Jared M. Bentley

he/him/his

Primary Genres: fiction - short stories and long form, TikTok - promotional, writing advice, film analysis

What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most and why? And/or what part of the process do you find the most challenging and why?

I can edit for hours and hours at my desk. To me, it's building upon a foundation. It's putting up rafters, laying brick, and it's the finishing touches like paint and polyurethane. I can lose track of time while I edit and redraft. However, I have to allow my brain to get to that point. Before that point, it's drafting, and drafting, I think, is the hardest for every writer because it's pulling the words out of you, even when the words don't want to be captured on the page. To combat this, I do timed writing sessions of at least 15 minutes per day. Often times, once my mind is in that mode, I can write for longer. Sometimes, i don't.

What is your favorite genre to write?

Short stories are probably my favorite because they are like puzzles that you can solve in an infinite amount of ways, and sometimes I end up with missing pieces. If this is the case, I'll often set them aside for a later date, when I have more distance, and have found these missing pieces.

You can read more about Jared and his writing on his website Jaredmbentley.com or by following @jaredmbentley or jaredmbentley-author on TikTok.