Freelance writer · DFW

BrettHenderson

I write for a living, make up fantasy worlds for fun, and started this blog because I know how lonely a bad stretch at the desk can feel.

Flat Summer Pop illustration of me sitting upright at a writing desk with a coffee mug, fantasy figure, and hand-drawn map. — This is roughly how I imagine the desk. Mine has more cold coffee.

I grew up inHuntington Beach

I live inDallas-Fort Worth

I've written professionallySince 2019

I keep returning toCharacters & worlds

Why I'm here

I've lost stories too.

I grew up in Huntington Beach, now live in Dallas-Fort Worth, and have made my living as a writer since 2019. That sounds tidy when I compress it into one sentence. The writing itself has rarely been tidy.

I've had writer's block. I've thrown out stories I was sure I would finish. I've built characters with pages of history and no pulse at all. Some ideas went flat halfway through. Others never made it much farther than the idea that started them.

For a long time, I treated those failures as evidence that I wasn't doing this properly. Now I think they're part of learning what a story needs, and what I need in order to keep writing it. Brett Blogs grew out of that change. I wanted to make the sort of place I would have liked to find when I was stuck: honest about the mess, practical about the next step, and still excited by what stories can do.

I'm not writing from a spotless desk on the far side of every creative problem. I'm writing from inside them. I want to help other writers untangle a character, find the shape of a world, return to an abandoned draft, or decide where AI belongs without letting it make every interesting choice. If something has helped me see the page differently, I'll share it here.

I don't have a cure for every bad writing day. I can share what has helped me get unstuck, and keep looking when it doesn't.

On the desk

What I write about.

I write practical essays for people making stories, building worlds, and occasionally making a complete mess before lunch.

Worldbuilding

I build fantasy places where people still have to live, work, and argue.

Story craft

I write about plots, outlines, stalled drafts, and finding a way back in.

Characters

I look at desire, choices, flaws, and the trouble they make together.

Dialogue

I look at voice, subtext, and what characters avoid saying out loud.

AI & Writing

I test where new tools help without handing them the interesting work.

Off the page

I brought my California roots to Texas.

I'm a husband, a dad, a football watcher, a brisket respecter, and a former Californian who has acquired Texas habits without becoming any less suspicious of patio-destroying weather.

My teenage kid finds my music embarrassing. My wife often sees the dad joke coming. Neither system has managed to stop me.

Professional Writing

If you're stuck, you're welcome here.

Let's find our way back into the story.

Browse the essays