Being a writer is hard. Being a writer who tells stories that make society uncomfortable enough to change is even harder. Wanting to create art that heals humanity is an honorable calling. But if you do not take steps to protect your own heart while you pour it out onto the page, you will break it.

Stories That Can Change the World

When we say that storytellers have the power to change our world for the better, we are serious. But in order for your stories to carry the kind of impact that can change the world, you must be writing about what really matters.

We teach you how to wield this kind of healing power with your writing at One Brilliant Arc, and this month we are talking about how to do that by writing with intimacy: writing closer to the heart to unlock the true power of your words.

Why does writing with intimacy matter? Because words that come from the heart hit harder than empty words.

The stories that can change the world aren’t the generic stories that make us feel warm and cozy inside or the ones that anyone else can tell by mashing together a few popular tropes in the shape of the 3-Act Structure.

But I’m going to be honest with you: when I tried to write like that for the first five years of my career, I burned myself out. I’m still trying to find the bravery to put my raw heart on the page like that again.

Why Intimate Writing Is More Powerful

The reason we take the risk of writing so personally even when sharing those words hurts us is because it works. Our stories are more effective at making an impact when they come straight from our hearts. There are three specific factors that make writing with intimacy more powerful:

1. CONNECTION. Stories do their healing work in people’s hearts when they go past readers’ ears and get under their skin. Writing with intimacy transforms your work from surface noise to something readers can latch onto. Your words stop being merely words and start being words written especially for them. If you want your writing to make a difference, you must go deeper than the surface level to connect with readers in a way that makes your words unforgettable.

2. RESONANCE. Especially in the age of AI, we as a society are sorely missing humanity. We are surrounded by a deluge of content, but little of it gets under our skin to make a real difference because so few stories truly speak to our humanity. If you want your words to resonate with readers, you must write in a way that reminds them of themselves. The most effective way to do that is to write from your own humanity.

3. RELATABILITY. When you really write, people recognize themselves in your words, creating connection and resonance. If you write from your raw humanity, straight from the heart, your words will connect stronger with readers because they will relate to what you are saying. None of our stories are exactly the same, but all of us walk through similar human experiences: the joys, the heartbreaks, the struggles, the confusion, the love, the mess. When you write with intimacy, your readers feel seen by your words. Your story becomes their story, and now they care about your writing personally.

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While intimate writing is more effective at touching people’s hearts and healing the ways that the cruelty of our world has broken them, creating this art costs something of you. If you want to be the kind of writer who can tell these world-changing stories without hurting yourself, you have to be prepared for the battle.

What You Need To Be Armed and Prepared

Writing for yourself is therapeutic. Writing for the world is a labor of love. Writing stories that help readers feel seen, heal hearts, change minds, and make the world a better place requires you to step fully into the deepest darkness and brutalities of the world with your eyes and heart wide open. You must feel every hurt entirely. Look at every ugly, broken thing in yourself square in the face and refuse the instinct to sugar coat the truth. Then, you must trust that in baring your soul to the world, people will not react cruelly or use any of your most vulnerable truths against you.

Writing stories that matter means pouring your real, raw heart out onto the page, then giving those words to the world and saying,

“This is me. Please be gentle.”

And our world is very rarely gentle.

Every writer knows how scary it feels to share their stories with anyone. The sheer terror you feel every time your cursor hovers over the “publish” button? The sick feeling in your gut you get when you think about real people reading your words? The irrepressible urge to disappear under a blanket fort, change your name, scrub yourself from the internet, and never show your face in public again? That’s your body’s natural response to the danger of baring your soul to the cold world.

However, we cannot ignore the real danger you open yourself up to when you trust the world with your raw soul. You cannot open your heart up to every possibility of intentions from humans who choose to be harsh and expect to still be whole by the end.

You cannot wade into this battle against the darkness without being properly armed.

I don’t want you to be as naive as I was and end up getting burned out when there is more good you can do for the world. So let me encourage you to make a battle strategy. How will you show your heart to the world while still respecting your own well-being? What kind of emotional boundaries must you have in order to make a genuine impact through your writing without letting yourself be burned?

Start building the kind of armor you should bring to the battle. I have discovered some of these things the hard way over my career the past 12 years. Here is not an exhaustive list of everything you should arm yourself with, but the points are a good place to start.

These are things that you owe yourself before you press the “publish” button on any piece that exposes your tender heart to the world:

• SENSE OF IDENTITY. The world will try to bury your unique identity. The publishing industry in particular will convince you that unless you write the most marketable story, your writing is no good. If you don’t fit into the same box as the most average blueprint of monetary success, your story will be unacceptable. You need to be strong enough to stand on your unique identity. Because if you cannot be true to yourself, then you will be doing no one a genuine service and the work will not be worth the sacrifice. Refuse to be talked into shrinking yourself into their boxes even when they tell you that doing so is the only way forward. Refuse to sell your identity for any promise of material success. Do not become unrecognizable to yourself.

• HEALING. Writing is an incredible tool for processing pain and trauma. Whether we like it or not, if we are writing honestly our deepest pain will eventually start showing up on the page. Some of us are healing through our writing. Then, we offer the world our stories so others can find the same healing we found. This is one of the greatest powers for good that comes from writing with intimacy. Sadly, not everyone in the world will respect your wounds. Some will use the information you share against you to attack you in your most vulnerable places. Don’t open yourself up to this risk until you are fully healed. Don’t give bullies a chance to attack your open wounds. Wait until they have scabbed over so you can keep the poison of their barbs out. This doesn’t mean the cruelty of others will hurt less, but it does mean they will do less damage.

• LEGACY THAT IS MORE THAN WORDS. Putting your personal, one of a kind story down in ink is a powerful legacy to leave for yourself. But what legacy are you leaving for yourself in the real world? And is your life off the page as true to yourself as your life on the page? Sometimes, we can get altogether overwhelmed by the intensity of the emotions we carry through our writing. While the darkest griefs have a tendency to spark the most powerful words, we need real world joy to remind us of the more beautiful perspective. Take time to cultivate relationships that remind you of the best in humanity. Be present in real life moments so you can relish the joy in the little things. Make sure that you anchor yourself in a full life so you don’t get lost as you explore your own soul.

• PHYSICAL HEALTH AND MENTAL WELL-BEING. Hustle culture convinces us that we must sacrifice our own well-being for the sake of the grind if we want to see success. But the truth is that your creativity is dependent on your mental and physical well-being. Have you eaten today? Gotten enough rest? Moved your body and gotten blood flow to your brain? Touched grass and breathed fresh air to renew your inspiration? Had a conversation in the real world that helps you ground your story in reality? Rarely, writing is the best support for your well-being, even before you meet your other basic needs. Sometimes the muse arrests you and you must strike while the iron is hot, thus other basic tasks must wait. But if you do not tend to these tasks that keep your mental and physical health in check, you will end up burning out faster. If you are feeling blocked while sitting at your writing desk, likely, you have not given your body the fuel it needs to function optimally.

• PURPOSE. Why are you doing this? After all this mental and emotional drainage, the struggle of fighting against the whole world to be yourself and make a career in the arts when everyone said it was impossible, why do we keep doing this? If you want to survive a career dedicated to healing the world through stories, you must have a WHY to keep you going. Who are you telling these stories for? Why is it worth you being brave and sharing your real self with the world? Unless you have a purpose behind the work, you won’t be able to persevere through the most painful moments or the most discouraging days.

Writing the kinds of stories that can change the world requires a certain amount of self-sacrifice. Telling the truth about what it means to be human in this world requires brave vulnerability. But making a difference in the world for the better through your art doesn’t mean you have to abandon yourself.

💬 Let us know what you think!

• Did I forget anything? What things would you add to this list?

• Do you relate to this fear of being vulnerable in your writing? What kind of response have you experienced from people when you have shared something personal?

Leave a comment

➡️ Want free, safe, trauma-informed feedback from professional editors on a particularly vulnerable story you’re working on? OBA’s story team is here for you! Submit your work in progress for a FREE editing session with our panel of story coaches and let us help you take the next brave step to sharing your story with a world that needs it.

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Creative on Purpose

Where the Art of Living Meets Work That Matters

By Scott Perry | Cornerman

‘s contemporary fiction novel, The Source of the Wind, was born out of her need to process her pain of C-PTSD and to create something beautiful out of it. She says,

“I had this realization that unless I actively got my story out of me, it would always create chaos within me.”

She went to sleep with the question of “how?” and woke up with the answer: characters in a novel and the core theme of ‘There is always help available.’ Join us in this conversation to be inspired and to learn more about:

• The spiritual process of writing

• Why stories are healing

• How fiction teaches us empathy

• How we can tell beautiful stories without sugarcoating the truth about pain

• Why finding your voice and sharing your story is important

• And why storytellers will be the ones to change the world for the better.

📚🔗 Get your copy of The Source of the Wind here!

Follow along with Ella’s journey as she digs deeper into learning more about how to carry our stories and uncovers more insights about where to find magic in the world on her Instagram page!

Wide Eyed Ella

Uncovering the magic hiding in plain sight. Spiritual musings for souls who sense there's something deeper waiting to be discovered in everyday moments✨

By Ella Capek

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📚 Need guidance to get your story published so your words can find the people who need them? Jessica Ann shares her successful journey publishing her novel, Woven in Time, over on her Substack, and helps you learn what it takes you live your wildest dreams!

Wildest Dreams

Inspiration, creativity, and the courage to live your wildest dreams — with fantasy author Jessica Ann.✨

By Jessica Ann

In this episode, the story team from One Brilliant Arc sits down with Kennedy Fish, a passionate writer, artist, and philosophy major, as she shares her journey of revisiting and rewriting her medieval fantasy story—an emotional process rooted in self-discovery and understanding human relationships. Join us as we walk through her rewrites and learn how powerful tiny details, authentic dialogue, and layered conflicts can elevate your story from good to unforgettable. Whether you’re struggling with character development, worldbuilding, or finding your story’s core theme, this conversation breaks down practical tactics with real examples and candid advice.

Pull back the curtain on what the process of getting a manuscript ready for publishing looks like while the OBA story team proves to you that editing your story to be the best it can be doesn’t have to be a scary or overwhelming process!

Huge thanks to Kennedy for sharing her story with us for this episode! You can follow her writing journey and her art on her Instagram page.

OBA’s story team offers real help for real stories in real time, and we can do the same for your story! Want us to be your partners along the storytelling journey? Check out our services for both beginner and advanced writers:

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Good leaders influence the world to change for the better.

Leaders who come from marginalized backgrounds need to jump over higher walls to make that difference.

That’s why it’s more important than ever for marginalized leaders to learn how to wield the power of storytelling to amplify their message!

Follow Margaret for more encouragement and insight into how to build your business authentically, speak your truth, and follow your intuition!

The Empowered Leader

The Empowered Leader is a leadership publication that helps marginalized leaders stop surviving power systems and start leading with Freedom, Influence, and Authority

By Margaret Williams, MS, ACC

is writing her memoir to share the lessons her younger self learned the hard way while traveling and teaching abroad in the middle east and South America. Join us as we hear from her rich experience and learn more about:

• The process of writing and the inner work it prompts

• How we reconcile with versions of ourself that we are uncomfortable with

• The journey of becoming and how our stories get woven together with others’

• The significance of the real life stories we live and how we use the language of story structure to communicate our message with others who need it

• How storytellers are empathy teachers and help divided people connect genuinely

• And the power of focusing on the slow process and the real community around us over the finished product.

Follow along with Michelle’s journey as she works toward publishing her memoir on her Substack publication or on her brand new website!

States of Matter

Essays on travel, transformation, and the selves we become. A space where claiming your story matters—all versions of self welcome here.

By Michelle Ray

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📚 Need guidance to get your story published so your words can find the people who need them? Jessica Ann shares her successful journey publishing her novel, Woven in Time, over on her Substack, and helps you learn what it takes you live your wildest dreams!

Wildest Dreams

Inspiration, creativity, and the courage to live your wildest dreams — with fantasy author Jessica Ann.✨

By Jessica Ann

The Quiet Violence of Adulthood

There is a moment in Marty Supreme when you realize the movie is no longer about table tennis.

Up until then, this movie looks like another triumphant sports story dressed up as obsession: A man with a paddle in his hand and a doggish desire in his heart, convinced that the right tournament, the right lucky break, the right miracle in Japan will justify every excruciating sacrifice he’s made.

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Marty plays not because he loves the game, but because he believes the sport owes him something in exchange for everything he’s already given up. Every moment of humiliation he’s suffered through. Every second of discomfort he’s ever endured in pursuit of stardom and greatness.

He bets everything on his ambition and a vision of the future that only he understands and can see: Friends. Business relationships. Advantageous opportunities. Reputation. Decency. He’s rude and condescending and he uses people like stepping stones, and then acts surprised when they wash their hands of him. He humiliates himself in public repeatedly, makes grandiose promises he can’t keep, and burns through opportunities with the reckless confidence of someone who thinks destiny can be forcefully bullied into submission.

And Then He Fails.

Not spectacularly. Not heroically. Just enough to make the stinging, jagged truth finally unavoidable.

The championship tournament win in Japan never happens for him. The door closes quietly on being the face of ping pong—without ceremony, without the cinematic redemption he thought he deserved.

What ultimately dies over the course of the movie is not just a potential career, but an identity and a pathway to the American dream once so full of hope.

Usually, we expect stories like this to have a happy ending of eventual success at the seemingly unreachable dream. Failure means a tragic ending, not a happy one. But in real life, deeper truths and happier endings often hide in the failures that movies generically paint as bad.

You see, the brilliance of Marty Supreme is that it refuses to treat failure as the end of the story. Instead, it treats it as redirection.

Marty Becomes a Father.

At first, fatherhood is an unwanted direction for his life. Something he vehemently rejects. But after his table tennis dreams go up in flames, fatherhood becomes a consolation prize despite being a role he never auditioned for and a life that looks way smaller than the one he imagined for himself. But slowly, almost against his will, he discovers that the dream he chased so violently can be reshaped rather than completely discarded. He could coach a table tennis youth league. He could teach his son how to play. He could still compete locally—not for glory, but for grocery money and a compounding family nest egg.

This movie suggests something most people don’t often want to admit:

Marty never becomes the international champion he wanted to be. Instead, he becomes something less glamorous and more durable: a mentor, a provider, and an unselfish, nurturing presence in the life of the woman he loves and the child they brought into the world. His ambition doesn’t vanish; it mutates. It stops being about shining above all others in the world and starts being about building something with meaning & longevity within it.

That’s the uncomfortable truth at the center of Marty Supreme: Dreams rarely arrive in the form we ordered. They show up warped, delayed, and sometimes compromised. But if you’re paying attention, you realize they might still be worth experiencing anyway.

The movie doesn’t romanticize this transformation. Marty doesn’t become noble overnight. He still carries the scars of his choices, and some bridges will never get rebuilt. But there is a strange dignity in watching a man accept that the future he planned is gone and that the one he’s left with might just be enough.

In the end, Marty Supreme isn’t a sports movie. It’s a story about the price of wanting something too badly, and the quiet, stubborn grace of learning how to want something else.

This film is a fantastic watch, is fun to follow, has the feel of a video game side quest you might find in games like GTA, and hits harder than you expect it to when it comes to deep themes. I rate Marty Supreme a very strong 8/10 Diamonds with a Lotus of Excellence 🪷💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎 (for your movie night, pair with Rounders, The Firm, Lord of War, Forest Gump, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro, War Dogs, Gangster Squad, Lords of Dogtown, Do the Right Thing, The Many Saints of Newark, The Fighter, American Gangster, American Made, Far & Away, The Rainmaker, 8 Seconds, Bleed for This, Lawless, Legend, Pain & Gain, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, American Pie 1-3, The Phoenician Scheme, True Romance, Rush Hour 1-3, Greater, Friday Night Lights, or Christy.)

THE JELLYDRAGON STAR

Welcome to the Jellydragon star, your source for content across the worlds of art, true crime , games , film, writing tips , anime , & combat sports. Each edition brings you the latest and greatest from each realm each week.

By CORPSE FLOWER 🌻 💀 🩸

💬 Comment below:

• Have you ever experienced happy endings turning out differently than you expected?

• What triumph is at the heart of the main character arc in your story, and is there a deeper meaning behind an unexpected direction you could take, instead?

is writing to give these resilient women back their voices.

The stories that make us uncomfortable are the ones that will change the world. Unfortunately, many of the systems that are built to silence us are still present and thriving today, even in the publishing industry. Join us as we chat with Ashli and learn more about

• Her shocking family history that became the inspiration for The Emmaline Project

• How we can find the courage to break out of systems that aren’t for us and forge our own path

• The challenges of both traditional and indie publishing and how she navigated them

• And the power of storytelling to dismantling oppressive systems and change our world for the better.

Follow along with Ashli as she writes these important stories and pre-order ‘The Emmaline Project’ on her website before it releases on May 19th, 2026! 🎉

The Emmaline Project

Essays, research, and behind-the-scenes reflections from the writing of Emmaline, my historical novel inspired by a real young woman who lived—and escaped—19th-century Mormon polygamy.

By Ashli OConnell

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📚 Need guidance to get your story published so your words can find the people who need them? Jessica Ann shares her successful journey publishing her novel, Woven in Time, over on her Substack, and helps you learn what it takes you live your wildest dreams!

Wildest Dreams

Inspiration, creativity, and the courage to live your wildest dreams — with fantasy author Jessica Ann.✨

By Jessica Ann

Every story matters and deserves to be told well. Want to work with us to make sure your story packs the punch it is meant to? Check out our services for both beginner and advanced writers here:

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Learn from Russell’s incredible experience and wild success stories how to actually find creative freedom and build a business strategy that doesn’t burn you out!

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Hapitalist

At Hapitalist, we help you optimize for joy and build better containers for money. If you’ve looked at your business and thought “Isn’t this supposed to be fun, though?” You’re in the right place.

By Russell Nohelty

📚 Check out the wonderful stories and lifesaving instruction guides for authors Russell has written here: https://shop.russellnohelty.com/

is a military spouse of 23 years, a mother of 3, has a career, AND is currently building another career as a fiction author! Being a military spouse brings a unique set of challenges to the already brutal challenge of writing and publishing a novel. Join our conversation as we dig into how we navigate some of those challenges, such as:

• finding your identity

• creating time and accountability to write with a chaotic lifestyle

• building connections and community within the solitary job of writing

• marketing authentically

• and persevering through the fear and self-doubt that sharing your raw, honest story brings!

If you are feeling alone in your journey of life, join our conversation and learn how stories bring us to a home where we all belong and are seen. 🖤

Follow along with Jessica as she writes her novel and shares her real journey on her Substack and her Instagram:

Jessica Morse

Real life. Good books. The messy in-between. I write about motherhood, military moves and meaning. Somewhere in the middle, a debut novel is taking shape.

✨ Got a story you want to share with the world? Jessica Ann and One Brilliant Arc (OBA) want to help you connect with the readers who need your words most!

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📖✍️ Need help writing or editing your story? The story coaches and editors at One Brilliant Arc are here to help you find your voice and amplify your truth!

Subscribe to become a better writer—both on and off the page!

SEE HOW WE HELP WRITERS

📚 Need guidance to get your story published so your words can find the people who need them? Jessica Ann shares her successful journey publishing her novel, Woven in Time, over on her Substack, and helps you learn what it takes you live your wildest dreams!

Wildest Dreams

Inspiration, creativity, and the courage to live your wildest dreams — with fantasy author Jessica Ann.✨

By Jessica Ann

“There is nothing so difficult in the matter of love as to write what one does not feel.”

Powerful, right? I read Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos a few weeks ago, and while so much stood out to me in this book—mostly the fact that books are, in fact, usually better than the movie and their infinite adaptations—one observation hit me hard. The book spoke to the eternal struggle of myself and, I imagine, every writer: the impossibility of crafting something genuine without authenticity. Words, at the end of the day, are more than just vehicles for expression—they are mirrors of intent. Or at least, they should be.

I wrote a story not long ago that will never see the light of day. The work was hollow and soulless. I crafted it with the intent of “virality.” The order of the words was right, the vocabulary was stunning, and the subject matter was on brand. The piece would have resonated with some audience somewhere. But the problem was the meaning behind the story. The intent wasn’t true. Needless to say, virality is a weak purpose. My story didn’t come from the soul and, because of that, it lacked the emotional conviction necessary to be worth saying.

Have you ever written something that sounded so perfect in your head but rang false on the page? Dangerous Liaisons teaches us that the difference between a heartfelt confession and a contrived statement lies in the unseen thread of intent that holds your words all together. Let’s use this book to talk about how we can make sure that your story has meaning.

The Misconception: Pretty Words Are Enough

It’s really easy to fall into the trap of thinking that poetic prose and great vocabulary alone make impactful writing. I mean, who doesn’t love poetic language? I could write this:

“The silver moonlight draped itself over the whispering waves, each ripple a secret untold, a fragment of eternity dissolving into the abyss of the sea. The stars blinked, indifferent, their brilliance a cold facade for the void that lay beyond. A gentle breeze carried the scent of forgotten dreams, stirring the branches of a lone tree that reached skyward as if pleading for answers to questions never asked. Time, an unyielding specter, hovered in the stillness, its passage marked only by the soft rustle of leaves, a melody without meaning.”

Beautiful, right? But what the hell does these sentences mean? Where is the emotional grounding, the intent, the purpose? Where is the soul? Dangerous Liaisons reveals that even the most elegantly arranged words can fail if they lack purpose. Writing is not just about surface structure but about the spirit that animates it. As the text says, “You may use the same words, but you do not put them in the same order, and that is sufficient to damn you.”

Take the Vicomte de Valmont, one of the novel’s protagonists. He sends a letter in his mission to seduce Madame de Tourvel, a married woman of great conviction and a bit naive. But the Marquise de Merteuil, the other protagonist, points out that pretty words are not enough. Valmont writes beautifully, yet exposes himself as fake and disingenuous. This falsehood is the danger of relying solely on aesthetics.

A quick Google search for “how to write poetic prose” will show you just how many people promise to teach you how to write that way. Moving within the laws of supply and demand, this content exists because we, as storytellers, are looking for it. However, without passion and intent, your structure becomes a cage, trapping your insincerity for all your audience to see.

The Problem: Why This Thinking Falls Flat

Our audience is smart. Smarter than we’d like sometimes. But you are part of the audience, so this fact should be no surprise. Think about it: you can sense when something feels wrong about a story. You can tell when writing feels inauthentic. Likewise, your audience can see lifelessness through well-put-together writing.

The warning I found most interesting in Dangerous Liaisons was that when writers focus on arrangement without feeling, their work becomes a hollow shell, free of any real emotional connection. The Marquise de Merteuil says, “There is an order in it which exposes you at every sentence.” This sentence alone called me out, and I hated it. It sucks feeling like a fraud, and it’s even worse when others can see it, too…and let you know about it.

Intent is the heart of all writing. Words must not only look good, but also carry the weight of what the writer truly means. Without that weight, even the most sophisticated sentence falls flat, leaving the reader untouched and uninspired.

The Fix: Write with Intent

“Okay, Jared, so you’ve beaten the point to death—how the heck do I fix it?”

To write with intent is to make sure that every word, phrase, and sentence serves a purpose beyond aesthetic. Bake purpose into everything you write. Think about the person you want to write for. What do you want them to feel? What do you want them to take away from it? Keep these answers constantly in the forefront of your mind.

I drafted this article and, I won’t lie, it was nothing but hollow bullshit, wagging its finger at you for eight paragraphs. But when I stopped and thought about who this is for, I realized this article is for the new writer, or the old writer, so focused on being on BookTok and being remembered for their prose that they’ve forgotten to write something of value. I wanted to speak directly to them, hold their hand, and say,

So, I did battle with my backspace key and dug in to write a piece that was true.

Dangerous Liaisons shows us that true writing is not about WHAT is said, but WHY and HOW it’s said. “The author works himself into a passion, but it leaves the reader cold,” de Laclos warns. To ensure you’re not leaving your audience cold, focus on three key pillars:

• Authenticity: What is the truth you are trying to convey?

• Purpose: Who and what is it for? Are you trying to paint a world, expose societal issues, or inspire?

• Alignment: How does the arrangement of your words amplify the truth and connect your authenticity to your purpose?

If you’ve never read Dangerous Liaisons, I suggest you do. It’s an epistolary novel, and the letters are an amazing lesson in saying what you mean with purpose and drive. Each word serves a purpose. Whether it’s manipulation, seduction, or destruction, the intention is clear. De Laclos’ conviction is felt on every page, transforming what could have been a shallow tale of rich French people into a profound lesson on how communication shapes worlds.

A New Way to Think

Writing without intent is like speaking gibberish to your audience’s heart. They may hear words, but they won’t feel them. If your audience doesn’t feel anything, why the hell would they continue to read?

Words are amazing. I am a storyteller—I joke that I’m married to words; my wife is merely my mistress. For me, I write to feel and because I hope to make you feel just as much. I want you to aim to do the same. You are one of the few, in the grand scheme of things, adding to the fabric of our civilization’s story. Make your contribution worthwhile by saying words that matter.

Readers don’t crave perfect sentences—they crave genuine emotion. Stories that stick with you don’t stay because you found a way to get the phrase,

‘oceans of gold spun from the cosmic yarn’

into your story. They stay because they make you feel something. They piss you off, make you smile, make you laugh, or break your heart (this is the one that my editor says I’m taking years off her life with).

TL;DR: Your Mission (Should You Choose to Accept)

I pose a suggestion—a challenge, even. Forget perfection. Don’t even try to chase it. Write ugly. Write raw. Write filthy (no, not spice—but you can if that’s your thing). Focus only on these two questions:

• What do I want to make my reader feel?

• How do the words I’ve chosen serve the emotional purpose of this piece?

Prioritize connection over performance. Every draft doesn’t need to be flawless. Authenticity is often messy, raw, and unpolished. Let it be. Editing will refine that raw truth into something clearer and more impactful. Connection over perfection.

Let intent be the backbone of your work. The goal isn’t to inform but to transform. The next time you write, don’t just arrange words. Make them mean something. Write with conviction, precision, and, most importantly, passion. Do that, and your story will become more than a story—it will become gospel.

Every week, and partner together to spread the word about a new indie author who is working on a story we think you should know about! We also learn about their lived stories and what they have learned through the journey of being an author.

Meet Jessica James!

is a former journalist turned award-winning author who took a scenic detour into travel writing—before finding her way back to novels.

With the incredible stories she experiences and writes every day, Jessica is a wealth of fascinating and thrilling anecdotes to explore. I mean, target shooting out of helicopters for novel research?! How much more exciting can the job of a writer get?!

But as Jessica shares with us, as exciting as it is to explore the treasure of lesser-known stories, there are really challenging parts of writing these stories that makes perseverance through the journey hard. Every writer struggles with moments of self-doubt and has to face these terrifying questions:

1. Will anyone care about this story that has my heart?

2. Will anyone read this story that I’ve poured years of my life and effort into?

I’m not sure if anyone else shares this experience with Jessica, but I certainly have: oftentimes, stories don’t give you a choice to say no even in the face of this self-doubt.

Sometimes, a story will grab you by the throat and refuse to let you go until you get it written down. That is what happened with Jessica’s soon-to-be-released novel, The Monarch Alliance.

So without further ado, let’s hear from Jessica about her story and what she has learned through writing it!

Tell us about yourself and what kind of creative work you do!

I started out as a journalist and spent nearly two decades in that world before it finally hit me that not everyone walks around with stories and characters living in their head. My first novels were Civil War–era historical fiction, and over time I branched into suspense and mystery as well.

In the early 2020s, I stepped away from fiction for a bit and dove into travel writing to recover from burnout. Ironically, one of those trips—to a historic hotel—pulled me right back into storytelling, and I ended up writing a novel inspired by the place. That book (The Monarch Alliance) comes out in April.

Describe yourself in three words.

Curious. Nostalgic. Patriotic.

How has writing stories impacted your real life story?

Writing has shaped my life in ways I never expected. I’m driven to experience what I write about so I can portray it authentically, which has led me to some incredible opportunities—from visiting hundreds of historic sites for my historical fiction novels to doing SWAT-style training and even target shooting from a helicopter for my thrillers.

That curiosity also pushed me to travel more, and those travels eventually led me into travel blogging, which has become one of my greatest passions.

What story are you currently writing?

I just finished The Monarch Alliance, a dual-timeline mystery thriller set at Mohonk Mountain House. I originally visited Mohonk to write a hotel review, but the place stayed with me long after I left.

To give you a picture of the place, Mohonk is a castle-like resort rising out of the Hudson Valley mountains, with winding hallways, antique furnishings, and the sense that history is hiding in every corner. The deeper I explored, the more it felt like the perfect setting for a story full of secrets, conflict, twists, and long-buried intrigue—and eventually, it demanded to become a novel.

What makes this story matter to you?

I tell my readers that sometimes I don’t feel like I wrote the story, but that someone told it to me (in little bites over a long period of time).

Why this story? Why now?

I’m not sure I had much choice. I went to the hotel planning to write a simple review, but this place wouldn’t let go of me—and that’s saying something, since I visit historic hotels all the time. Something about it lingered, and the story kept tapping me on the shoulder until I finally listened.

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Who do you hope to reach with this story?

I hope to reach readers—both men and women—who love layered mysteries with high stakes and unexpected twists. It’s for anyone who enjoys being pulled deep into a story where the past and present collide and nothing is quite what it seems.

It’s also for readers who love stories where a place is more than a backdrop—where the setting becomes a character in its own right. And as an added bonus, it’s a real place. Readers can actually visit it, walk the halls, and experience the setting for themselves, which makes the story feel that much more real.

What do you hope readers feel or remember when they encounter this story?

Two things, really:

1. I hope readers find themselves wondering what’s fact and what’s fiction—I include the historical foundations in the back of the book because readers may be surprised about how much is fact.

2. I hope the story changes the way they experience old places. When they step into a historic hotel or pass an old house, I want them to slow down for a moment and think about the people who were there before them—the lives lived within those walls, and the stories that still linger for those who will listen.

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What has been the most challenging part of your author’s journey?

I think the most challenging part of an author’s journey is having the confidence (and perseverance) to keep going when you really don’t know if anyone is going to read what you’ve poured hours, and days, and months into writing.

Do you have any other projects on the horizon you want to tease for our readers?

I am so excited about this year and celebrating America’s 250th birthday. I’ve been traveling to Revolutionary War sites for the past two years and have put together a book called A Patriot’s Journey that lists 250 places to visit for America 250. You’d be surprised how many sites are under-the-radar that played pivotal roles in the founding of America.

Where can people find you and support your work right now?

My main website is https://jessicajamesbooks.com/ and I also have a travel blog at www.PastLaneTravels.com that includes a newsletter.

Past Lane Pursuits

History. Travel. Small Towns. Back Roads. Get travel inspiration every week to help plan your next trip.

By Jessica James

I’m also on the usual social media and book-related sites:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/romantichistoricalfiction

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/586216.Jessica_James

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jessica-james

What stories do you want to see more of in the world?

Since we are celebrating America’s 250th birthday this year, I’d love to see more well-researched historical fiction set during the Revolutionary War. There are so many little-known stories involving historical figures that would make great plotlines and characters for a novel set during our nation’s founding.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights, Jessica! We are so proud of you for saying yes to telling the stories that need to be told, and are very excited to see what other hidden gems you uncover in your adventures!

Got any questions for Jessica? Anything about her story resonate with your own? Drop a comment and let us know! 💬

Are you an indie author working on a meaningful story? We want to spotlight you!

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Are you a writer with a story in the works that you are desperately trying to finish? The story team at One Brilliant Arc is here to help you! We offer ✨FREE✨ editing sessions with the OBA story team! Sit down with a panel of professional editors and get feedback on your work in progress!

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Subscribe to Jessica Ann and see the magic she creates over at :

Wildest Dreams

Inspiration, creativity, and the courage to live your wildest dreams — with fantasy author Jessica Ann.✨

By Jessica Ann

Our purpose is to have meaningful conversations, amplify authentic voices telling important stories, and support creatives doing good work. We can’t accomplish this mission alone!

In this episode, we

• explore the various styles of creative writing and how each writer’s process might look different,

• talk about the importance of theme for strengthening your writing,

• uncover the weaknesses in Hollywood’s storytelling,

• and discover the power of anti-heroes for creating a conversation that engages your audience and makes them answer questions of morality for themselves.

Pull back the curtain on what the process of rewriting and doctoring a screenplay to get it ready for production looks like while the OBA story team proves to you that editing your story to be the best it can be doesn’t have to be a scary or overwhelming process.

Huge thanks to Jay for sharing his story with us for this episode! You can follow his storytelling journey, get his pro tips for smashing creative blocks, and check out his writing and comic strip artwork on his Substack:

@robopulp

RoboPulp Media is for pop culture detectives, movie/comic book nerds, and fans of suspense and sci-fi.

OBA’s story team offers real help for real stories in real time, and we can do the same for your story! Want us to be your partners along the storytelling journey? Check out our services for both beginner and advanced writers:

Want to be on our next podcast? Submit your WIP for a FREE story audit with OBA’s team of editors here:

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Author Jeff Mills and publishing company CEO Grace Ellis of sit down with editor and founder of to share our stories. We talk about:

1. Jeff’s new book, Outcasts of Time

2. The significance of unlikely characters learning how to work together to save the world

3. The calling of creativity

4. What a trusting relationship between an editor and an author should look like

5. The challenges of publishing in 2026 and how the industry is shifting

6. The shortcomings of Big 5 publishing companies and why small or independent publishing companies publish better stories

7. Why author-first publishing companies are so important and needed for writers

Take a peek behind the scenes of what it really looks like to build a publishing company from the ground up with your friends who become family as we chat and laugh with Sarah and Jeff!

What would you do as a socially awkward college student if you got banished to the Edge of Time with a bitter stranger as the end of the world was happening? Could you survive each other and save the world?

Pick up a copy of Outcasts of Time by Jeff Mills for a wonderful sci-fi read to add to your bookshelf!

Paperback

Ebook

Looking for a publishing company that cares about your story and telling it the way YOU want to tell it? Check out Long Story Publishing!

Long's Substack

My personal Substack

By Long Story Publishing, LLC

Get in touch with Grace, Jeff, and Sarah by emailing them at: info@longstorypublishing.com

📖✍️ Need help writing or editing your story? The story coaches and editors at One Brilliant Arc are here to help you find your voice and amplify your truth!

SEE HOW WE HELP WRITERS

There are movies about poverty, and then there are movies that feel like poverty has grabbed you by the collar, leaned in close, and whispered,

“This is how it works.”

Winter’s Bone is the latter.

No speeches. No swelling violins. No redemption arc wrapped in a clean American flag. Just cold air, bone-deep hunger, and the quiet understanding that if you stop moving, the world will bury you without so much as a ceremony.

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Ree Dolly doesn’t have time for hope. Hope is a luxury item, like heat or gasoline. She has siblings to feed, a mother lost somewhere beyond the fog of her own mind and the insane asylum, and their family house is on the verge of repo because her father vanished into the Ozark underworld of meth labs and bad debts. This is Hard Luck accounting. Every decision is transactional, and the question of the day is always:

“What will this problem cost me, and can I afford to make any errors today?”

That’s the first lie Winter’s Bone kills: The idea that morality exists in a vacuum.

When you’re poor—and I mean truly poor—every choice comes with blood on it. Maybe not today, maybe not visible, but it’s there. The movie understands this in its marrow. Ree isn’t choosing between good and evil; she’s choosing between bad and worse. Between resigning to her doom and the survival of herself and her entire family. Between asking questions that could get her killed and letting her mother & younger siblings starve quietly.

And that’s the part that sticks in your throat.

Because the world she inhabits doesn’t reward courage—in fact, it punishes it. It doesn’t care about intent. It doesn’t care about age. It doesn’t care that she’s a teenage girl carrying the weight of an entire household on her back like a pack mule with no owner.

The Ozarks in Winter’s Bone are not romantic hills; they’re a pressure cooker of generational desperation and curses passed on, where everyone knows the rules and nobody explains them to you unless you’re already bleeding out.

Hopelessness in this film screams. It sits. It settles into the walls. It seeps into the way people avoid eye contact, the way doors close just a little too fast, the way kindness feels dangerous because it might cost Ree too much later. It’s the kind of hopelessness that just limits your options until you don’t recognize what freedom even looks like anymore.

Ree, however, keeps going anyway. Not because she believes things will get better, but because stopping isn’t an option. And that’s something people who’ve never lived close to the edge misunderstand. Survival isn’t optimism, it’s momentum. You move because stillness equals death in all areas: financial, physical, and spiritual.

The film refuses to sentimentalize this. There’s no triumph at the end, just blunt endurance. A roof kept for now. A family still breathing for the day. A future that remains restricted and unforgiving at the same time.

The victory is microscopic, and that’s brutally honest.

Poverty doesn’t end cleanly. It loosens its grip one painful inch at a time, if it ever even loosens at all.

Winter’s Bone doesn’t ask you to pity Ree Dolly. It asks you to recognize her. To see the quiet armies of people making impossible choices every day, trading pieces of themselves just to stay upright. People who don’t get speeches, miracles, or saviors. Just consequences, cold mornings, and the understanding that nobody is coming to pull you and yours out of the quicksand.

Because deep down, we all know this country runs on people like Ree. People who absorb the cost, and make the unbearably heavy and uncomfortable sacrifices so others don’t have to look at the blood spilt.

In the film, Ree gives up ALL aspirations of escaping her small town by way of a military career to raise her two siblings and look after her sick mom. In my personal opinion, this was NOT THE PLAY because Ree had two solid options for getting her brother and sister looked after while she served out at least 4 years. As for her mother, there was also an option for her to be looked after temporarily, and a bonus option to sell the many acres of woodlands that their house was surrounded by. If Ree sold the woods to leave her family with some money and arranged temporary care for them, SHE COULD HAVE HAD HER CHANCE.

Reclaiming your life from something as all-consuming as poverty and a responsibility you have gotten used to resting squarely on your shoulders is not as easy a choice as those who have never lived through these dilemmas would think. Just seeing your options for hope beyond surviving the present moment can be completely overwhelming.

This film carries heavy reminders for us:

1. As humans, we don’t like to look at suffering square in the eye. It makes us uncomfortable and confused to try to understand what people less fortunate than ourselves carry as their everyday reality. But we MUST look. And it is the storytellers’ job to help us look long enough to understand before flinching away.

2. Reclaiming hope for your life beyond surviving the present moment is hard. But you MUST face this challenge head-on. Even though lifting your eyes above the storm you are currently weathering is overwhelming and even feels impossible, that’s the only place where you will find hope that lasts longer than the next bite of food you can scrounge up.

Winter’s Bone is such an honest and visceral film. It is so real when it comes to portraying rural American poverty and how costly it is to the average working-class person with very limited options for escape. I rate this movie an outstanding 9/10 💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎 🔥 🐲 🌹 Diamonds with a Dragons Kiss of Fire and a Rose of Excellence. For a movie night, I suggest pairing Winters Bone up with Jungle Land, Out of the Furnace, Stop-Loss, Anora, The Town, Spike Lee’s He Got Game, Deuces Wild, Friday Night Lights, Varsity Blues, War Dogs, A Streetcar Named Desire, Moonrise Kingdom, The Florida Project, A24’s American Honey, Showgirls, and Bones and All.

THE JELLYDRAGON STAR

Welcome to the Jellydragon star, your source for content across the worlds of art, true crime , games , film, writing tips , anime , & combat sports. Each edition brings you the latest and greatest from each realm each week.

By CORPSE FLOWER 🌻 💀 🩸

💬 Comment below:

• What have you seen or experienced in this world that you want to help other people understand through your art?

• What is the emotional truth that acts as the engine of your story? Where does your authentic voice have something to say that no one else can say?

If you want to tell stories and create art for a living, you have to become an entrepreneur. That means…DUN DUN DUNNNN: dreaded marketing has entered the chat.

The truth is that if we want a career in art, we must build a career as an entrepreneur.

Most creatives become artists and storytellers to create art, not build a brand or a platform to market their work. Many of us feel especially ill-equipped and turned off to the self-promotion that marketing requires. When we try to learn marketing, we get inundated with strategies, formulas, and advice about chasing the Almighty Algorithm that feels distinctly unlike the genuine stories we set out to share.

The good news we’ve needed:

is here with experience from a full career as a musician and a marketing coach who has taught with top industry experts Seth Godin and Bernadette Jiwa to break us free from the slimy, rat-race marketing we’ve been told is the only way.

In fact, marketing is just storytelling—telling a true story to people whose lives would be improved if they crossed paths with us.

If we want to become ethical and effective marketers, we first must know ourselves, understand the difference we are trying to make for the people we are trying to reach, then use the language of storytelling to communicate that message resonantly.

Join in our conversation and learn from the rich experience and wisdom of Scott with us!

🔗 Here is the article Scott referenced in our conversation outlining the three questions you must answer if you want to succeed in marketing:

Creative on Purpose

The 3 Questions You Must Answer to Succeed on Substack

CSA: I’m being interviewed Live by One Brilliant Arc today to talk about ethical and empathetic growth strategies. Click here for details and hope to see you there…

Read more

2 months ago · 5 likes · Scott Perry

Want to learn more from Scott Perry about how to stop burning yourself out and start market more effectively? Subscribe to Creative on Purpose!

Creative on Purpose

A life of greater integrity, intention, and impact—and a business that fuels it—begins now.

By Scott Perry

Got a story in the works you want feedback on? Submit your WIP for a ✨FREE✨ editing session with a panel of One Brilliant Arc’s editors!

GET YOUR FREE STORY AUDIT HERE!

💬 Comment below!

• Were you an entrepreneur or a storyteller first?

• What have you learned on your journey that has helped you connect with your audience most effectively?

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💌 We love hearing from you! Send us a message if you’ve got a story to share.

Why One Brilliant Arc?

We believe in the power of stories to inspire, connect, and create change—and we’re here to help YOU become the kind of storyteller who can tell those stories!

What We Do

We are editors, story coaches, and writers specializing in genre fiction who want to help you tell stories on the page and the screen that can heal hearts and change the world for the better. Whether it’s through our

1. editing services,

2. story coaching and individual writing mentorships,

3. human, heart-to-heart discussions from the creative trenches with other authors and creative professionals on our podcast,

4. articles deep-diving into the mechanics of storytelling,

5. workshops on how to use storytelling and authenticity to not only write your story, but also build your platform and connect with the audience who needs your story,

everything we do is dedicated to giving you the tools you need to become a better writer both on and off the page.

Want to learn more? Visit our website!

What We Deliver

Using case studies from the stories you already know and love—movies, TV shows, games, cultural figures, and more—we break down storytelling techniques and lessons to educate and empower you to tell the truth that is on your heart.

Here is our “site map” of everything we regularly publish to help you quickly find what is most useful to you:

Written Posts from the OBA Story Team

• “Letters to Your Radical Self” by Jared Moses — Raw, unedited, radically honest letters from OBA’s founder to you about how to tell your truth in public and stay whole while doing it.

• “We are the Stories” by Charles Rodriguez — Essays on cultural narratives, popular media, and hidden gem stories, unpacking how they shape the stories we tell about ourselves and the way we view the world.

• “Pick up Your Pen” by Ceylan Gunduz — Articles from an editor offering practical advice and guidance to storytellers on how to craft world-changing stories for public platforms.

Podcasts and Live Conversations

• “Let’s Talk Stories” — storytelling lessons, fun, and inspiration with the OBA story team! We use the movies, shows, books, and musicals that you love or love to hate as case studies on how to tell more powerful stories.

• “Let’s Fix Stories” — live editing sessions with real writers working on real stories in real time, dissecting the stories we tell and how we can communicate our truth most effectively.

• “Let’s Share Stories” — purposeful, introspective conversations with industry experts about the real challenges they’ve faced and lessons they’ve learned while sharing their stories with the world.

From Our Readers

• Indie Author Spotlight — partnering with of to host interviews with indie authors to learn about the stories they are writing and what they have learned through publishing them.

  Submit your story to be spotlighted

• The Story Archive — a home for YOUR most honest, raw stories that say out loud what the world told you not to. Because if we don’t write down and preserve the truth, the oppressors will steal our voices. OBA’s Story Archive is where your truth will be kept safe and shared for those who need to find it.

• Author Showcase (✨Coming Soon!✨) — Publish your serial fiction with us and reach our readership of 450+ subscribers, plus other perks.

• Guest posts, live sessions, and collabs — we love getting the opportunity to support and learn from writers telling important stories! We share frequent guest post and live interview spots because we believe community is where good stories thrive.

💌 New posts get sent out on Mondays every week, and as a free subscriber you’ll get notified when our Live sessions are happening throughout the week. Picking what you want to see from us is easy—just go to “settings” under your Substack profile dropdown menu, click “One Brilliant Arc” under your subscriptions, then uncheck any kinds of posts you wouldn’t like sent to your email. You can still view them on our homepage. 😉 (Here’s a link with handy dandy pictures of the instructions)

Why Our Content Is Valuable to You

• Someone Out There Needs Your Story
  In a world full of noise, your authentic voice is needed more than ever. We’re here to help you craft stories that stand out and reach the people who need your words to heal their hearts.

• We’re Here for Every Step
  From the blank page, to hitting publish, to building your platform, to strengthening your brand, we guide you with empathy, expertise, and actionable advice tailored to where you are in your storytelling journey.

• Your Transformation Is Our Goal
  Too many of us telling authentic stories with bold truths are facing silencing by others or by our own self-doubt. We want to support you in owning your voice, reclaiming your story, and then telling it boldly to inspire, connect, and make a lasting impact.

Work With Us!

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Thank you for joining us. Seriously, we appreciate you taking the time to be here! Together, we’re changing the world one story at a time, and we can’t wait to see the incredible stories you’ll tell.

Stay inspired,
The OBA Story Team

Every week, and partner together to spread the word about a new indie author who is working on a story we think you should know about! We also learn about their lived stories and what they have learned through the journey of being an author.

Meet Christopher D Pearce!

Better known as “Kip” to his friends, Christopher is a special educator by day and a fiction writer by night. His middle-grade novel, The Howler, is coming out in 2026, and his dark fantasy novellas, The Last Days of Armistice, are being published on his Substack.

As Christopher shares with us, his early passion for writing afforded him the freedom to express himself when growing up in a world that refused to accept him. This escape into stories we create in order to find freedom, safety, and acceptance is relatable to a lot of writers—maybe it’s even part of your experience. Now, Christopher writes his stories for his younger self who needed them and for others—both young and old—who need these stories as their own inspiration and hope. What a great example of a powerful WHY behind his writing!

Perseverance through rejection is one of the hardest parts about being an author. Christopher knows exactly what kind of fortitude this journey takes, AND why it is worth the struggle. We want to congratulate him on his soon-to-be-released novella, and encourage you to show him some love to brighten his day as he continues the good work of writing stories that help readers of all ages! Click that ❤️, share this post with other story lovers, and follow along Christopher’s writing journey on his Substack publication: .

Without further ado, let’s hear from Christopher about his story and what he has learned through writing it!

Tell us about yourself and what kind of creative work you do!

I'm an aspiring author originally from the UK, now living in Melbourne, Australia. By day, I am an educator for children with additional needs, and have been writing stories since I was capable of holding a pencil. Mostly, my work is in prose form, specifically speculative fiction. As a gay man growing up in a rural area, I found that the speculative genres afforded me an escapism, and writing within those boundaries reduced any constraints of expression.

Describe yourself in three words.

Excitable, passionate, and driven.

How has writing stories impacted your real life story?

I feel that my writing has been a significant outlet for me for my entire life. As I say, I have been writing for as long as I can remember. When I was in primary school I would often rip the last few pages out of exercise books and take them home to write stories, later graduating to the family computer. I feel it's my love of literature that affords me multiple things about my personality: my vocabulary, my humour, my wanderlust.

What story are you currently writing?

I imagine this answer will be similar for a lot of creatives, but at the moment I have quite a few on the go. The biggest challenge there is to prioritise which one I want to focus on. That being said, one of my focuses right now is the sequel to my soon-to-be-released middle-grade novel, The Howler. The Howler, which I originally intended to be a stand alone novel, follows a group of children living on Dartmoor in Devon during the Victorian Era. We follow Henry Hughes, the son of a zoologist who has been brought in to investigate legends of a monster terrorising the village. Soon enough, Henry encounters two local children, Thomas and Nell, who are the grandchildren of the reviled Weather Weaver, a local sorcerer, by all accounts. As the three develop a friendship, they fall deeper into a mystery and unravel the secrets of witches, and the land itself. In the sequel, I intend to pick up the story around a year later, where justice for the actions that lead to the events in The Howler must be dispensed, even as something much darker and crueller prowls Victorian London.

Beyond The Howler and its sequel, my other focus is my series of Dark Fantasy novellas, The Last Days of Armistice. This is a series which follows the character of Tris Morinder, a boy who's recently lost his home and family to the rise of religious zealotry. These novellas follow him through his adolescence and introduce readers to the world of The Three Thrones Saga, the title of the wider myth-cycle. The first is finished and available on my Substack, and I'm currently working on the 2nd installment where there is a dramatic shift in tone as Tris is introduced to the dark politics which surround magic on the continent of Palanost.

What makes this story matter to you?

With regards to The Howler and its sequel, I feel that what makes it really matter to me is first of all the setting. I grew up in north Devon, England, and was fascinated from a young age with the ancient folklore and mythology of the countryside. The village I grew up in didn't burn effigies of Guy Fawkes on November 5th, we turned a boulder in the square because the legend was that it kept the Devil in Hell. The stories of Devon are so vast and fascinating that I could prattle on about them for hours (and now that I live in Australia where most people have never heard of Devon, let alone Shebbear, I often do). Besides my deep connection to the rolling hills and fens and forest of Dartmoor, I think it is the struggle of the characters of Nell, Thomas, and Henry that matter to me the most. When I set out to write The Howler, I wanted the dread and tension not to come from running from a scary monster, but the dubious relationships the children have with their parental figures.

The Last Days of Armistice matters to me as the fantasy world of the Three Thrones Saga is one I began creating when I was a teenager. In the last 15 years it has turned into something much richer and deeper than some crudely drawn maps and hastily scribbled ideas on paper I took out of the family printer. I wrote these silly fantasy stories as they kept me entertained, and as the years have gone by I have realised that they mean a great deal to me.

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Why this story? Why now?

As an educator, I found I was so often having the same conversations with children during our reading interventions. They did not feel that they were being challenged by the books they were reading. They were finding the stories predictable and safe. When I asked what they would watch on television, to see if I could get a bit of an idea of genre books I could request for them, I found a number of the kids replies saying things along the lines of:

"Me and my mum/dad/sibling watch horror films."

Now, naturally, these are kids around 10-11 years old, so that sat poorly with me initially, on a professional level. Then, I started to think about the books I read when I was their age, how I would stay up all night reading by the light of the little battery-powered torch my nan and grandad got me so that I could read in the car. Those were all scary books (I had heaps of nightmares) and truly shaped my love of literature which I feel defines my taste and writing style today. I want children to be engaged with reading, to feel seen, challenged, and not at all spoken down to.

Why The Last Days of Armistice now? Because I owe it to myself. That kid who loved medieval fiction and watched The Lord of the Rings countless times with my sister and stayed up writing stories about knights and goblins and witches deserves to have his stories told. Sure, I've changed them a lot, and the themes are sadly reflective more on real world terrors of the modern day than just the fun short stories he wrote, but they're still his.

Who do you hope to reach with this story?

As I say, my main goal was to engage younger readers and keep that drive and passion for great stories alive for the younger generation. If a kidi reads The Howler, and sees themselves a little bit in the role of Nell, Thomas, or Henry, perhaps they will feel a bit less scared and alone. Perhaps they'll be inspired to start tricking their teachers into giving them exercise books so they can write stories in.

That being said, I am a firm believer that any and all books are for everyone. The Young Adult label isn't a recommended reading age, in my eyes, but an indication of thematic content and accessibility. I could recommend countless picture books which I think various adults would enjoy, if you're keen to just relax into a story and not worry what others might think because you want a simple low-stakes story with some nice illustrations in it. That's a very long way of me saying that I think The Howler, particularly, will be a fun and exciting read for anyone who loves a gothic fantasy with some morally grey characters.

What do you hope readers feel or remember when they encounter this story?

I think any great story needs, first of all, a memorable setting. That is certainly something I feel I achieved with The Howler, having grown up not a stone's throw from Dartmoor. I feel that readers with a vivid imagination will know exactly what the country is like, how beautiful and wild and vast it is, and not to mention haunting. I want readers to feel excited, tense, mournful and hopeful all at once. But most of all, I want people to be entertained. That's why we read stories, ultimately.

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What has been the most challenging part of your author’s journey?

Rejections. Regardless of how thick your skin is, regardless of how much of it you think you can handle, there is going to be a point when you've heard enough "no's" or simply heard nothing at all where it just starts to weigh on you. I had a few teary moments where I really started to believe my stories weren't good enough and that they should just stay saved on my computer and never see the light of day. When I wanted to vent about this to a friend, he said:

"May as well give up then."

Naturally, he was joking. But even just that spurred me back into action. Why should I give up? I treated submissions like a full time job, tailoring every pitch for each individual house and sure enough, I came across a small press who loved The Howler and that story has found its home.

Where can people find you and support your work right now?

The best place to read my work (at least until The Howler is in print) is my Substack, . I publish episodic chapters around once a week (sometimes fortnightly) broken up with world building essays, smaller parts of lore, and, of course because every good fantasy story needs them, maps. Fans of dark fantasy, epic journeys, and rich vibrant worlds would love a gander, I hope.

Once The Howler is released in 2026, you'll be able to find it at any good online retailer. All your classics: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Google Store. Then, within a few months, an audiobook will be released, if that's more your speed.

Do you have any other projects on the horizon you want to tease for our readers?

Well, I've already mentioned The Howler's sequel, so keep your eyes peeled for that one, definitely. The Last Days of Armistice will continue to be released through Substack, for the time being, so there's plenty to sate yourself with there. After that series of novellas is complete, it's followed by four novellas currently titled The Isles of Foxes, and then another 11 novels/ novellas. Four of these are already complete, but there's a lot of editing that still needs to happen, as one might expect from a fantasy series.

Barring those projects, I have another speculative in the works. A story set in an isolated coastal Devon village, a widower sees a chance to right his wrongs and lessen the burdens of his regrets when something washes ashore that starts to change the land and, seemingly, turn back the clock, though not for the better. For now, this story is called The Blessing.

What stories do you want to see more of in the world?

Okay, this may be controversial, but I want pulp. I don't feel that every story I read needs to be some huge complex thing that's going to change my life and make intelligent observations on philosophy or social commentary (though naturally I love these as well and find them very important). Sometimes, I just want a good story. I want something sensational, that's going to transport me to the world it's describing. I want vivid characters and classic stories being retold again. I want to have fun when I read a story. I want a detective in a smokey jazz lounge during prohibition, I want a brave knight trying to stop a horde of goblins in service to a tyrant king, I want a space captain and their whimsical sidekick having adventures on alien moons. I want escapism.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights, Christopher! We are so proud you for never giving up in the good work you are doing, excited for your stories yet to come, and grateful for the chance to spread the word about your writing!

Got any questions for Christopher? Anything about his story resonate with your own? Drop a comment and let us know! 💬

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Inspiration, creativity, and the courage to live your wildest dreams — with fantasy author Jessica Ann.✨

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Join us as we explore the emotional impact of animated classics that taught all of us—maybe a little too early in life—about heavy realities of mortality and loss. This week, we’re discussing All Dogs Go To Heaven and the profound truths this movie reveals about mortality, morality, and childhood trauma hidden beneath its playfully ridiculous exterior. Discover with us why these stories are necessary and how to write your own stories that help people process their trauma in a gentle yet honest way. You’ll discover how anti-heroes like Charlie B. Barkin mirror real-life imperfect heroes: flawed, survival-driven, and complex. Listen in on this mini therapy session and learn why understanding motivations of these real-life and fictional characters can genuinely heal how we see ourselves and others. Plus, we analyze how this film balances dark themes with humor and heart, making the movie-going experience both entertaining and meaningful for all ages.

This episode is perfect for anyone curious about why some of the most beloved childhood stories haunt us—and how they hold the keys to healing our inner child. If you’ve ever cried over a cartoon or wondered about the hidden lessons in animated films, this is your chance to see them in a new light. Prepare to feel all the feels, reflect on your own fears, and maybe even find comfort in the shadows of childhood trauma.

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