Earlier this week, I mentioned that my printer died while printing the first draft of the latest novel. Here’s the rest of the story… Twenty-One Years Ago Twenty-one years ago, a laser printer in the home was a big deal. I can’t remember if the printer ran $700 or $800 at the time, but with […]
Archives for 2015
How to Write a Trilogy (The Jeff VanderMeer Way)
I’ve been meaning to read if for the last week, but last night I finally got around to reading this Jeff VanderMeer piece in The Atlantic about writing the Southern Reach trilogy. I’m currently reading the trilogy (I recently wrote about the first book, Annihilation). I’m currently writing a trilogy of my own (I printed […]
The Power of Not Giving a Shit (About Social Media and Numbers)
I love social media. I love that Twitter serves just as much as a micro news feed for me as it does a way to stay in touch with people. While I’m not much of a fan of Facebook (it’s where I see the most angry politics, Buzzfeed link shares, and photos of kids with […]
What Goes Into A First Draft
I didn’t write this past weekend. Well, I didn’t work on the novel-in-progress this past weekend…because I’m calling it a done draft! Sure, there are some rough edges and parts where crude notes like MAKE BETTER! and DESCRIBE MORE SHIT! linger. Some parts — most of the novel, really — is pretty readable (which is […]
Why You’re Not Writing
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 […]
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 […]
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