The Caffeinated Writer

If all this talk of AI in publishing is getting you down—AI scandals, AI-generated books, the new onus on writers to prove that our work is our own—you may have nostalgia for a time when most of us had never thought much about AI. Which was only three to four years ago. Although it’s impossible to ignore the implications of AI, it is possible to tune out the noise and reclaim some writing joy by returning to simple analog pleasures.

Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books of fiction, including The Marriage Pact, published in 31 languages. Her new espionage thriller set in Paris is forthcoming from Grove Atlantic. As someone who has been publishing books for twenty-five years, I naturally worry about the threat to my livelihood from AI. I’m a slow writer.

I first started writing on Substack four years ago. I maintain four newsletters here, including a flash fiction magazine, an author newsletter, a travel newsletter, and the newsletter you’re reading now. During that time, I’ve made new Substack friends and found books by writers who weren’t on my radar before. My reading life has been enriched by Substack in ways that are difficult to quantify.

My Hermes 3000 is beautiful, but I still need software for the heavy lifting. Writing by hand is romantic, and typing on an Olivetti Lettera 32 or Hermes 3000 is more romantic still. But when it comes to writing, romance will only take you so far. Here are my three favorite writing and publishing tools for novelists. I’ve intentionally kept the list small to share only the tools I’ve personally used and recommended to my students.

umbrellas at Palo Alto Buddhist Temple, photo by Michelle Richmond Hi there. I hope you’ve been reading something good this week, and finding a moment to write. I wanted to share a quick question from last week’s live subscriber chat—a question about the infamous inner critic: I’ve written 14 pages (I know barely anything) and am stuck. I know where I want it to go, but I am busy being hypercritical instead of just letting myself write.

Hi there. My novel THE WONDER TEST is just $3.99 today. Grab a copy and unlock a complimentary month of The Caffeinated Writer. “A gripping blend of danger and sharp social commentary on high-stakes education, the 1%, and suburban tropes: imagine a coffee date with Lisa Lutz’s Spellmans and Tom Perotta’s suburbanites in a sun-drenched Twin Peaks.” Booklist, starred review How it works: just buy the book, screenshot your receipt, and reply to this email with the screenshot attached.

Whether you’re working on your first book or you already have a few published books under your belt, you need an author newsletter. As the only social media platform built specifically for readers of long form text, Substack is a natural fit for novelists and memoirists who want to build meaningful connections with existing readers and find new ones.

Ocean Beach, San Francisco Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books of fiction, including most recently The Wonder Test. I can’t tell you exactly how I write a novel. There’s something about sitting down and writing the first sentence, and then the next. I know that much. There’s something about getting the first fifty pages out at a pretty good clip, and then feeling a sense of impending dread (what now? where do I go?

Do you want to write a novel but don’t know how to begin? Maybe you have a story to tell but don’t yet have a clear understanding of plot, structure, and point of view. Maybe you have an idea for a great protagonist but aren’t sure how to bring the character to life on the page.

If you’ve written a story collection or a debut novel and tried to find an agent or publisher, you know how challenging it is to break through. In this post, I’ll share why I love university presses, and how to know if a university press is a good fit for you. You’ll also find a list of university presses with an annual book contest. I’ve published six novels and two story collections, with a seventh novel on the way.