I’ve been on an earlier-than-usual morning schedule, getting up around 4:00 a.m. to read and write. It doesn’t hurt that with the arrival of September, North Texas has been unseasonably cool and cloudy and rainy. (By “unseasonably cool,” I mean lows in the 70s and highs in the low to mid 80s…with clouds.) Friday morning, […]
The Problem with Writing Historical Fiction
The novel I finished late last autumn takes place from 1923 – 1941. It is the first of several novels chronicling the protagonist’s life. I’ve started working on the second novel and…I ran into a problem. The Best Laid Plans… I planned to have a major character do a certain thing in the beginning of […]
In Between
With the latest novel complete, I’ve hit that in-between stage of things where I became so used to waking up and knowing there was writing to be done. Then, after writing, I woke up knowing there were revisions to be completed. Finally, I did those last tinkering read-throughs, fixing the tiny things nobody may ever […]
First Drafts
I’m not one to make many sweeping proclamations. Anything I write about here always comes with a sense of, “This is just what works for me, and if it helps others: great!” Like any kind of advice, writing advice can be a hit for some and a miss for others. One thing I see touted […]
Reading for Pleasure
It’s a strange thing, reading a novel you’ve put years into making something once only imagined. In your head, you have this vision, and while every writer works differently, I think we all work until that vision becomes a solid shape we know is right for the story. Getting there can take time for some. […]
Diving In
Today I started diving into the novel. I’ve obviously read much of it along the way, but there are parts I’ve only written that have not yet been read. This will be the first time I read the latest novel as a whole thing. Remembering… It’s always a good sign when you get back to […]
The End (But Not the End)
I could have finished the novel yesterday, but I opted to hang out with my wife in the afternoon, instead. People who live with writers are often better than the writers they support (and I do have a strong self-image…it’s just that my wife is rather badass!). In the last month or so, my wife […]
The Sixth Annual Writing Retreat
This is how it all played out: we had the writing retreat initially scheduled for April 1 – 3. It was canceled because of a minor medical emergency that could have become major hit my friend, Deacon. A thing you must know about Deacon: after a layoff from his last corporate job, he decided to […]