Welcome to The Caffeinated Writer
Essays and inspiration on writing and publishing from New York Times bestselling novelist Michelle Richmond.
Hi, I’m Michelle Richmond, author of six novels and two story collections. I’ve been writing for my “entire adult life,” although it’s also true that I’ve been writing for as long as I remember. Writing was always the one thing I could do, the one thing I loved to do, the one thing I couldn’t live without. I also taught writing in MFA programs for many years before my family moved to Paris and I began teaching online.
What you’ll find here: In The Caffeinated Writer, I share with you inspiration, craft lessons, guided writing prompts, and lessons learned from a two-decade writing career. If you want to start or finish a novel or memoir, if you want to devote a few more minutes each week to your writing, if you want to get inspired and stay motivated, I hope you will find something of value here.
Ask me anything: I am always open to answering subscriber questions about writing, publishing, and the many ways the writing life can both drive you crazy and sustain you for the long haul. I love reading much, much more than I love writing, so I share books with your here too.
How old is this newsletter? I started The Caffeinated Writer as a Salon Blog (remember those?) about a million years ago, and then it became a Wordpress blog and in 2010, and then it became a Mailchimp newsletter, and then I migrated the newsletter to Substack in 2022. Which is to say this newsletter has been around the block.
What I write: My primary occupation is as a novelist. My most recent novel is THE WONDER TEST, about a high-stakes suburban education system on steroids. My 2017 novel THE MARRIAGE PACT, about a secretive organization that promises couples a lasting, happy marriage, is kinda scary (and available in 31 languages). My first book was the linked story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2001 in conjunction with what was then called the AWP Award (and is now called the Grace Paley Prize). A book that remains dear to my heart is the 2007 literary mystery THE YEAR OF FOG, about a girl who goes missing on a foggy San Francisco beach.
A note on subscription types
THE CAFFEINATED WRITER is a reader-supported publication. A paid subscription supports my work and gets you access to everything, including the rather hefty archives. But free subscribers get good things too!
Free subscribers get about two posts per month.
Paid subscribers get
access to exclusive posts
weekly What to Write This Week posts
audio posts
the full archives
a complimentary download of the workbook Novel Starter: 50 Days to Get Your Novel Off the Ground
$40 off these courses: Foundations of Novel Writing, or Novel in Nine 2024 Cohort
Founding members get everything you get with a paid subscription, plus
complimentary access to my six-week course, Writing for Substack
All subscribers can download the Story Revision Checklist here.
*For all subscribers: for the best experience, please download the free Substack app. When you receive an email from me, click “open in app” at the top. This makes it easier to read (the text is bigger) and easier to comment.
Teaching Background
I have taught in the Masters of Fine Arts programs in Creative Writing at the University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, and Bowling Green State University, and have served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at St. Mary’s College of Moraga and Notre Dame de Namur University. I have also designed and taught novel writing courses for Stanford Continuing Studies.
For more news and notes on writing as a profession, you can also follow me on LinkedIn.
