Welcome back writers! It’s Monday once again, which of course means it’s time for another installment of Being a Better Writer. You know, as evidenced by that title up there.

Now, as you may also have gathered from that title, we’ve got an interesting topic to cover for today, one that’s been on my mind for quite some time. Even before it ended up on the Topic List, in fact. But before we can dive in, there are a few announcements to consider.

For starters, as many of you may know this week is one containing a popular holiday weekend in the US: Thanksgiving. Which means that next Monday will not be a new Being a Better Writer post (as I will be enjoying the holiday weekend), but a classic post. Which one I have not yet decided, but it’ll probably be related to whatever’s puzzling one of the writing hangouts online I hang out on.

Second, and fairly ordinary, be sure to check out last week’s news post for the latest on the site, Patreon, book work, etc etc. You can find that at this link.

Last, but not least, again I issue a pleading with those of you accessing this content through AI to use the site itself. Don’t let AI steal others’ hard work to resell to you. Support creators, because if you don’t, they’ll all disappear, and then where will we be? Read this post, and others like it, on the site. Do not give an AI your time, data, and money to read portions that have been regurgitated after being stolen.

All right, all the news and errata is out of the way. So it’s time to talk writing. And to start, this is once again one of those topics where we need to define what we’re talking about.

So hit that jump, and let’s talk about one-note stories.