by Derek Murphy | Apr 26, 2025 | Craft
Stories are transformations. A character starts as one thing and ends as another. A world breaks and is remade. A truth is buried, then unearthed. This arc—the process of something becoming something else—isn’t just a narrative device. It’s alchemy. Alchemy wasn’t...
by Derek Murphy | Apr 26, 2025 | Craft
Some stories were never meant to be read. Others were meant to be found. Throughout history, writers have hidden messages inside their work—sometimes to preserve forbidden knowledge, sometimes to mock authority, sometimes just for the sheer thrill of knowing that...
by Derek Murphy | Apr 26, 2025 | Craft
There’s a particular kind of unfinished book that doesn’t just sit in a drawer—it lingers. You put it away, convinced you’ll come back to it later, but later never comes. Still, the book doesn’t feel gone. It hovers. You think about it at odd moments. Certain...
by Derek Murphy | Apr 26, 2025 | Craft
Have you ever started writing a story, only to feel like the story itself is resisting you? The characters refuse to follow the outline. The plot keeps twisting in ways you didn’t plan. The book starts developing a mind of its own, pushing back against your decisions...
by Derek Murphy | Apr 26, 2025 | Craft
There’s a particular type of person who will, upon hearing you’re a writer, say, I have a book inside me. They’ll say it with the kind of certainty that suggests it’s a fully formed thing, waiting patiently for its moment. They don’t say they want to write a book....
by Derek Murphy | Apr 26, 2025 | Craft
The book in your head is perfect. Every scene is cinematic, every character is fully realized, every twist lands exactly as it should. There are no awkward sentences, no pacing issues, no clunky dialogue. But the second you start writing? Something breaks. The words...
