Yesterday, I finally watched this interview with Andy Weir (the author of The Martian): Yes, it’s almost an hour, but it’s a good chat! Some of my favorite bits from this interview: Weir serialized The Martian on his website and offered it for free. As its popularity grew, so did interest from agents and publishers. […]
How to Ask for Help
Peter Salerno was my great grandfather. He came to America from Italy with very little and ended up doing well for himself. The quick version goes like this: He went out west and followed cattle trains. He bought cattle, butchered them, and sold the cuts to cowboys. Somewhere along the way, he came in to […]
Roller Coaster Writing
The advice usually goes something like this: Hook your readers with action right from the start, and then…every single word, sentence, paragraph, and page must drive them through more action — until the end, when readers can barely handle any more excitement! I understand wanting to write (and read) something that feels like this: But […]
The Blank Page (That Matters Most)
I listened to this episode of the A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment podcast yesterday. I loved Jess Walter’s point about the importance of the page (as it relates to writing). During a live interview before an audience in Minneapolis, when asked who he writes for, he replied: There was a book a while back in […]
All the Things
This week, I seem to have bumped into articles and videos about how multitasking and other hurried methods of producing usually have a negative effect on production…or it’s just where my mind is at this week and those articles stood out more. (My guess: the latter situation.) Sometimes I think about moving on to a […]
Surrounding Yourself (with Writing)
One of my favorite podcasts is Otherppl with Brad Listi. (If fact, it’s the only podcast to which I’ve subscribed to premium content; after all, it’s less than $10.00/year.) I love the way Listi digs and gets writers to talk not just about their writing in ways they usually don’t discuss, but their lives and […]
The Forged Work of a Lifetime
Reading this piece about John Steinbeck during lunch yesterday got me thinking about what is lost in one’s pursuit of what they love doing when bound by other things. Before getting to that, though, a bit about Steinbeck’s writing. There is Something More, Here I’ve mentioned plenty of times that I came to literary/contemporary literature […]
A Time to Write
I got into a bad habit the past week. I allowed myself to do other things before writing: Let me edit this podcast… Let me clean the kitchen… Let me run these errands… Let me do this and that…and then I’ll write. The problem is, I haven’t written as much as usual since returning from […]
Third Annual Writing Retreat
Last weekend was the third annual writing retreat with a friend. Just like the two before, this one was at a Texas State Park (we returned to Cooper Lake State Park). After hiking around Caddo Lake State Park last year, we looked forward to hiking this year,but…the weather conspired against us. In fact, on the […]
A Week from Today
A week from today, I will be writing. Rewriting, actually. (Rewriting a novel and hanging out with a friend on our annual writing retreat.) I’ve talked about the retreats here and here (and other times on this blog). I won’t talk about all the things I like about the annual writing retreat again, but its […]
Get to the Desk
There is a part in this Otherppl With Brad Listi podcast interview with Stewart O’Nan where O’Nan talks about waking up early and getting straight to one’s writing desk as quickly as possible without other things getting in the way. O’Nan says: It’s always about getting back to the desk because that’s where the good […]
The Time You Work
It’s pretty easy to go online and find articles saying that if you get up early, you’re better off than those who stay up late. (I started writing this at 4:18 a.m. on a Saturday morning.) It’s also pretty easy to go online and find articles saying that if you stay up late, your brain […]
Writing Inspiration
As a writer, waiting to be inspired is dangerous. There are no muses. To quote Yoda: Must do if one is to write. (Okay, so maybe Yoda didn’t say that…) While waiting for inspiration is tragic, I’d still argue that as a writer, inspiration is important. Why You Shouldn’t Wait for Inspiration Writing is rarely […]
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