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Contagious Inspiration or Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
This post on inspiration was inspired by Patrick’s Things That Work posts about inspiration. Yes, it’s all very meta. I was compelled to write my first short story by a throwaway line in an ancient...
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Novel Mistakes
Despite being paid to be an editor for other people in my professional life, I’m horrible at editing my own stuff. Everyone is; as a rule, you are always blind to your own stupid mistakes, especially...
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Music to Create Worlds By
A lot of authors put a list of music that they listened to while they wrote at the start of their books. I love this idea. It not only gives the readers a soundtrack of the book to establish atmosphere...
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Crowdsourcing Creativity
Earlier this week, Amazon announced it’s starting a new venture called Kindle Worlds, which will exclusively publish fan faction. The internet and publishing immediately weighed in, analyzing this...
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Latchkey Id
I’ve been abusing my muse. Well, it’s not so much abusing as neglecting. I’ve been leaving my muse alone for long stretches of time and putting everybody else ahead of her. It’s a symptom of a bigger...
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A Starving Artist Buys Some Food
I don’t look anywhere near this well-groomed when I shop. From now on, I’m going to lie about my professional life. Why? Here’s why: “My handwriting is so bad that my father used to tell me I was going...
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Solitary Words
When I write nonfic, I don’t really care who’s in the room. I can type away, stop to have a conversation, and then return to my thoughts without much trouble or angst. That’s not the case when I write...
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A Map of my Writing World
To outline or not to outline? Oh my god, that is the question. I wonder sometimes if Shakespeare outlined. Maybe somewhere, lost in the annals of time, there’s a crumpled up parchment with “Scene...
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How I Overcame Writer’s Block (And Why It Killed This Blog)
This blog died this summer. Or maybe it just went into a coma and slumbered away the summer and fall with a languid grace usually reserved only for feisty old film stars. Whichever. There was a very...
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The End
Finishing a novel is a little like breaking up with someone. You’ll see each other again (you still have stuff to work out/rewrite) but the main part of the relationship is over. You’ll no longer be...
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