How To Make a Writer
The one where we talk about the stories and people who made us, what to do with creative burnout, and *A BIG OPPORTUNITY FOR FICTION WRITERS*
We made it to see another week!
Have you ever felt real magic in the hindsight moments where you realize how someone’s life story has impacted your own? It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about this week in several different conversations. So KC’s story that they so beautifully shared with all of us this week feels particularly timely and touching to me. I’m eternally grateful that nearly 160 of you creative souls allow us to have a chance to impact your stories every week. Never forget that you have this power to touch others in sharing your own story, too.
Cheers,
Ceylan Gunduz (OBA Media Newsletter Editor-in-Chief)
P.S. Scroll all the way down for a chance to share your own story by answering our question of the week. We’ve also got a HUGE opportunity open to all fiction writers!
📑 WHAT WE’VE BEEN CHATTING ABOUT THIS WEEK AT OBA MEDIA:
🎧”Let’s Talk Stories” Podcast
Every other week the team here dissects a story mechanic you can use in your writing through a piece of pop culture media. Subscribers to OBA’s newsletter get early access to our newest episode sent right to their inbox.
Catch up on our previous episodes here:
Join our ✨LIVE✨ “After Hours” sessions every Monday here on Substack and our YouTube channel so that YOU can chime in with your thoughts and ask questions about what it’s like to be a creative writer. Stop in and chat with us about good and bad stories and what we can learn from them!
📣 Calling All Fiction Writers—We Want Your Story!
***Submissions are closing April 14th, so don’t wait to get your FREE story audit!***
Are you a fiction writer working on a story? Want a FREE feedback session with professional editors to help you write a story that really sticks with readers? We’ve got you!
Have a story that just isn’t working? A plot that feels off? Characters that don’t quite land? On our new podcast segment “Let’s Fix Stories,” we want to help you fix it. Whether you’ve got an outline, an unfinished draft, a rough first draft, or a stuck draft, are struggling with structure, pacing, character arcs, or just need a fresh perspective, we’re here to help you get unstuck and turn your story into something truly compelling.
💬 Question of the Week
Here’s the deal: we want to hear from you more. No one likes a one-sided conversation, and we believe that creativity is most powerful when we get to see multiple different perspectives! So, our question to you this week based on the topic we’ll discuss next week is:
Does art actually contribute to righting the wrongs and fixing brokenness in our world?
Hit “reply” or comment to drop your answer. We’ll pick some of your responses to feature in next week’s newsletter and tag you there!
CAPTAIN’S LOG
3/23/2025
Jared Moses
I think this week calls for a bit of vulnerability.
I’m in the middle of grieving. It’s a strange kind of grief—not the death of a person, but the death of an idea. The death of a belief. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been struggling with the loss of my marriage. It’s been devastating—and not something I ever expected. But what I expected even less was the impact it would have on my ability to create.
Those who know me know my creative mind is my superpower. My ability to tell a story, to share ideas, to connect through imagination—that’s the thing that keeps me alive. When I say I create because I must, it’s not a catchy slogan. It’s gospel. As sacred to me as scripture is to a devout believer.
But with this recent loss, I’ve felt stripped. Stripped of that voice. That fire. My mentor says maybe it’s emotional exhaustion. Maybe. All I know is, for the last few weeks, it’s felt like I’ve been hollowed out. When your marriage ends, it feels like your identity dies with it. The life you thought you were building? Gone. And the part of you that was built with someone else—sometimes it feels like that’s gone too.
Now mix that with trying to build a company. Trying to network. Trying to build a community.
When your relationship ends, you start to question everything. If the one person who promised to love you forever can’t even stand you—how could anyone else? What if every good thing about you was tied up in them?
And so, you stare at the blank page. The blinking cursor. Wondering if the only part of yourself you ever truly loved—the creative part—is still in there somewhere. And nothing comes.
I wish I had a clean answer for what to do when that happens. But I don’t.
What I can say is that this past weekend, out of nowhere, I got hit with a wave of inspiration. The kind I haven’t felt in ages. It crashed into me—loud, electric, wild. It kept me up all night. I created like there was no tomorrow.
The next day, I couldn’t get two words on the page.
And that, I think, is just how it goes.
Sometimes your creativity comes like a hurricane.
Sometimes it comes like a whisper.
And sometimes, it doesn’t come at all.
But if you’re like me—if you’re grieving, if you’ve lost something, if you feel like your outlet has abandoned you—know this: it hasn’t. Let it sleep. Let it heal. And when it’s ready, it’ll return.
If you create because you must, that compulsion will come back. It always does.
It’s who we are.