Greg Luti

An essay about hype that refuses to stop. In “What Annoys Me About GTA 6,” Greg Luti looks at the constant pre-launch marketing and wonders why no one inside the machine seems willing to push back against it. The Circus Around GTA 6 The biggest game of all time, GTA 6, is going to be released in a few weeks, and if you are like me, you don’t mind hearing the news, hearing the madness to it all. The entire circus is quite fun from the sidelines. People are upset at the prices.

A Halloween flash fiction about the awkward end of childhood. In “An Unlikely Treat,” Greg Luti follows three teenagers on their final trick-or-treating round as they knock on a door and find an old woman who offers something other than candy. When I was a kid trick-or-treating, I performed an act that now, when I mention it, seems like childish fun more than anything else. When a few friends and I would go trick-or-treating, I took the most candy from the container left out.

A poem about monsters who have lost their audience. In “Monster Therapy,” Greg Luti places Dracula, Frankenstein, and the others in a session where they keep asking the same question: where have all the scared children gone? There is a special therapy session for those who need to be taught a lesson. The class is of monsters, you know, From the Boogeyman to that guy in the show. All monsters go to ask the question they need to know. Where are the scared kids? Where did they g

A writing update full of small wins. In “Bunch of Good News,” Greg Luti talks about new pages for books and editing, plans for more essays, sharing posts on Medium and Flipboard, and a Halloween story set to go up by the holiday. Site Updates I have some good news for my writing update this week. I will get right to the chase with them. The first good piece of news is that the site is now up to date regarding the books and services pages. That may not seem like a big deal to

A reflective essay about what endures when everything else fades. In “The Song That Wasn’t a Song,” Greg Luti wonders how future people might remember our laws and buildings, yet overlook the ordinary act of singing “Happy Birthday.” What the Future Will Remember I wonder sometimes about the future of the country that I am in, and whether future civilizations and cultures will even care about what mattered once to me. Now, I admit this is not from some random Sunday scroll wh

A writing and editing advice post about a cleaner way to revise on paper. In “Letter Mark Editing,” Greg Luti shows how marking additions at the end of a draft keeps the original text intact while still letting you improve the piece. The Problem with Editing on Paper Writers love to write up a story and put it down on paper, and then they have to edit it. They have to cross out a few things, then they have to add a few new lines, and by the fifth time of editing, the entire p

A poem about the minor chaos of a shared space. In “The Parking Lot,” Greg Luti watches a workplace absorb a renovation, from early warnings to the steady rise of complaints about parking, timing, and who decided this was necessary. I was the first to get into work. Before my co-workers Before the hassle of the day. I walked along the dirt grass outside of the emergency tape to avoid the road. Two projects: One for the parking lot, one for a building. Neither of which I knew

A writing update built around the small systems that keep the work moving. In “A List,” Greg Luti talks about jotting weekly notes, pulling back from social media, fixing a site problem, and making daily progress on the novel Hit of Henry. Writing a List During the Week I have been writing up these updates about what has been happening with my career for some time now, and when I sat down to write up the current one, I noticed that I really didn’t want to go back in time and

A writing and editing advice post about a rule writers often take too seriously. In “What About Clichés?,” Greg Luti argues that familiar ideas are not automatically a problem, and that the real question is whether you are building on them, mocking them, or trying too hard to avoid them. What About Clichés? If you write enough, you will find yourself in the situation where the very idea you came up with, one you felt was all your own, is not yours at all. In fact, it is not o

A humorous poem about the mind refusing to work. In “Thinking Brain,” Greg Luti runs through the small, absurd reasons a person gives when the words will not come — weather, a forgotten charger, and the suspicion that the brain has simply gone missing. I can’t think. Not here, not now. My brain doesn’t work somehow. I am quite the thinker, most would say. Just remember I don’t think on certain days. Monday is too long. Tuesday is too slow. Wednesday never has anywhere to go.

A reflective poem about the moment something familiar loses its place. In “What Happened?,” Greg Luti turns toward a once-beloved thing that has quietly faded, and asks how people notice the change only after they have already begun to move on. They’ll all ask what happened. What changed? Why is it not like how it was? The question won’t come from hate or even love, but curiosity. As though the question came up to them out of nowhere, like a salesman pitching a new product. “

A writing update about a private decision and what came after it. In “I Was The Only One Who Knew I Quit,” Greg Luti looks back at a moment when he stepped away from the work, then shares the changes he’s making to his newsletter, free posts, and the books he’s choosing to finish. The Newsletter Scare A few things have happened in the past week or so for me and my writing. The first is that I had a bit of a scare with my email newsletter. For those who don’t know, the email n

A writing and editing advice post that focuses on one of the most overlooked parts of a story. In “Don’t Underestimate the Beginning,” Greg Luti explains why the opening of a piece is often what decides whether a reader stays or leaves. The Beginning Can Make or Break a Story The beginning of a story can really make or break the entire thing. Is that hyperbolic? Eh… not really. The first part is, in my opinion, the most important part of any piece you write. It is the part th

A reflective poem that examines the price of the choices we make. In “The Toll,” Greg Luti considers how the sacrifices we accept in pursuit of something we love eventually come due. Three, two, one, it’s over! They won! Oh my god! I can’t believe what just happened! What he just did! That was one of the most amazing sequences I have ever seen. He is definitely going down as one of the best who ever played. Going forward, the defendant will no longer be able to see his chil

A writing update that offers an honest look at how one writer approaches publishing. In “Not An Event Writer,” Greg Luti explains why he prefers a low-key way of sharing new work over building hype, and shares his current focus on finishing *Little Fires* and returning to *Hit of Henry*. Not an Event Writer I learned an important lesson about my writing this past week, and that is I am not what you would call an event writer. There will not be a time when I write a book and t

A writing update that blends personal reflection with creative thinking. In “Comments and Video Games,” Greg Luti discusses getting past social media spam, the unexpected value of reader comments, and how looking at life through a video-game lens helps him make sense of both writing and the world. Out of Facebook Hell I have some good news on the writing front, and that is I am out of what I called Facebook Hell, which is when the spam on the page was so bad the very page was

A writing and editing advice post that speaks directly to a common fear. In “When No One Reads You,” Greg Luti shares practical ways to stay professional and keep growing even when the audience is small — or not there yet. I was given the site of the month (for July 2026) by Midwest Book Review, which is pretty cool. I try to write practical pieces of advice for other writers on here. I am in the trenches, writing my own stories, and crafting my own plots, so whenever I do gi

A writing update that mixes practical behind-the-scenes work with honest reflection. In “Facebook Hell,” Greg Luti discusses cleaning up spam on social media, the modern expectation that writers must be personally likable, and his ongoing progress on the flash fiction collection *Little Fires*. Updating the Website Recently I have been doing a few tasks that are not really exciting for readers to learn about, which is of course, why I am going to tell you about them. The firs

A flash fiction story that captures a quiet domestic moment filled with quiet contrast. In “Letter Of The Day,” Greg Luti places a toddler’s simple play against the backdrop of adult conversations about war, celebrities, and the weight of the wider world. A child of no more than two years old and a grandma sit in the living room, getting ready for the afternoon they are going to spend together. On the floor, the child is playing with his toy cars, as the grandma is watching t

A writing and editing advice post that explores one of the most important questions a writer can ask. In “What Does The Audience Know?,” Greg Luti discusses how deciding what readers know versus what characters know can shape tension, humor, and the overall effectiveness of a story. Superman and What the Audience Knows There is a question regarding one of pop culture’s iconic heroes that a writer can use in order to better understand their own story. The knowledge that Superm