I have a very busy friend — he’s the Assistant Vice President of Application Architecture for a large company. Almost every morning, he’s up early for a run in his neighborhood or on his stationary bike. He has two young daughters who keep him very busy. He’s not the kind of father who puts work […]
Copy Cats
When I started writing, I broke away from the most common bit of writing advice: “Read as much as you can!” I’d read enough throughout my life to know how stories worked. When I started writing stories, I didn’t want too much of the writers I looked up to showing up in my work. So […]
Restrict Yourself
If I look over my left shoulder while sitting at my desk in the office, there are six longboxes of comic books and a small comic box to my immediate left. This doesn’t include all the graphic novels and collections. This also doesn’t include some of the comic books and collections on a shelf in […]
Do You Have What It Takes To Make It Writing?
Are you a productive writer, or somebody who just dabbles? Do you want to supplement your income with writing or make writing your career, but find it hard to make time to write? Do you have what it takes to make it writing? The hardest thing is realizing that you don’t, but there’s no shame […]
Will Write for Food
In the comments of a recent post, a member of the writing group I’m in said this about e-books becoming more common: “I suspect it will be easier to get an audience via the e-book revolution, and harder to make a career” – Mark Felps I’ve seen things get harder when the self publishing boom […]
What’s Worse than Piracy?
“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.” – Tim O’Reilly Tim O’Reilly’s quote (often attributed to Cory Doctorow), has always rung true with me. Not that I like the thought of people taking and trading an artist’s work for free, but if people are sharing your work illegally, it’s […]
Listening to TV Talk
Whether you watch television or avoid it, writers can learn a lot about storytelling by listening to people talk about the TV shows they watch. Not a week has gone by at any job I’ve ever had where people didn’t talk about their favorite shows. The day job is a great place to learn what […]
The Platform of Silence
J.D. Salinger is dead. I’m not going to talk about what an influence he was on my writing because it was just last year that I finally got off my lazy goddamn ass and read that stinking book he wrote–you know, that one everybody talks about and stuff; the really famous one with the rambling […]
A Delicate, Floating State
Things change. I grew up with three major networks on television and PBS. UHF channels were like cable…that is, until cable came around. I grew up reading books — I love books! Lately, though, most fiction and non-fiction I’ve purchased has been electronic, read on my iPhone with the Kindle app and Stanza. Later today, […]
Looking Ahead
My first novel was well received by agents, but I heard this more than a few times: “I don’t know how I’d market this. Humor, or horror? It’s not at all scary.” There is a reason it’s not scary: it’s not horror. My first novel, Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors, is a humorous coming […]
Ten Things Writers Can Learn from Conan O’Brien
“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” – Conan O’Brien Last night was Conan O’Brien’s final episode of The Tonight Show. Before he was a late night TV host, Conan was a writer, working on Not […]
Queries that Worked: Personal Writing Magazine
The last query letter of the week is a pitch sent to Writer’s Digest. I’d read Writer’s Digest on and off since I was in my late teens, and decided to send a query for a sort of travel piece: * * * [Note: My contact information is flushed right on my query] Christopher Gronlund […]
Queries that Worked: My Biggest Writing Regret
Since I had written a couple travel pieces for the Dallas Morning News and finally knew the editor on a first-name basis, I decided to send a pitch letter. A pitch letter is a query letter, but it’s a little different. Instead of sending a detailed query about a place you plan to write about, […]