The girl was a terrible journalist, but she was also never meant to be one. — Sixteen-year-old Rory Gilmore has but one wish: To go to Harvard, become a journalist, and travel the world, reporting hard-hitting pieces like Christiane Amanpour. That’s four wishes, I guess. Harvard, journalist, travel, reporting… yeah. Four. Close enough. Sixteen-year-old Rory Gilmore has but four wishes… So when, as a high school…

It just isn’t. — This piece has been sitting in my drafts for a while as I try to get my thoughts perfectly clear. Then James Patterson said some bullshit to USA Today, and, well… here we are. If you belong to a marginalized group — whether you a person of color, LGBTQ+, a…

Yes, their eating is disordered — but I don’t think it’s as damaging as it could have been. — I learned disordered eating at my mother’s knee. Binge and purge diets were commonplace in our home as I grew up. Kate Moss may have said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” but my mother repeatedly said, “It’s easier to keep the weight off than it is to lose…

He’s a villainous man, but that’s because he’s kind of right. — The first time we are introduced to Mitchum Huntzberger is in Season 5, Episode 19, “But I’m a Gilmore!” Rory is being introduced to Logan’s family as his girlfriend. Mitchum is late to the dinner and misses all the action. …

For all its feminism, Gilmore Girls sure fell into a big misogynistic trap. — Lorelai Gilmore isn’t like other girls and she’s raising her daughter to not be like other girls. They’re Cool Girls They are exceptionally thin, but don’t worry, they don’t actually try to be thin. They don’t do stupid girly things like “count calories” or “eat salads” or “workout”… ever. …

One tiny detail can derail your entire story. So maybe just … don’t include it? — Season seven, episode seven, Lorelai and Christopher go to Paris and get jet-lagged. They fall asleep at 7:00 PM and wake up at 4:00 AM. We know it’s 4:00 AM because they say it four times out loud, and specifically say they slept for nine hours from 7:00 PM, making…

They’re adorable and you love them, but do they ever do anything useful? — In the summer of 2021, I read a very popular YA fantasy. Very popular — more than 750,000 ratings on Goodreads and more than 12,000 Amazon reviews. It enjoys a 4+ star rating on both sites. …

Characters who have an easy life are living in a boring story. — There’s a reason Emily Gilmore isn’t the main protagonist of Gilmore Girls, and it’s very simple: her life is easy and her life is figured out already. When the series starts, Emily is happily married to Richard Gilmore. I really appreciate that their marriage is a happy one, because television…

You likely know how to write sentence-level metaphors, but scene-level or story-level metaphors can be much more impactful — Season seven of Gilmore Girls gives us yet another quirky town festival, right at the end of the season, just as we’re preparing to wrap everything up, ostensibly for good. The Spring Fling is such a popular event that Lorelai’s inn has prepared special handouts and a special menu to…

Every character is the hero of their own story, even if that means the actual protagonist becomes their villain — Mid-season two of Gilmore Girls, Christopher shows up for Rory’s debate performance with his serious live-in girlfriend at his side. Sherry is pretty, smart, ambitious, well-organized, and a serious Type-A kind of woman. Basically the opposite of Christopher. I mean. I guess he’s pretty, too.

Long works of fiction need something familiar to make audiences feel comfortable, but also need to change it up to make the story stay fresh — Stars Hollow, right from the very first episode, is known for having kooky festivals and town events. In the pilot, Rory and Lane complain about the town hayride. …

One great way to measure your character’s arc is to compare your opener with your closer: The two should mirror each other. — This publication has talked before about beat sheets and pacing. Beat sheets are useful tools to determine when in your story something should happen, but ultimately the question you need to answer is what happens and to whom. The “whom” part is pretty easy: your protagonist, mostly. The “what” part…

You might love that joke, that line, that concept, but if you can’t make it work in your story, you have to delete it. Now. — S1E4 of Gilmore Girls — The Deer Hunters RORY: I just got hit by a deer. LANE: You hit a deer? RORY: No! I got hit by a deer! LANE: How do you get hit by a deer? RORY: I was at a stop sign and he just hit me! Oh my God! LANE: Was it a 4-way stop…

Gilmore Girls is set in the real world — but not really. — Stars Hollow, CT is a completely fictional town. Amy Sherman Palladino has listed a half-dozen locations as the loose inspiration for her fictional town, but it is definitely a complete fiction. …

Love them, hate them, hate to love them… love triangles make for compelling stories and aren’t actually about “the guys”. — Years before the “Team Edward” vs “Team Jacob” debate hit its highest fever pitch, Amy Sherman Palladino was writing some hotly debated love triangles of her own. …

Lorelai Gilmore loves to say she’s totally self-sufficient. But that’s a big fat lie. — Lorelai Gilmore was born into immense wealth and privilege. Real 1% stuff: a 10,000 square foot mansion, summers staying at the Ritz in Paris, private schools with tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. By the time we meet her, though, she’s a regular working-middle class mom in blue jeans…

There is zero sex on-screen in Gilmore Girls, yet their dedication to positive female sexuality is admirable. — From the very first episode — in which Rory assumes Lorelai is happy because she’s done “something slutty” — to the revival — in which Babette and Miss Patty accuse Lorelai’s behavior of being “a real clam jam” — female sexuality is at the forefront of Gilmore Girls. Other shows…

A lot of screen time is dedicated to making sure the audience sees Jess as a Bad Boy, but the real danger is Dean. — Dean Forrester is presented as the All-American Boy in the pilot of the Gilmore Girls. Floppy hair, disarming smile, handsome face. He is also wearing a too-big leather jacket. …

NaNoWriMo is coming up. Here’s how you win. — Fast-drafting is something of a superpower in the writing community. You might need to hit a deadline, or you might need to get ahead on your schedule so you can take some much-needed time off. Fast-drafting is helpful, for me, because it’s so much easier to keep the whole story…