Found on the Elevator
OK, this is just kinda neat. Wil Wheaton posted a reference to it today and it turns out side one is available on SoundCloud. Here’s the rundown: This inexplicable 10-inch record from 1969 is one of...
View ArticleWriting Under the Influence
I’ve recently made a rather unsettling correlation: I write better, faster, more often, and with more enjoyment when I eat junk food. I used to joke when I was younger that I couldn’t write while I was...
View ArticleAnti-SAD and Nerd Nightmares
A lot of my friends suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). All winter, they fight melancholy and lethargy and long for the sun to come back so they can get back to normal. They grumble about...
View ArticleContagious 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...
View ArticleNovel 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...
View ArticleMusic 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...
View ArticleCrowdsourcing 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...
View ArticleLatchkey 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...
View ArticleA 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...
View ArticleSolitary 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...
View ArticleA 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...
View ArticleHow 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...
View ArticleThe 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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