What we can learn from “Inventing Anna,” by Shonda Rhimes
How did Shonda Rhimes glued me to a story I shouldn’t care about on paper?
This is a hard question to answer. Frustrating, even, and yet compelling, just like “Inventing Anna,” a Netflix Original Series retelling the true-ish story of Anna Delvey; a con artist who almost deceived the entire city of New York.
What it’s like to have a kid
I’ve always assumed that becoming a parent was like an on/off button. One day you’re an irresponsible teenager with a mortgage, the following you crack dad jokes and get aroused by the sight of barbecue grilles for sale, but I was wrong.
Love to Automate, Automate to Love
Automation of labour has been, since the industrial revolution, probably the worst nightmare of the working class. But if for decades the threat was only addressed to manual skills, easily out-powered by the relentless force of steel and fire, the advent of personal computers has extended the menace from muscles to brains.
The Advantage of Responsibilities
My wife’s my greatest supporter. She goes to the extent that, I think, I wouldn’t be writing at all if it wasn’t for her. She wanted to make sure that I would write as much as I could while relieved of father's duties; and yet, this has been my least productive week since my daughter was born.
We Got Writer’s Block Wrong
Treating writer’s block as a disease is like taking anti-acids for your stress-related indigestion. It’s a quick fix, yes, but doesn’t solve the problem.
The Problem With Beliefs
The problem with belief and identity is double-edged. If you want to do something that clashes with your identity, it’s going to be very hard for you to pick up the habit, but at the same time, picking up a new habit is the only way to reshape your identity.
Why you should read fiction in times of war
Reading has already been proven to be the best trick to play on your brain when you can’t actually do the thing you’re reading about.
Reading fiction, in particular, because of this superpower the written word has over our brains’ plasticity, is the best way to build emotional intelligence.
The Paradox of Tolerance
The paradox of tolerance, famously associated with the philosopher Karl Popper, but approached in countless shapes and forms by many others both before and after him, states that an all-tolerant society can only be stripped of its tolerance in the end.
The day I woke up to war in Ukraine
Russia is a nuclear superpower. I’m no weapon expert, nor a nuclear physicist, but I know why a nuclear arsenal is called a “deterrent,” as anyone with some basic education does. And yet, I also know that their capacity for destruction is so abysmal, so enormous, that my comprehension of it can only scratch the surface of what it means.
3 lessons from Writing the Weird, by JS Breukelaar on Litreactor
I write weird stuff.
I’ve always been aware of it, even if unconsciously, but little did I know that other people wrote weird staff too, and some of them are really good at it.
When I saw the course “Writing the Weird” taught by the outstanding JS Breukelaar on Litreactor, I didn’t know what to expect, but I had to sign up.
And, oh boy, I was up for a trip.
20 Questions to help you develop your characters (11 - 20)
The simplest, most common and yet effective way to outline a complex character is with a questionnaire. Try to Google it. No, really. I’ll wait. Done? As you might have noticed, there are millions of pages with lists of questions that vary from 6 to 300 or more; and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve indulged in a ridiculous number of them.
20 Questions to help you develop your characters (1 - 10)
The simplest, most common and yet effective way to outline a complex character is with a questionnaire. Try to Google it. No, really. I’ll wait. Done? As you might have noticed, there are millions of pages with lists of questions that vary from 6 to 300 or more; and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve indulged in a ridiculous number of them.
How to write your first novel
During my first year of university, I decided I wanted to write a novel. So I thought about a story, opened up a word document and—BOOM—believe it or not, two years later the novel was still unwritten.
After years of writing consistently in the gaps of a busy life, I think I found a set of tricks that work very well for me, keeping my writing nearly consistent even during the most challenging times.
The 5 stages of Novel Writing
2021 started without a major project. I had time to polish a few short stories and learn more about the craft of writing, yes, but I was yearning for a new novel I could fall in love with.
You could say that, in a sense, I was grieving the absence of a worthwhile big commitment; something that would last for months, or years, and that required tons of research, frustration, euphoria, self-doubt and courage.
How Bullet Journaling Changed My Life
I can’t lie, I am a spoiled brat, but even I could see that during lockdown I was in a privileged situation, and I was ready to do whatever it took to take advantage of it.
Enter, the Bullet Journal.
5 Newsletters I’m not ready to unsubscribe from in 2022
While I try to summon the digital spirit of Marie Kondo—I needed a Christmas Miracle to go through my Instapaper list of articles—I unsubscribed from all the newsletters I didn’t have time to read, remaining with only 5 worthy survivors.
5 Magazines that Have Rejected Me in 2021
even if none of the magazines listed below published me, they all kindly replied letting me know that they had at least read my submission. Some of them sent back words of encouragement, some have been a bit more robotic; but they all replied.
Top 10 Books of 2021
Another year, another endless list of books I was supposed to pick up, a list of books I never finished and, though not as long as the other two, a list of books I have indeed read.
3 Lessons from “Scenes from a Marriage,” by Hagai Levi
Last weekend, just before my (non-English-speaking) mother in law came to visit, my wife and I devoured "Scenes from a Marriage," directed by Hagai Levi and starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. We loved it so much, we ended up preparing the spare room in the middle of the night—which, for us, starts at 11 pm.
How to Set Writing Goals
If you don't have a 50,000 words manuscript saved on your preferred cloud storage service, you have failed NaNoWriMo. You've set a too ambitious writing goal and for some reason, you couldn't deliver. Just like me.