Ask someone who wants to write (but isn’t writing) why they aren’t producing, and you almost always get this answer: I don’t have time. When I hear someone say, “I don’t have time,” I ask them what their favorite TV shows are. They usually rattle off 3-5 shows; sometimes many more. If you watch more […]
Archives for January 2015
Some Thoughts About Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding. For some writers, it’s everything. Before characters, plot, or anything else, it’s all about creating a big world…even going to great lengths to spend time making up things that are never even seen in the story, for “greater understanding and authenticity…” I may be an exception in my views, but those who go to […]
Perfect Writing
I’ve struggled with the idea of perfection in life. In juggling, in writing, and other things that mattered to me, I fixated on a perfection I’m not sure exists. It’s a nice thought that I can finish a piece of something perfectly before moving on to my next thing, but in my life, I’ve only […]
Writing While Sick
I wrote the first draft of my second novel while sick. I didn’t know at the time that I had a 2.2cm pituitary tumor growing in my head. I was going blind in my right eye, but I kept writing. I’ve always written while sick; after all, if I wrote full time, I wouldn’t have […]
Nous Sommes Charlie
Je suis Charlie! (I am Charlie!) I’ve seen it written a lot today. I don’t follow the news. When something happens in the world, I usually see mention of it on Twitter. This morning, it was this tweet from Chuck Wendig that made me think, “Hmm…I should probably see what’s up with this…” Religion and […]
Salad Days (Of Writing)
I always wanted to write, but I was never that teenager tapping out my first attempts at novels on a typewriter or scrawling in yellow notebooks. Hell, I didn’t even write short stories. In my teen years, I juggled. Any storytelling I did came as a Dungeon Master for my friends — not as someone […]
On Doing What You Love
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this: Do what you love, and the money will follow… It’s a nice thought, but it’s not very realistic. Show me the rare working poet doing something even more rare: putting on arm floats and leaping into their Olympic-sized pool full of hundred dollar bills. Most literary […]