“I think it’s bad to talk about one’s present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.” – Norman Mailer My wife and I have a rule: I’m not allowed to talk about a work in progress. If I have something I need to talk through, I […]
Monday Motivation: In Praise of Slacking Off
What I did this past weekend: My wife and I visited my mom and ate Thai food. I hung out with my wife. I watched the entire first season of Louie. I watched the Chicago Bears lose to the stinky Green Bay Packers. (Ah, well — there’s always next year…) I goofed off online. I […]
Monday Motivation: The Dream
Outside Magazine has published some of my all-time favorite non-fiction. Years later, this piece about a guy building a hovercraft in his basement and this piece about a bunch of friends on a four-day road trip to climb the highest peaks in the Midwest (yep, you read that right), still hold up for me. In […]
Monday Motivation: Changing Your Writing Perspective
I’m writing this while standing up. I’ve worked many jobs in the past that required me to be on my feet all day or night. I’ve worked in warehouses, on loading docks, and as a landscaper; I’ve framed houses, worked on a farm, and in restaurants. But I’ve never written while standing up. Why Stand […]
Monday Motivation: Learning from Musicians
I’ve known my friend Brent Meyer since high school. We’ve always supported what the other is up to, even though Brent’s always been focused on music, and my focus has always been on writing. Being friends with Brent, I’ve seen that no matter what one’s creative obsession, there are many parallels about what works no […]
Cartoon Neil Gaiman Wants You To Write!
I haven’t shouted it from the rooftops, but I’m shooting for a post a day this December. No real reason, other than it seemed like a cool thing to do at the end of the year. Today, though, I’ve been busy. One of the reasons I don’t normally post every day is I’m not a […]
Monday Motivation: The Final Stretch
There’s just a little under two weeks left in the year. What will you finish before the end of 2010? The clock is ticking…
The Tool in Your Head
I was hired at most of the jobs I’ve had for no other reason than I know certain programs or how to use certain tools. I’ve run lathes, made molds, drove forklifts, and used other machinery; I’ve taught myself billing systems, piles of Microsoft products, piles of Adobe products, and many other programs. The sad […]
Hooray for Failure
It seems that failure’s received a good rap lately. While there are still those who are terrified to take a step toward the things they want to do for fear of things not working out perfectly, most people in the creative community have come to accept that getting better takes some failing along the way. […]
Monday Motivation: Teetering on the Edge
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano, a character named Ed Finnerty expresses reservations about seeing a psychiatrist, saying: “He’d pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the […]
Monday Motivation: Do Your Own Thing
I have a couple empty Moleskine notebooks tucked away in my desk drawer. Within reach, though, I have an almost full Mead notebook. (And several small Mead notebooks scattered about–even in my car.) * * * I have a good friend who’s an artist. Years ago, when he read that Mark Schultz uses a Windsor […]
Monday Motivation: What To Do When You Hit a Wall
There’s nothing worse than hitting a wall when things have been going well with your writing. One day the words flow, and then BOOM! your nose is flat, you’re on your butt, and you’re looking up at a challenge that seems impossible. Maybe you came flying out of the starting blocks for NaNoWriMo and hitting […]
Monday Motivation: How To Write Descriptive Passages
There’s a Charles Dickens book — I can’t remember which one, maybe Hard Times or Tale of Two Cities — in which he describes a table. Maybe I wasn’t into the book at the time, or maybe my memory is failing, but it was a very tedious description of a table that made me think, […]