals how Cora enslaved her own mind, believing she's ugly and worthless until a moment of love shows her that "they cannot enslave the mind"—only she can do that to herself.Most writers, educated in systems that do not teach these broader topics, stop at the contradictory value but the best writers understand readers crave the catharsis that comes from witnessing a character emerge from the deepest possible darkness.Why These Tools MatterWith my own book Blackbird, I had that "I'm working so hard but going nowhere" feeling but now I’ve just finished my first novel and do not feel that way anymore. I finally understand my protagonist's core value, I get plot, I get structure, theme, character and all the other little pieces that make a great book and I can map my way through to the ending. At last. I write about my frustrations and how I finally mapped the problems in Blackbird. Here is that post breaking down what I discovered about my own story when I learned these tools (after wasting three years in my very expensive MFA). Yes, even a New York Times bestseller can feel structurally "wrong" to its author. My book succeeded despite structural timing issues because I leaned on my natural strengths (reportorial voice, child's perspective) but it could have been so much better with a deeper understanding the underlying architecture I’m teaching now in this class and in the Bones of Storytelling that begins September 30th. This is ten weeks of intensive study combining the depth of a master's degree with practical application to your manuscript.Learn a concrete framework that transforms "working hard and going nowhere" into confident, purposeful writing that gets you across the finish line. Early registration includes:* 10 comprehensive video lessons * 10 Weekly 2-hour live debriefs for collaborative manuscript development (recorded so if you miss one or two, that’s fine).* Complete handout library covering everything from theme to structure to plot to character to antagonistic forcesStop hoping your story will somehow work. Start knowing why it does. Watch the first class for free, here, to see how this works and get into class now. We have room for you. Paid subscribers, check the footer of this email and you get 20% off. Thank you for being with me, enjoy this video of the final mini class and I hope to see you in this life altering class, Bones of Storytelling. Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome: Our second mini-class from my Bones series was a huge success. Our big takeaways, plus next weeks guidelines, are here.Let’s go. Takeaway 1: The tool dilemma every writer facesPlot, like a rototiller, is complex, intimidating, and avoided until absolutely necessary. But when you treat plot as a familiar tool rather than a scary power device, everything changes.Rebecca, a Simon & Schuster bestselling author with an MFA, put it perfectly: "I almost need my hand held the whole way because my brain just doesn't do that." With that guidance in this class, Rebecca discovered that her story naturally fits three different plot structures—Rags to Riches, Voyage and Return, and Comedy. She’s now equipped with three possibilities she didn’t have before we met. Takeaway 2: Plot doesn’t make the writer “comfortable.” Plot, like evolution, demands growth regardless of pain or preference. The plot that challenges you may actually be the one you are currently writing. When you watch the video teaching, you’ll see how this principle applies to your own resistance patterns and why the story you think you're writing might not be the one trying to emerge.✍️Monday's Final ClassWe all have one more chance to experience these vital structural insights before the series concludes. This Monday, Sept. 15th, at 10 a.m. PST, we dive into the forces of antagonism. Force(s) = many because your story has internal and external conflicts working in layers most writers never see. Please sign up to get your prep video and handouts now, and start thinking about your protagonist's psychological downfalls: Do they drink? Avoid confrontation? Sabotage relationships? These internal forces often create more tension than any external villain.Hope to see you there, Jennifer PS: Ready to go deeper? If these mini-classes have illuminated gaps in your structural knowledge, you're invited to join the fall Bones of Storytelling series. This is a once-a-year intensive that takes you far beyond these introductory concepts into the complete framework that transforms intuitive writers into conscious craftspeople.Navigate by knowledge instead of hope alone. The difference is the distance between endless revision and finished books that work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back to Flight School:Konrad has done extensive research about medieval medicine, Berber-Arab conflicts, and historical context spanning centuries. His what-if exercises walked us through all this fascinating background material.Mary listened, polite, but then leaned in when Konrad mentioned what happens at the end of his book: Dr. S partnering with a historically unwritten midwife at a hospital. "That's what drew me in," Mary said. "Not the background."The What-If Questions Solution:Konrad's experience revealed what happens to most writers, which is that they get stuck, bogged down, or feel tired because ideas about the story have crowded out the action. What-if questions are a simple fix because they break ideas down into concept mini-bites. Instead of "I want to write a story about a woman who got a diagnosis of stage four cancer and searched for experimental methods and did so successfully to live for her family,” which is three ideas in one big sentence, start first by creating a concept by adding “What if… ” What if a woman gets a diagnosis of stage four cancer and searches for experimental methods and does so successfully to live for her family?Now cut down the complex idea to one idea at a time, making them subparts of the overarching idea:* What if a woman (Annie) is the sole provider for her children?* What if Annie’s husband died three years prior?* What if Annie was pregnant when her husband died in an accident?While the idea above was excellent, it was too far from the actual experience of a living, breathing person. The application of the What-if process shows how to draw closer to an actual person in an actual situation. It’s a slight shift but an important one that brings instant fresh energy into the whole of your work. What-if is great for writers who tend to get lost and are rather dreamy. An Alternative Technique: Image OnlyFor more heady writers, I offered up Robert Olen Butler's technique called Dreamstorming, where the writer enters a liminal, meditative state and “asks” for images. No thinking, just relaxing and trusting images will arise and then jotting each image down on a note card. A match striking. White subway tile. The tip of a burning cigarette. This exercise leans into the reality that the image is king in all stories. It also teaches writers to trust the image more than the busy mind. ✍️ A Simple Assignment that Can Change EverythingSpend 30–40 minutes this week doing the what-if exercises for your current project or the Butler Dreamstorming method. Share the results in the comments. I’m listening. Coming next: The Seven Sacred PlotsWhich plot is calling your story home?Every story—memoir or novel—contains one of the seven fundamental plot structures. With detailed handouts and examples from today's bestsellers, I'll show you how to identify the story spine that’s waiting to be seen.📆 Monday, September 8, at 10:00 a.m. PSTSign up and get your advanced video/handouts to help prepare. Thanks to everyone, and I'll see you live next Monday. ~ Jennifer, 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome into Flight School, where good writers become great:The cool kiss of fall in the air. Dry leaves dropping from still green trees. Shorter days. It’s back-to-school time and this fall I'm opening the vaults to three free mini-classes pulled from my core teaching, The Bones of Storytelling which is the ten-year labor of love that's transformed the work of over 500 writers and earned the title "game changer" from every single participant. Whether you're staring at page one or drowning in your fifth draft, these sessions will give you the structural backbone your story has been craving. You'll walk away knowing exactly where you're going—and how to get there.📆 Monday, September 1 at 10:00 a.m. PSTThe What-If Deep DiveOpen up your story instead of closing it downWe crack your project wide open in the best possible way. I'll demonstrate the What-If technique that's rescued countless manuscripts from the graveyard of good intentions. Watch as we blow the walls off your current constraints and reveal the vistas that have been waiting all along. By the end, you'll have a roadmap that makes the impossible feel inevitable.📆 Monday, September 8 at 10:00 a.m. PSTThe Seven Sacred PlotsWhich ancient structure is calling your story home?Every story—memoir or novel—is built on one of seven fundamental plot structures. With detailed handouts and real-world examples from today's bestsellers, I'll show you how to identify the beating heart of your narrative. Stop wandering in the wilderness. Your story's spine is right there, waiting to be discovered and claimed.📆 Monday, September 15 at 10:00 a.m. PSTThe Six Forces of AntagonismMapping the resistance that makes readers turn pagesOne protagonist, but three dimensions of conflict working against them. Most writers only see the obvious antagonist and wonder why their story feels flat. I'll teach you to spot all six antagonistic forces lurking in your narrative and show you how to tighten that tension until your story hums with electricity.These sessions are my thank-you to the Flight School community—writers who show up, dig deep, and do the work. Get an insider's look at this Bones teaching.Just starting? Perfect. Get the foundation right from day one.Deep in revision hell? Even better. Let's give you the clarity to see the way out.Reserve your spot—completely free & leave inspired, excited, and armed with the structural insights that separate published authors from perpetual revisers.See you soon, Jennifer This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome back to Flight School: If you missed our live summer conversation, not to worry. I’ve edited it and present it here. Watch and witness writers discovering their true audience and experiencing real-time breakthroughs.Our central question (thanks to Becky) was deceptively simple: Who do you want to talk to in your own writing? Stories found their direction and writers claimed their heroic journeys. It was pretty impressive to behold. The Heart of the ConversationWriters in our intimate group revealed their own specific audiences: an estranged son and fellow military "brats" (00:05:53), people struggling with workplace corruption (00:07:38), those without family creating community from isolation (00:17:16), and future grandchildren not yet born (00:20:13).One writer shared her family's grace: "May we have eyes that see, ears that hear, hearts that love, and hands that help each other" (00:21:51)—which became the perfect opening scene for her memoir (00:23:33).We also delved into the challenges of writing difficult topics, the legal realities of using real names (00:33:19), and the fundamental truth that scene writing—not idea writing—being what allows story to emerge in an authentic manner (00:30:26).Three Key Takeaways1. The More Specific Your Audience, The More Universal Your Impact When you write to reach one particular person or group, emotional stakes become clear and you touch the human experience we all share. 2. Trust the Story to Drive Itself Like a self-driving car (00:16:15), your story will find its way to the heroic destination if you commit to writing in scene—specific moments in time where something happens. Keep your hands off the analytical wheel and trust the process.3. All Writing is AutobiographicalWhether writing fiction or memoir, you cannot write what you don't know (00:38:52), and you are always the hero of your story. The only question is whether you'll be tragic or transformed. The writing itself will show you.Watch, listen, and when done, please join in the conversation. ✍🏻Your Turn: Who do you want to talk to in your own writing?Share your answer in the comments. Try to be specific, vulnerable, and see if the answer reveals itself through the question itself. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome to Flight School:Our first paid-subscriber Studio titled Perils & Promise was a hit. Thanks to everyone who showed up live. REMINDER: The Second Perils and Promise with Becky and me is coming August 14th. If you are a paid-subscriber, you get in free. Look for your code in the footer of the email. ** Remember to add the bird. Two core teachings arose from this first conversation: Managing time and writing in scene. ⏰ Let’s start with time: Whether it was Bruce, at seventy-seven, who worried about running out of time, Lori at eighty, wondering if she has the energy to finish her novel, or our younger writers juggling kids and careers, the struggle with time was universal but we learned it isn't about time but about consistency within your capacity."I am a full-time believer in writing habits, pedestrian as it all may sound. You may be able to do without them if you have genius, but most of us only have talent, and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits, or it dries up and blows away...I only write two hours every day because that's all the energy I have, but I don't let anything interfere with those two hours, at the same time and the same place." ~ Flannery O’Connor1. Assess Your Real CapacityAsk yourself Flannery's question: What energy do I actually have? Not what you think you should have but what you actually have available. For some of us, it’s fifteen-minute bursts, others get an hour in the morning, and still others get three. Bottom line: Find out what you CAN DO and do it.2. Protect Your Time FiercelyThe magic isn't in the duration—it's in the reliability. Find YOUR time and then protect it like your life depends on it. Because your writing life does.3. Trust Process Over the ProductThis last is the hardest lesson of all: showing up matters more than what you produce.For the Time-Pressed and Energy-LimitedIf you're feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of your project:Start with lists. Human beings are extraordinary list-makers. Ten moments with your father. Ten defining experiences. Ten scenes that matter. Write big, then slim down. Give yourself permission to overwrite. Becky's father's story was once 300 pages—now it's 32. But she needed those 300 pages to find the 32 that mattered.Trust the reader. You need less connective tissue than you think. Those moments in time will speak to each other.📝Great writing is sensual not mental Now you have a handle on managing your time, it’s time to discipline your method. Write in scene. Always and evermore. Amen. Did you know that a reader needs at least three sensual cues to feel as if they are “in” your story? It’s true. If you are telling, you are not writing well. If you are showing (another way to say writing scene), you are on your way becoming a great writer. Scene-writing takes your idea into the material world and “enlivens” it. Learn how to do this NOW. Take Scene vs. Exposition. If you are a paid subscriber, you get 20% off. Do it. Once you get scene writing, watch the quality of your work rise like phoenix. More tips on scene: * Manageable scope: One moment in time versus an entire life story* Natural stopping points: When the scene ends, you can rest* Cumulative power: Each scene builds your story and your skills* Revelation through action: As Becky noted, "Scene will corner you and take you to that moment you haven't really been wanting to write about”REMINDER: The Second Perils and Promise Conversation with Becky and Jennifer is coming August 14th. If you are paid, you get in free. Look for your code in the footer of the email. Remember to add the bird. ✍🏻 Your turn:What is your writing practice right now? How do you keep going when you want to give up? Thanks for being here, and I look forward to seeing you all soon, Jennifer ~ 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome into Flight School:Save the dates: July 31st & Aug. 14th at 9:00 a.m. PST(🐦‍⬛Free for subscribers. Find your code in the footer of this email) What: A two-part live conversation with me and my co-teacher, Becky Ellis. We are both memoirists and fiction writers and will share what have we learned about perseverance and success, and discuss how memoir and the novel are the same. Plus, we want to hear from you. Bring your challenges and concerns about your writing journey to the conversation. We’re here to support you. Sign up now: Space is limited so get save your spot. The Agent Who Broke My Heart (and My Confidence)“You cannot only write memoir,” my big-wig literary agent sneered. “You MUST write a novel. Do it. Do it NOW!” If you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not. This is how a very high-end, and very well respected agent spoke to me when I was a new writer and experiencing unprecedented success with my first memoir, Blackbird. Tough love worked with all the Bestselling-Iconic-Writers-I-Cannot-Name that she represented and who was I to quibble? I went to work. A year or so later, I gave her my first novel about dreams and dreaming, saying I knew it wasn’t good but that I was trying. She mocked it, tore it to shreds and laughed me out of our relationship. While letting her go didn’t help my career, I told myself I’d rather work with people who were helpful vs. helping me over a cliff. The Second Time AroundFast-forward twenty-years and I wrote a five POV novel set in WWI Italy. Literary with historic elements. My new agent was on fire for the book and had several editors eager to read based on my past successes with Blackbird. Out it went in 2021 and here are the rejections. One editor, only one, wanted to work with me but only if I redrafted the entire book killing nearly all the characters and reshaping the plot based on her vision and tastes. No contract. No advance. Agent Number Two told me to “do it! It’ll be great.” Another agent let go. Another bridge burned. Plus, those twenty-seven rejections tormented me. Each one a small death pushing me further from my desk and the possibility of becoming a novelist. That’s it, I told myself. I cannot do it. I am not smart enough. I just don’t get this. I can’t. I tossed the book into a box and shoved it in the back of a closet. The Wilderness YearsFast forward another four years and I’ve just completed another draft of that book. Version eight was in 2024 and version nine was just this summer. I have no agent yet but that’s the least of my worries because I know I’ve nailed it. At last. I abandoned representation but I kept my writer’s soul. How? By diving deeper into craft and form. Over these years, I read and taught great literature. I studied and taught structure, voice, point of view. I built classes for others and helped them grow in craft and form, too. And most of all, I learned that all those editorial rejections weren’t a verdict on my worth as a writer but evidence I had further to go down the path of learning. Once down that path, it was time to pull the book out of the dark and start again. The Resurrection: 90 Days of Revision that Changed EverythingFour hours every morning. Two thousand words every day. Focus, focus, focus. And in this, draft number nine, I’ve created from a place of hard-won craft knowledge and emotional honesty I hadn't possessed before.The story that emerged, The Home Tree, spans from 1881 to 1917 and follows siblings Maria and Vincenzo Favaro as they flee violent trauma in childhood and rebuild their lives in a new place. Where the original manuscript skated across the surface of their pain, this version plunged deep. I wrote about Maria's sixteen years of sexual captivity. I explored how Vincenzo, born of rape, must confront his violent origins to become the hero his family needs. I anchored everything in the central metaphor of oak trees that survive by being broken open to offer sanctuary—a image that carried the emotional weight the earlier version had lacked.Craft Revelations that Made All the DifferenceOne editor who passed on the book wrote: “It has a fairytale-like quality and the writing that I'm finding difficult to fully connect with." I took that to heart and this version is grounded in authentic historical detail and psychological truth. Where other editors struggled with "five perspectives," I now have complete command of multiple points of view that serve the emotional architecture. And, I've learned the difference between a story and situation. The first manuscript had been a situation—things happened to characters. This new version was a story—characters were transformed by what happened to them, and that transformation drives every page.This is the book I was meant to write about how families weather trauma across generations, how ordinary people find extraordinary courage when everything familiar crumbles, and how the courage to face painful truths becomes the foundation for healing and renewal.The Hard-Won Wisdom: What Rejection Really Teaches UsRejection is not the opposite of success—it's part of the journey toward it. Every "no" teaches something essential about craft and relationship. When I seek out my next agent, I have battle scars enough to know who I’ll work with and who will get a big old pass. And I expect many agents will want to represent this book because it’s that good. Watch this space. The perils of the creative writing journey are real. Rejection stings. Self-doubt is relentless. The marketplace can feel impossible to navigate. But the promises are equally real: each failure makes you stronger, each revision teaches you something new, and persistence—combined with genuine craft development—eventually leads to work that finds its champions.Whether you're choosing between novel and memoir, struggling with a story that won't come together, or facing your own stack of rejections, know this: the work is teaching you what it needs to become. Your job is to keep learning, keep growing, and keep believing that the story you're meant to tell will find its way to the page when you're finally ready to write it.🎙️Your Turn: Join the ConversationLet’s take a deep dive into your own perils and promise as a creative writer. Part One of our conversation is Thursday, July 31st at nine A.M. PST. Part Two is Thursday, August 14th at nine A.M. PST. Don’t miss these talks. Subscribers come for free, so use the code in the footer of this email and if you have ANY trouble, email me pronto and I’ll get it to you. We'll dive deep into the craft decisions, emotional breakthroughs, and practical strategies that transform failure into triumph. See you there. ✍️ Until we meet, share your own promises and perils in the comments. Where are you on the journey? What troubles you the most? What is your greatest victory so far? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Flight School:It’s time to take a deep dive on “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” If you haven’t read it, click the link, read, and come on back. If you have, let’s continue. “Everything” is one of the last stories Flannery O'Connor completed before her death and emerges from a tumultuous period in American history. The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 mandated school desegregation, and by the early 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining powerful, violent momentum. Closer to home, O'Connor battled lupus, a disease that killed her father and would kill her before her fortieth birthday. A devote Catholic, O’Connor was was drawn to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's concept of the "Omega Point" where the universe evolves toward a point of maximum complexity and consciousness, where everything that rises must converge. Cut to the quick socially and personally, and armed with this interest in faith meeting science, O’Connor’s pen was a sharp and relentless blade that produced this unforgettable and disturbing story. Core Teaching: Arc and Symbolic ProgressionThe story follows Julian's failed attempt at moral and intellectual superiority and culminates in a devastating realization of his own emptiness when faced with his mother's mortality. O'Connor builds this arc through escalating symbols and encounters—each element transferring energy to the next, creating unstoppable momentum. The Hat: “It was a hideous hat. A purple velvet flap came down on one side of it and stood up on the other; the rest of it was green and looked like a cushion with the stuffing out. He decided it was less comical than jaunty and pathetic. Everything that gave her pleasure was small and depressed him.” * Represents the mother's vanity and outdated values* Becomes a symbol of connection when the black woman boards wearing the identical hat* Transforms into an emblem of humiliation for both women* Becomes irrelevant in the face of mortalityThe Bus Passengers and the Challenge to Worldviews:“She sat forward and looked up and down the bus. It was half filled. Everybody was white. ‘I see we have the bus to ourselves,’ she said. Julian cringed. ‘For a change,’ said the woman across the aisle, the owner of red and white canvas sandals. “I come on the other day and they were thick as fleas—up front and all through.’” * White passengers (familiar territory)* The well-dressed black man (challenges mother's paternalistic racism while confirming Julian's superficial progressivism)* The black woman with the same hat (creates the "convergence" that neither Julian nor his mother can process)* The black woman's child (catalyst for the final confrontation)Julian's Self-Awareness:“‘That was the whole colored race which will no longer take your condescending pennies. That was your black double. She can wear the same hat as you, and to be sure,’ he added gratuitously (because he thought it was funny), ‘it looked better on her than it did on you. What all this means,’ he said, ‘is that the old world is gone. The old manners obsolete and your graciousness not worth a damn.’”* Begins with smug superiority and condescension toward his mother* Seeks to teach her a "lesson" by attempting to talk to the well-dressed black man* Fantasizes about extreme ways to shock her (bringing home a black woman)* Fails to recognize his own prejudices and limitations* Experiences a moment of terrible clarity when it's too lateThe story's final line,"The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow," represent Julian's moment of convergence—when his intellectual posturing crumbles in the face of genuine human connection and loss. This is the quintessential O'Connor end—a moment of grace delivered through shock and loss that shines light on a truth the protagonist was been blind to throughout. Julian's moment of clarity embodies O'Connor's Catholic understanding that grace often come through violence and suffering. ✍🏻Your turn: Prompts* When have you had a moment of moral superiority so intense, so powerful, so all consuming that you lost track of the deeper call to be kind?* What certain something cannot be forgiven and fosters deep resentment in you?* What person, in your life, harbors a powerful grudge against you and just barely tolerates you while also feeling the need to school you?These prompts carry a certain brutality but if you can write about such things in your own life, you’re on your way to uncovering the deepest truths of the human experience. What you learn is creative-writing rocket fuel and will make your book a classic.~ Jennifer,🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Flight School:Our first live meeting was packed with early risers ready to talk about process and stay inspired through connection and community. The Universal Struggles Time emerged as our collective nemesis and we learned the solution isn't finding more hours—it's claiming the quiet ones. Early mornings from 4:30 to 7:30 are the most fruitful of all. The trick? Set boundaries with technology and resist the midnight Netflix traps.Perfectionism also was called out as as enemy. Get it good, get it close enough, then keep moving forward.Relevance: "How do I make something from long ago matter right now?" The answer: memoir isn't about events—it's about the person. Bridge who you were then with who you are now. Bridging that gap equal wisdom. The Self-Loathing ProblemWe also confronted the American writer's tendency toward self-doubt. When the Dalai Lama encountered Western psychologists discussing self-loathing, Tibetan translators needed ten minutes to explain the concept—they had no word for hating oneself.His response? "This is a huge problem."If we can't value ourselves, how can we value our work? How can we love our children or neighbors? The antidote isn't false bravado—it's deepening your craft. When we perfect our craft, doubt dissolves because we know our work is good.This handout was given to shore up your skills: Look at the teaching on meaning, sense, and clarity—the foundation of all good writing, you’ll grow in mastery. Plus, it’s so hard and requires so much focus, you won’t have time to doubt. The second way to grow in craft, now, is learn how write a scene. Here on Flight School paid subscribers get 20% off the CORE video class: Scene/Exposition/Progression. It’s a must-take and will boost your confidence. This Week's Mission: Get over to the challenge site and check in daily. Share your progress. Read and respond to your fellow writers. Remember: showing up is a complete story with conflict, character development, and resolution.The surge has begun. Now we keep flying. Jennifer 🐦‍⬛Next challenge post: Wednesday at midnight. Next live meeting: June 18th. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

"Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it," Flannery O'Connor said and silenced a room of NY intellectuals. This Exclusive Writing Lab explores how a sharp-witted Georgian created literature that still unsettles readers sixty years after her death. Welcome into Flight School:Before we get started, I’d like to announce:The Second Annual Get-it-Done Summer Challenge When: June 1 to July 15. What: Six week challenge with daily interaction and bi-weekly live Zoom calls. Why: This challenge, like all the Flight School challenges, is designed to inspire and motivate. * Stay the course on your writing schedule* Jump start a flagging project * Finish something that you’ve need to push across the finish lineI’ll be finishing my own novel, The Home Tree, in our time together. Last year, I worked the draft and it was great. This year, let’s do it again. Save the date and I’ll get you more deets over the next couple weeks! Let’s get it done. The first time I read Flannery O’Connor, I did not care for her work. It was too intense, too “in your face,” too raw. Now, I’m older, a revert back to Catholicism after many years away, and a writing teacher, I find she is the most honest writers I’ve had the good fortune to read. It’s not a stretch to say she is also one of the most important writers of our time. Thomas Merton, author of The Seven Storey Mountain, compared her, not to contemporaries like Hemingway, Porter, or Sartre, but to Sophocles, “…for all the truth and all the craft with which she shows man’s fall and dishonor.”Elizabeth Bishop wrote: “I’m sure her few books will live on and on in American literature. They are narrow, possibly, but they are clear, hard, vivid and full of bits of description, phases and an odd insight that contains more real poetry than a dozen books of poems.”For those unfamiliar with her work, O'Connor's prose hits with brute force:From A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the famous line from the Misfit reflects on the grandmother: "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."From Revelation, when Mary Grace attacks Mrs. Turpin: "The girl raised her head and directed her fierce brilliant eyes at Mrs. Turpin. She had a peculiar face, highly colored and unnaturally red, as if its skin had been bound too tight."From Everything That Rises Must Converge, the moment of Julian's realization at the end: "The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow."And it’s not just her stories. If you can get your hands on her letters, do it. My favorite is The Habit of Being. The pure truth, wit and grace of Flannery O’Connor will inspire you to unearth similar qualities that you might stifle in these times of “diagnosis” and exhausting self-editing that started with the political-correctness movement and have only accelerated into madness during this current “misinformation” era. A woman can’t speak a single line without double checking who she’s offended. I say bring back the honest woman, and perhaps that’s what you’ll find in this excellent writer and thinker taken from us too soon. “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.”~ From a letter O’Connor wrote to her friend “A” (Betty Hester) dated February 8, 1958, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor, edited by Sally Fitzgerald.Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. This year, she would have been a hundred years old, and we would have a library of brilliant writing to show for it. Instead, we have a tight, concise, and amazing collection of works created in her short but productive time on earth. O’Connor died of complications from lupus in 1964 at age thirty-nine. Despite her illness that confined her to her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia for much of her adult life, she produced two novels, almost forty short stories, and numerous essays and letters.O’Connor as ArtistO’Connor’s artistic vision was singular and uncompromising, her fiction characterized by gothic elements and southern settings, grotesque characters and violent revelations. She wrote sharp, economical prose rife with dark humor and shocking plot twists.Her dedication to revision was legendary. “I rewrite as much as I write,” she noted, evidence of her commitment to perfecting her craft that continued until her final days. Even as her health failed, she continued working. In the last months of her life, she mailed her publisher Robert Giroux Judgment Day and revised versions of The Geranium and An Exile in the East. She worked until she fell into a coma—a testament to her extraordinary commitment.O’Connor as Catholic“I write the way I do because I am Catholic,” O’Connor said about her work. “This is a fact and nothing covers it like the bald statement.” She grew up surrounded by protestants and battled with bigotry and critics. More so when she entered the intellectual elite of creative writers. One famous incident was when O’Connor attended a literary dinner party in New York, likely in the late 1940s or early 1950s. At this time, O’Connor studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and spent time in literary circles in New York. At a gathering hosted by Mary McCarthy, a writer known for her secular humanism and sharp wit, McCarthy spoke of the Eucharist as a “symbol” she found “interesting.” “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it,” O’Connor said, silencing McCarthy and the room. Silent for much of the evening to that point, O’Connor explained that she believed the Eucharist was truly the body and blood of Christ, not merely a symbol. She would never be accused of watering down her faith for intellectual acceptance.Her faith also manifested in her works, writing from themes of divine grace operating in the material world, of characters experiencing moments of revelation, often through violence or suffering and always, and ever more, focusing on sin, redemption, and judgment. O’Connor’s work is never didactic or sentimental. She claws at theological concepts through stark, often disturbing narratives that will shake you to the core.Going Against the TideWhile much mid-20th century American fiction embraced realism or modernist experimentation, O’Connor created her own distinct style that drew from Southern Gothic traditions but transcended them. She rejected pious, sentimental religious fiction in favor of stories that depicted grace in violent, disturbing ways. Though a Southern writer, she avoided romanticizing the South and instead portrayed its contradictions and failures. As a woman writer in the 1950s, she defied expectations by refusing to write domestic fiction or romances, instead creating dark, theological works populated with complex, often unlikable characters.One of O’Connor’s most remarkable qualities was her absolute commitment to her vision, even when faced with editorial pressure. A revealing exchange with a publisher regarding the first nine chapters of Wise Blood makes the point:The editor wrote to her, calling her a “straight shooter” with “an astonishing gift,” but suggested that aspects of the book were “obscured by her habit of rewriting over and over again.” He added that he sensed “a kind of aloneness” in the book, as if she were writing out of her own limited experience, and wished she would “sit down and tell him what was what.”In response, O’Connor wrote to her friend Miss McKee: “Please tell me what is behind this Sears-Roebuck-Straight-Shooter approach. I presume…either that the publisher will not take the novel as it will be if left to my fiendish care (it will be essentially as it is), or that the publisher would like to rescue it at this point and train it into a conventional novel… the letter is addressed to a slightly dimwitted Campfire Girl and I cannot look forward with composure to a lifetime of others like them.”To the publisher himself, she wrote: “I can only hope that in the novel the direction will be clearer…I feel that whatever virtues the novel may have are very much connected with the limitations you mentioned. I am not writing a conventional novel, and I think that the quality of the novel I write will derive precisely from the peculiarity, or aloneness, if you will, of the experience I write from…In short, I am amenable to criticism, but only within the sphere of what I’m trying to do; I will not pretend to do otherwise. The finished book, though I hope less angular, will be just as odd if not odder than the nine chapters you now have.”Lessons for Modern Writers* Hold all feedback about your work with a light hand: Rather than seeking approval, seek ways to clarify your vision. IE: Get closer to nature. Be quiet. And most of all, re-write.* Stop suffering fools: Focus on your work, always and evermore. People might not get you right now, even in your own workshop. Your point isn’t be to be“understood” by everyone or even liked. It’s to be a better writer. * Commitment to craft: Despite her illness, O’Connor maintained a strict writing schedule and never stopped revising. When you are kvetching about time and challenges, remember O’Connor and create a manageable writing plan that plays the long game.* Embrace the unconventional: O’Connor’s work stands out because she refused to follow literary trends. Take heart. Create what is true and beautiful and the rest will fall into place.Reading O’Connor TodayOver the next few posts, I’m going to do an analysis of three stories, Everything that Rises Must Converge, Revelation and A Good Man is Hard to Find. I’ll try to supply copies for each conversation but if I cannot, I suggest adding The Complete Stories to your library.If you’ve not read her work yet, a few things to note: * She is not easy to read: Her stories make many uncomfortable (including myself when I first encountered her) but will never quite leave your mind. Approach with an extremely open mind and you’ll do well here.* Set aside knee-jerk and outraged reactions to her language: O’Connor’s Southern vernacular is part of her historical authenticity. Rather than judging it by cancel culture standards, consider it represents the true southern experience of that time and of those people. She was many things, but O’Connor was not a liar.* Read more than once: The depth and complexity of O’Connor’s stories reveal themselves through our reactions to them, the more intense the reaction, the more revealing of our own hearts and actions. She has defamiliarized language and storytelling in her collection and each rereading offers new insights.O’Connor reminds us that great art isn’t always comfortable or easily digestible. It’s often challenging, disorienting, and profoundly unsettling—but ultimately transformative.Your turn ✍️What was your first connect with Flannery O’Connor? Share in comments. I’m listening. Thanks for being with me for this terrific conversation, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome into Flight School:“You would make a wonderful teacher,” she said. She being a spiritual guru in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Gray hair slicked back into a bun, deep red robes worked over a white cotton blouse, and black cotton pants. She was in her late fifties, I think. So exotic. So mysterious. We sat in a meadow, this guru and I, surrounded by tall grasses and wildflowers. Her on a cushion. Me on my knees in the dirt. A true supplicant. Tiny white butterflies flitted about in that dry, crisp, clean air only found in the Rocky Mountains, but I didn’t notice them or much of anything back then. Rather, I was tangled in terrible angst. What next? I kept asking myself. I had finally left behind an implacable husband and now had a terrifying solo life ahead raising my beautiful but young children. To this point, writing had paid me but what if I never published another book? What if I couldn’t go back to journalism? What if, what if? I was here with a ridiculous and utopic vision of mediation as solution to my confusion, anxiety, and woes. This woman, well intended I’m sure, had an agenda hidden behind that serene smile and calm demeanor. She needed devoted followers who would help her build and finance her 650 acre retreat center. As part of this underlying need, was now nudging me into the shared-contacts model of business growth and development. “You’ve published three books. Teach writing,” she continued and then offered her retreat center as my first venue. Not seeing that she was eager to draw on my successes in publishing to include my wide fanbase, I took her suggestion as genuine guidance even though it confused me. Really? Me? A teacher? I couldn’t see it. I was rather…edgy. Introverted, studious to the point of geeky, exacting, and a writing snob meaning I had extremely high lierary standards. Fast forward twenty-plus years later, and it turns out that all those qualities make for a great teacher. Once honed. Today, I run The Blackbird Studio for Writers and Flight School. The former, a boutique idea-to-publication program of carefully curated writers who study with me, often for years. Heroes, hard workers, and talented to the point of heartbreak as you see from the sampling above. (You can find more of this over on my Instagram). The latter, Flight School, my virtual meadow where you are invited to sit a while, experience my teaching and figure out if you want more. Flight School is a sublime place to start because the “agenda” factor isn’t in play. Sure, I want you to become a student but only if it is a great fit. Every writer has something life changing to write—for themselves first and then for the reader—and that’s what I help you discover. You don’t have to be the most talented natural writer to get there but you do have to have a certain something. In my years I’ve found it to be a mix of humility, obstinate persistence, and focus. Accountability helps. Over ten years, I’ve built a program that can help such a writer realize a goal as simple as “just getting it all down for my kids” to “writing a book worthy of big five publishing.” The tools I’ve honed over these years work.My Method* Practical, accessible, progressive teachings that make sense * Practice, practice, practice through workshopping and line editing* Personal advice based on your unique style and needsI don’t like teaching. I love it. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Teachers are held to an incredible standard that weighs heavy on my shoulders (like raising kids) but it’s incredible to work through the stages of growth and stagnation together. My job is to hold steady with writers, sometimes pushing, sometimes backing off but always seeking that pearl of lived truth. Memoir. Fiction. It doesn’t matter, I say. We’re always writing about ourselves. And that truth is always there, waiting in the softest, most hidden part of the heart. A mountain of thanks to that guru who told me to teach all those years ago. Agenda or not, she was right. I am a teacher. ✍️Your Turn: Post in the comments Share your pivotal moment. What unexpected advice changed your path forever? Or for my students past and present—what's one specific writing breakthrough you've experienced in our work together?Thanks for being with me, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛PS: Did you know I wrote and published four books? Blackbird’s nearing it’s 25th Anniversary. Click here or on the image. Check it out! Flight School with Jennifer Lauck is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome into Flight School:When All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr released, the hype drew me in. Like many others, I invested in the hardcover and zoomed through this oh-so-promising book. Near the end, I noticed something that seemed impossible. The story fell apart.What happened? Fast forward many years:* I’m now crafting my own historical novel. * I’ve taught creative writing for ten years. This teaching is about what I’ve learned by doing both, and yes, All the Light fizzled because Doerr did not understand the crucial underpinnings of structure and plot. He missed the mark. You will not learn about “missing the mark” in your MFA, you will not hear an editor or a book doctor explain it, and you’ll never hear a publisher talk about it (publishers hit the mark with hype and getting you to buy the book). But if you are a writer (like me) who wants to create a memorable and life-changing book, you want to know this. Watch this teaching and learn. Handouts: A few books that go the distance: The Underground Railroad & The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (genius) Hamnet by Maggie O’FarrellJane Eyre by C. BronteTale of Two Cities by C. Dickens.✍️Your turn: Can you name a book that you felt flopped near the end? Share, and share what you think went wrong. Or, share a book that you felt totally went the distance for you, and why. My greatest hope is to save you from making the same mistake in your own work. Thank you for being with me for this teaching. ~ Jennifer, 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome into Flight School:I hope you enjoy watching this rich, insightful, touching conversation of the six-week Light Keeper’s Challenge. I created the Light Keeper’s Challenge to help myself and others shine the light on our creative lives amidst darkening days and a flurry of festivities. I was able to finish a draft of my novel, read the whole of it and set my revision plan. I also finished The Summer of ‘72. All the chapters now in and posted with a surprising up-twist in the final chapter not even I saw coming. Six Key Takeaways for Your Creative Journey:SAVOR CONSISTENCY: Tracy evolved from "background participant" to fully engaged creator, developing a deep understanding of her creative rhythms and practical tools for managing overwhelm - from barefoot grounding walks to intentional rest periods.CLAIM THE WORK: Karina embraced her challenging memoir work with a powerful mantra: "The work I am not at liberty to quit." Her discovery of silent group writing sessions provided both structure and community, helping her push through self-doubt.UNDERSTAND RHYTHMS: Amy recognized her early morning creative energy while learning to embrace writing in smaller moments throughout the day. She's now ready to move beyond article writing to tackle deeper, more challenging work.BUILD FOUNDATIONS: Jill transformed her book from idea to reality by prioritizing writing over morning social media. Using concrete tools like the W chart from Bones and scene from Scene & Exposition teachings, plus evening reading of her work to spark next-day creativity, she's created sustainable progress.EMBRACE THE JOURNEY: Kristi courageously accepted being "on the bottom rung" again with her newsletter, drawing wisdom from her past as a nursing teacher - remembering that mastery comes through consistent practice. TAKE THE LEAP: Kat made the bold decision to resign from freelance work to fully commit to her writing, viewing creativity itself as an act of resistance while reclaiming her artistic identity as a mother. Jennifer noted the exceptional quality and momentum already present in her work.The Light Keeper's Legacy:Surging into the holiday ahead, here are a few key takeaway to consider: * Find strength in community by taking a class. Bones is coming in Feb * Find the courage to prioritize creative work* Give yourself permission to begin again, as often as neededYour Turn:You may have missed our last meeting, or have been in the background and not yet ready to join in but I’d still love to hear from you. Let me know some of your own “light keeping” strategies. BONUS: Let me know what you need in the form of support in the next year and I’ll shape my next challenge around those needs. Thanks for being here, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi and welcome into Flight School:There's a moment in writing when the world cracks open. Not with the thunderous drama of revelation, but with the quiet gasp of recognition. As a New York Times bestselling author and writing teacher these two decades, I've witnessed this countless times - writers pause mid-sentence, their voices catch, and tears welling up as they read work they themselves created."How does this happen?" they ask, bewildered. "I wrote this. I know this story. I didn't weep when I created it... so why now?"The quiet gift of your creationYour work holds the power to knock on the door of what lies beneath. When our words carry more weight than we expected, when they break us open in ways we didn't anticipate, it's an invitation to step closer, to explore more deeply, to enter into relationship with parts of ourselves we may have been too busy, too afraid, or too distracted to fully witness.Writing, particularly in scene, then becomes an unexpected act of compassionate, witnessing love. Every scene I've written has broken my heart open to the person I used to be - not because that person was lacking, but because I can finally see the full dimension of my lived experience. Not just the thoughts, but the complete expression of that moment of time.Busy, busy, too busy to feelIn a world where we maintain impossibly high standards for ourselves, where self-criticism often drowns out self-compassion, scene writing offers a profound opportunity to be fully present with ourselves, to capture the wholeness of who we are and were. this is why I've never gone back to read anything I've written, even pieces I once judged harshly by my admittedly exacting standards as a writing teacher at the time, without falling absolutely in love with the person on the page.It's the kind of love a mother offers - unconditional, seeing beauty in every stage of growth, cherishing both the stumbles and the triumphs. Perhaps this is why I'm so deeply drawn to scene work: In a life where visibility felt scarce, writing scene became my way of truly seeing myself. It is, I've come to realize, the ultimate act of mothering - creating a space where every part of our story is witnessed, held, and loved.Cope with the reality of what creative writing offersWhen writing cracks us open, when it carries more emotion than we anticipated, it's not a flaw in our craft. It's an invitation to draw closer, to explore more deeply, to write our way into greater understanding. Every word becomes a love letter to our future self, every scene a moment of profound witness to who we were and who we are becoming.This is the unexpected medicine of creative work - not just what it produces on the page, but how it transforms the writer in the process. When we answer that knock at the door, when we follow where the emotion leads, we often find ourselves in territory more sacred than we imagined possible.💌 Your turn: I'd love to hear your story of being truly seen - either by your mother or by someone who offered that mothering presence in your life. Head over to the subscriber chat (below) and share a photo of your mother or that special person who saw you, along with:* A moment when you felt completely seen and held in your truth* Or a time when someone unexpected stepped into that mothering role and gave you the gift of recognitionA turn toward our writing: What story is gently (or not so gently) asking for your attention right now? What piece of your journey feels ready to be witnessed on the page? Share a single line in the comments (or on the chat) about what you might explore if you gave yourself permission to write it.Remember: Sometimes the stories that make us most nervous are the ones that hold the deepest gifts.Thanks for being with me, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome into Flight School: There's a moment in every writer's journey when the fantasy of being an author collides with the reality of becoming one. It's like stepping into a cathedral of creativity where the stained glass windows are made of your own vulnerabilities, each pane illuminating a different shade of your creative truth.The Evolution of Artistic GrowthThe path from aspiring writer to published author isn't a sprint—it's a carefully orchestrated marathon. As Ernest Hemingway once noted, "The first draft of anything is garbage." But what happens after that first draft is where the real transformation begins.Our writer's journey begins in Flight School, where raw talent meets structured guidance. This foundation leads to the Blackbird Studio, where writers undertake two pivotal programs: Bones of Storytelling and Scene and Exposition. These aren't just courses; they're initiations into the sacred art of storytelling.The Workshop Experience: Where Vulnerability Meets Growth"Writing is a solitary act, but becoming a writer is a communal journey." - Annie DillardIn our curated workshops, twelve writers gather in a creative crucible that spans 15 to 30 weeks. Every three weeks, they present up to 1,500 words of their work—raw, honest, vulnerable work—to be examined under the careful eye of experienced mentors and peers.The feedback process? It's not for the faint of heart. Picture yourself as a writer standing nose-to-bark in your forest of words. The workshop is the hand that gently pulls you back, allowing you to see your creation through twelve different pairs of eyes. This perspective shift can be jarring, even painful, but it's where true growth begins.The Emotional Laboratory: Processing Creative FeedbackWhat makes receiving feedback so challenging isn't just the critique itself—it's how it resonates with our deepest insecurities. When feedback touches these tender spots, it can trigger what I call the "not-enough-ness" response—a feeling that may have roots in our earliest experiences of inadequacy.Here's a transformative exercise for when feedback feels overwhelming:* Pause and breathe* Ask yourself: "When did I first feel this 'not enough' sensation?"* Journal about that first memory* Transform that vulnerability into character developmentThis emotional archaeology isn't just therapeutic—it's creative gold. Your deepest wounds often become your most powerful stories.The Promise of TransformationHaving published five books, a passel of essays, and now working my tenth draft of a novel, I have taken this journey many times and have guided countless writers along the way. I can testify that the suffering of creation is profound, but so is the reward. Like a phoenix rising from creative ashes, each workshop cycle brings writers closer to their authentic voice…if they hold steady, if they trust, if they carry on.As we enter this season of reflection and renewal, remember that every great writer you admire has walked this path of creative transformation. The workshop isn't just about improving your craft—it's about becoming the writer you're meant to be.Thanks for being here, JenniferPS: Post a comment about your own workshop experiences! Or join us on the subscriber chat! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Hi Flyers:“You can be as mad as a dog at the ways things went, you can swear and curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.” ~Captain Mike’s death speech in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I was as mad as a dog. I swore. I cursed the fates. It wasn’t a battle on the high seas but the rejection of a novel I felt sure would sell. Here’s what the powers that be at over two dozen major publishing houses had to say: 2020-2021The Home Tree was in it’s ninth revision when the world tipped off its axis into lockdowns. My agent and I forged ahead driven by the motto: "Done, dusted, and sold.” Meanwhile, my daughter lost her senior year in high school and all social connections. Then, she faced a difficult health decision before college, one that conflicted with her pre-existing condition. Engaged in complex, life-altering discussions, I was far less than my best self—yelling, crying, pleading (and this was mostly me, not her) fueled by my maniacal desire to finish and sell the damn book. Then came the rejections. Game over. Today: The Lessons of Rejection#1: Feel the pain. There is clarifying pain in rejection, especially around a project that’s taken years. If you can face that sharp pin-point of rejection, you will emerge a better person—and writer.#2: Change. Be honest with yourself. Was it about the book, some inhumanity within yourself, or a combo of both? #3: Distance. Walk away until the voices go silent—your agent’s, your editors’, your own.#4: Regroup: Eventually, decide if you want to take another swing at it or be done. If it is the former, re-group from the initial enthusiasm that made you want to write the book in the first place. Cultivate that enthusiasm, nurture it, see how it has changed, evolved, matured. #5: Go. Get back to work! 2023I applied all five lessons. The first two were brutal but transformative: I moved to a cabin in the woods, deepened my spirituality, healed deep set reactive patterns, and atoned with my beautiful daughter. Last summer, I took my next swing and rewrote with only two POV characters and a tighter plot. At 70,000 words, it fell apart. I realized I was writing about Catholic characters in a Catholic country and knew very little about Catholicism. This meant reading the Bible and the Catechism which took the rest of the summer. Then I discovered my years of deep, unhealed fury at that same Catholic Church, and even God. I had to stop writing and do more internal work around spiritual reconciliation and growth.2024This summer I started again with my favorite and primary character, Vincenzo. I am now rewriting his story that parallels my own: Immature spirituality and a hard conversion via the pain. New title, new focus, new plan. I’m 46,000 words into the re-write of The Man Born with Seven Shirts. Which is dialect term for someone who is born lucky. I’m now re-reading all those editorial comments from 2021, ready to fully digest the important feedback offered by the pros. All of this personal growth, reconciliation, maturing of my creative process, and overcoming setbacks happened thanks to rejection. Today, I’m no longer cursing but giving thanks. Your Turn: * When were you rejected in a way that brought you to your knees?* What did you do with that moment? * Post in the comments and I will write back. Thanks for being with me, Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back:…every author attests to the two states of writing—inspiration and waiting for inspiration. These words from the chapter titled A Novel of Your Own (I) of 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley become the overarching truth for our ten week “Get it Done" Challenge that launched July 1. Rather than waiting, we create inspiration through accountability.What you have here is a collective of writers who have detailed their project, set word count goals and check in each day. Working on what I hope is the final draft of a historic novel I’ve worked on (and off) for ten years, I’ve set the bar pretty high at 12,000 words a week, or 2000 words a day. Others come in a few hundred. The above video highlights the work of a some of the writers (we have a dozen here) and at the end are some thoughts about the evolving process of creation. On drafting your novel:Continuing with Jane Smiley and her terrific book, she writes a couple more things worthy of sharing.One is that to do this kind of writing, it’s helpful to have a clear understanding of what she calls the “novel writing pyramid of skill”: It might seem daunting to imagine you need to learn all this as part of your creative writing, but the point is more that when you hit the wall (or ceiling), it could be because you need to do a bit of study on a particular area of the pyramid. Hint, hint, come take Bones of Storytelling where we cover all of Smiley’s categories and more! (Here’s a free first class so you don’t feel I’m trying to lure you. I’m not. The class simply rocks.) Snippets of advice from Smiley:* The trick is to make your material so fascinating that you cannot stay away from it, so intriguing that you ignore negative feelings and second thoughts, so rich with interest that the concepts of “good” or “bad” hardly occur to you. * I advise against rewriting, except for grammar and clarity until you have the whole arc of the novel complete. * Each day, you sit down to your work, re-read what you wrote the day before, correct the spelling and untangle thoughts you no longer understand…and get on with it.* A novel comes alive, even to its author, as it precipitates on the page. If you prevent it from going forward by polishing each bit, it’s much hard for it to take on its own being. * …write through to the end of the rough draft, in spite of time constraints, second thoughts, self-doubts, and judgements of all kinds… ***Note, if you are writing creative non-fiction, simply apply that term in place of novel. If you need support, the challenge is going strong. Come on over. 🐦‍⬛ See you there, Jennifer This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

An open mic post and free teaching on theme, why it matters and how applying yourself to the study of theme can take some of the sting out of your memoir writing. Welcome: Who cares about my story? My book? Me?If you are a writer of any form, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t ask these questions. But as memoir writers, these questions infiltrate nearly every moment of our creative process. “Who cares? Who cares? Who cares?” we ask ourselves as we type away our most challenging lived experiences. What if I told you I could help silence these questions via a better understanding of one simple idea known as theme? Would you be interested? In my last post, I used the personal story of “a protagonist” (myself) selling her book through perseverance and sheer determination while also struggling mightily with an underlying problem of feeling unworthy. And as I wrote last week, because of that post, we’ve entered the rocky terrain of theme, which I’d like to unpack. On the Hierarchy of Story chart, which is a template I use when teaching at Blackbird, theme nests close to “idea” and “concept.” Idea is obvious. It’s your book idea. Concept is a process of turning that idea into a series of questions that act as the first outline of your book from beginning to end. To go there, you’ll need to take a Foundations Class because it’s too big a lesson for Flight School or this post. But theme is not too big. Theme is amazingly simple…SIDEBAR: I’ve encountered writing teacher after writing teacher who scoffs, rolls their eyes, and tosses theme out as if it’s a bag of moldy bread. So, if you’ve been taught the theme is not necessary or worthy of your time, I’m asking you to open your mind for this post.In my opinion, theme matters greatly to the memoir writer who often gets mired down by the idea that their book is ONLY about them. Don’t get me wrong. The story is about the writer…for a while; the first and second draft perhaps, but eventually, it must be about the reader too.What is it then? What is theme?Theme is the relevance of your story to life. To reality…Theme is love and hate, the folly of youth, the treachery of commerce, the minefield of marriage, the veracity of religion, heaven and hell, past and future, science vs. nature, betrayal, friendship, loyalty, Machiavellian agenda, wealth and poverty, mercy and courage and wisdom and greed and lust and laughter. Theme is life itself, as manifested in our stories, as seen through our characters, and as experienced through our plots. ~ Larry Brooks, Story EngineeringStory Engineering isn’t the best teaching book out there; in fact, it’s annoying on many levels. But I have to confess, MOST teaching books bug me. Too many seem to hold an underlying agenda on the writer's part, or too much ego, or a general pissy-ness and bossy-know-it-all-itis that makes my head hurt. But, I appreciate Story Engineering for two reasons: 1) straight-talking simplicity and 2) smart lessons. In the above quote, Brooks’ definition stands as a first lesson. Let’s look closer and go to work by using my story from the last few posts, which is about…* The minefield of marriage* The treachery of commerce* Wealth and poverty* Courage* Wisdom Now that I have my list, I can start narrowing it down to write one primary statement about my story that is so strong, it will act as a compass for my writing and slay any doubts about relevance. Robert McKee calls this primary statement a controlling idea: A CONTROLLING IDEA may be expressed in a single sentence describing how and why life undergoes change from one condition of existence at the beginning to another at the end. ~ Robert McKee, StoryMcKee is a theme naysayer. He writes, Theme has become a rather vague term in the writer’s vocabulary. “Poverty," “war,” and “love,” for example, are not themes; they are related to setting and genre. A true theme, he writes, is not a word but a sentence that expresses a story’s irreducible meaning. His agenda is to blow off theme and point writers directly into making a singular statement, and I’m after that, too. We differ essentially on terminology here. And process. So, let me give it a shot. POSSIBLE CONTROLLING IDEA: Despite doubt, fear, and seemingly insurmountable obstacles (how things were at the beginning), perseverance, sheer will, and inventiveness in the moment are all it takes to get the job done (how things are at the end). McKee’s controlling idea isn’t wrong because eventually, you will want to narrow your overall thematics down to a controlling idea…if only to be wickedly clear about what you’re writing…but I don’t think a controlling idea is comprehensive enough. And well, it’s….boring. Or what I’ve written is boring, because it’s rather vague. I like to take a little from Robert McKee and a little from Larry Brooks, and with both in mind, write a primary statement that includes a balance of the specific and the general. To help you understand, let me try again: (How things are at the beginning) With a demanding husband hounding her to make money (specific), a needy baby clinging to her side (specific), and a history of crippling doubt (specific and general), an American woman (general) takes her innate skills of perseverance, sheer will, and inventiveness (general) and dives into the cutthroat world of publishing (specific) determined to sell her book, provide for her family and save her marriage (specific). (How things are at the end)Now I’ve done it. I’ve written a balanced thematic statement that tells the whole story in one sentence. This still isn’t a singular statement of what I want the reader to walk away with but this is: Women struggling with marriage and children can overcome any obstacle through perseverance, sheer will, and inventiveness-in-the-moment. Boom! I know what I’m writing. I no longer wonder, “Who cares?” And I have a plan (as well as some pretty snappy marketing copy for when I pitch my story to an agent). Your Turn:Theme is easy, but I find that working with it well is also a process.I’ve outlined my method above. Now, see if you can try it on for size: * List your thematics. * Write a “life-was-this-way and then then-became-that-way” statement.* Write your singular statement. Post in the comments section. ~ Jennifer, 🍎Flight School is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. 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Welcome into Flight School:Every person in your story deserves careful attention, even those who appear only briefly. The best writers know this - they make every character memorable through precise, thoughtful description. Let me show you how they do it.The Masters at WorkLook how these writers bring passing characters vividly to life:Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr: A pair of monks, small as gnomes, push past, talking animatedly, onions on their breath. Truth Serum by Bernard Cooper: The waitresses at Burl’s wore brown uniforms edged in checkered gingham. From their breast pockets frothed white lace handkerchiefs. In between reconnaissance missions to the tables, they busied themselves behind the counter and shouted “Tuna to travel,” and “Scorch that patty” to a harried short order cook who manned the grill. And though this isn’t memoir, I have to share one from my favorite book and author, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving: Mr. Tubulari—was also away for Christmas. He was also a bachelor, and he had insisted on the fourth floor—for his health; he claimed to love running upstairs. He had many female visitors…Mr. Tubulari was fast and silent and thrived on catching the boys “in the act”—in the act of anything: shaving cream fights, smoking in their rooms, even masturbation. Each floor had a designated common room, a butt room, so-called, for the smokers; but smoking in dorm rooms was forbidden—as was sex in any form, alcohol in any form, and drugs that had not been prescribed by the school physician. Mr. Tubulari even had reservations about aspirin. According to Dan, Mr. Tubulari was off competing in some grueling athletic event over Christmas—actually, a pentathlon of the harshest-possible wintertime activities; a “winterthon,” Mr. Tubulari had called it. None of these characters appear again. Yet we'll never forget them because each writer took the time to render them fully human.Character Study: Norman Ollestad's FatherLet's return to Crazy for the Storm to see this technique in action. Notice how Ollestad builds his father's portrait - not through police-blotter details of height and weight, but through specific, revealing actions:* A newspaper-reading, apple-gobbling surfer* Drives a '56 Porsche* Gives his kid peanuts for lunch while calling him "Boy Wonder"* Bets on a horse named Scooby DooThrough these details, we understand not just what this man looks like, but who he is. His pride, his complexity, his relationship with his son - all emerge through carefully chosen specifics.The Essential ElementsWhen developing any character, major or minor, consider:* Names and their significance* Mannerisms and speech patterns* Attitudes and behaviors* Physical details (clothing, accessories)* Desires, hopes, and dreamsMany writers rush past character description, particularly of minor characters. But this misses an opportunity to deepen your story. Every person who appears in your narrative can add texture and meaning - if you take the time to see them fully.✍️Your TurnReturn to Chapter One of Crazy for the Storm. Study the other two characters in the scene:* What specific details does Ollestad provide?* How do these details shape your understanding of who these people are?* What assumptions do you make based on these descriptions?Remember: Every character who appears in your pages is an opportunity to enrich your story's world. Give them the attention they deserve.~ Jennifer 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Join our deep-dive analysis of "Crazy for the Storm," featuring marked-up pages that reveal exactly how a master writer builds tension. Plus, discover the moment when craft becomes invisible and story takes over, and learn to create that magic in your own work.Hi and welcome: It’s time to continue with Crazy for the Storm and the answers to the questions I asked. First, the pages marked up for you to see. Now here are my answer to the questions: * There are two scenes here, and my reasonings goes like this: The outer environment has shifted dramatically. While those inside the plane remain in the cockpit, the external environment has changed to such a degree that the primary goal has now shifted and a new tension mounts. What was a standard trip becomes a series of decisions that alters the destiny of all in the plane. So…in that case, I’m going to say that the first scene did the work of set-up, but that is still a veritable scene, a unique pearl of its own, held together via that connective tissue of the flashbacks. * The pink lines under and to the side represent when the writer incorporated an element of the SRC. Does this align with what you noticed? * Finally, I asked when you stopped paying attention to the elements of the Scene Recipe Card and fell fully into the story? What was that “little something” that drew you in? Captured your attention? This is called a hook, and hooks vary person to person. ✍️ Your Turn: Continuing with the Scene Recipe CardTake some time with the people and personality ingredient to include the names of everyone (even a study of name origins). Include description of mannerisms, speech patterns, attitudes, what people wear, what they carry with them in the form of jewelry, purses, bags as well as their desires, hopes, dreams.Looking forward to reading how this goes for you!~ Jennifer, 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Take your Scene Recipe Card into the field with an interactive study of "Crazy for the Storm." Follow along with downloadable materials as we discover how Norman Ollestad brings scenes to vivid life, and learn to spot the essential elements that make memoir memorable.Hi and welcome: In my last post, I broke scene into seven basic elements and gave you the assignment of writing the first three into your current work or something new. To recap, they were: location, wider location, and the natural world. Keep going on that. And as you do, I offer up a concrete example that brings the SRC into clearer perspective. Norman Ollestad’s Crazy for the Storm draws the reader in and holds her close with lovely scene writing. This is not a scream-memoir (which makes you want to scream and throw the book across the room). Ollestad goes to the heart of a boy who becomes a true hero. ✍️Your turnGrab your Scene Recipe Card and read (listen) to this opening chapter. And this chapter:Instructions: * Listen to the story (which is the audio portion of this post) with your SRC handy. Underline when Ollestad incorporate one of the elements. * Note the number of scenes in this chapter. Not flashback or representative scenes, but the scenes that move the story forward in linear time. * There could be a time when you stop noting the elements of scene in this chapter. If and when this happens, for whatever reason, make a large X on your copy. Next post, I’ll debrief. Answering these questions in the comments: * How many of the elements did Ollestad use? * How many actual scenes were there (signaled by change in time or location)?* When did you stop notating? ~ Jennifer, 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe

Learn the essential building block of great memoir, featuring a practical tool that transforms good writing into unforgettable storytelling. Plus, discover why mastering scene is the key to moving from reporting to art.Welcome into Flight School:Generally speaking scene is the building block of creative nonfiction...the widespread notion that nonfiction is the writer's thoughts presented in an expository or summarizing way has done little but produce quantities of unreadable nonfiction.~ Brenda Miller and Suzanna Paola, Tell it SlantThink of scene as a perfect pearl. Each one complete, beautiful, singular. As you write, you're stringing these pearls together to create something whole. A narrative essay might need five to fifteen pearls; a full-length memoir could require three hundred. But each pearl must be crafted with care.The Anatomy of SceneAt its simplest, a scene is a moment in time where something happens to move the story forward. Note the singulars: "a moment," "something." Many writers, rich with thoughts and memories, try to pour everything onto the page at once. But great scenes require containment - one moment, one action, brought fully to life.The Scene Recipe CardTo help writers master scene, I created a simple tool that breaks down the essential elements:* Location (immediate surroundings)* Wider Location (neighborhood, city, world)* Natural World (weather, seasons, environment)* People & Personality* Dialogue* Sensory Detail* VerticalityYou can do this right now as you read this post. 🛑 STOP and look up. What’s over your head? Sky? Ceiling? Write it down. Look down. What’s under your feet? A hardwood floor, or sand, or grass, or a carpet? Describe it. What’s off to your right... 🗣 "Oh my Gosh, that’s so boring,” your head will insist. “Give me something more interesting to do.” Okay…this interruption to the lesson is expected, so please go to the line on the SRC that reads sensory detail and continue through to “movement of mind.” Note the asterisk which I’ll add here: Movement of mind describes thoughts: associations, future, past, memory. Mind, or ordinary mind, is considered a “sense.” Not the driver! Let’s get back to work. We were looking right and describing what was there in your imagination or in your memory. Then left. Then forward.Then behind. Location is that simple. Slow down. Follow the recipe. Start describing. Carrying on with the SRC to wider location, look out the window and describe your particular neighborhood with it’s particular streets, and street names, and land marks. You are also in a particular city, in particular state. Time for the natural world now. What’s happening outside? Does the wind blow? The rain fall? Or has the sun just burned through the clouds? Are the birds are busy gathering twigs? Does one perch on your porch (say a Black Phoebe) and tweet tseep while cocking its head to one side? Now lets look at people and personality. Perhaps you have a daughter just home from school who wears something very particular, her hair arranged just so, and her bag over her shoulder. She smells a certain way. Smiles a certain way. Hugs you in a certain way (or not). Capture what she says (dialogue) and see how her words reveal her character, “What’s for dinner?” Or “Are we out of cookies?” Or, “Can I borrow the car?” Or “Why are you staring at me like that???” All this is dialogue. Welcome to the party. Then comes sensory details which I’ve already alluded to with the arrival of the daughter in our scene. She smells a certain way. She touches in a certain way. The feel of her hand on yours is very particular, and if you take a moment to consider how that touch feels and write it down, you are now in the realm of the sensory in your scene. And you are bringing that scene to life for the reader by including that sensation. Verticality is about multiple concrete and specific details. For example: She held a cup. What kind of cup? What is the shape? Color? Is there something particular about that cup, something memorable or meaningful? With verticality, you keep going vertical (rather than horizontal along the expository line of your story) until you arrive at the deeper meaning of the thing. For example: She held a greenish blue cup that, if you looked closely, seemed cracked a thousand times over as if the potter who made it had no idea what they were about. It was actually not a flaw but an intention of the design. The cracks within the cup, when she looked at them, formed a spiral from the bottom to the rim and when drinking her tea, she studied the spiral for a long time and often felt she was dropping into it or perhaps emerging from the center. Scene writing is basically attuning yourself to life itself. We are all living in scenes in every moment of our life. When you write a scene, your bringing yourself present to what is. And when you can learn to write this way, you are on your way to imparting this gift, first to yourself, and then to anyone who is lucky enough to read your work. ✍️Your TurnChoose one moment you want to bring to life. Using the Scene Recipe Card, write down:* What's immediately around you* The wider world of this moment* The natural elements at playRemember: You're not reporting - you're creating a moment readers can step inside and live.~ Jennifer, 🐦‍⬛ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jenniferlauck.substack.com/subscribe