Recent posts tagged writers
2023
No One Gets Talked Out Of This (Or Into It)
If someone can talk you out of being a writer, you’re not a writer. But that doesn't mean other writers owe you anything.
Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Each book of mine has been about going a place I haven't gone yet, and seeing what I can bring back with me.
He Stands Alone
On Chuck Wendig only wanting to write standalones from now on, a sentiment I agree with.
The Washing Garbage Problem
How much rewriting is too much?
Liberate The Voice And Everything Else Will Follow
Liberating the voice and being able to speak as only you can, rather than through the thousand voices you've inherited from the outside, is the hardest and most essential skill.
If You Can't Trust Yourself To Write It, No One Will Trust Reading It
If you have the confidence to tackle a given thing and see it through, that by itself can be enough to fix any problems you worry it might bring with it.
The Big "Shunga-Satori" Sign-Off
What I learned while writing my latest (and strangest) novel.
A Steak Sandwich Yesterday Isn't Competition For Meatloaf Today
Take any two projects that seem like they could be the same, and there's a good chance under the skin they're nothing alike.
Bookrocacy (Or How Sometimes You Just Wanna Write And Say The Heck With The Note-Taking)
I hate all the bookkeeping that goes with writing a story, but I know I can't avoid it.
The End Of Words
A meditation on when, and how, Dashiell Hammett stopped writing.
On Writing As Folk Art
Those who create because they want to, the way they want to, are not children of lesser gods.
2022
Input/Output
When is "Write the story you want to read" not good advice? When you're not much of a reader.
End(game) Result
People see your results, not your efforts. By design.
Campbell's Folly
"The 'three-act structure' and the 'hero’s journey', are editing tools, not writing tools."
Open Book Exam
On how messy my note-taking can be on my projects.
Looking Onto Other Pages
"When everyone in the community reads the same books, you can an inward-looking, intellectually impoverished community that can only contemplate its own navel."
A Clear(er) Head For The Future
What Zen taught me about writing SF&F, part 1.
Multiplicities
Examining your inner creative voices: "Are you 'one' writer or 'many' writers?"
A Different 70%
"Odds are you know 70% of what there is to know, but everyone knows a different 70%."
Solving The Ego Problem(s)
"Solving the problem is more important than being right." A quick guide for writers.
Knots Within Knots
The job of a storyteller should not be to make things complex, but to find common threads in complex things. Doubly so in SF&F.
Yours And Yours Alone
Whatever it is you make, make it so yours they can never take it away from you.
2021
Good Enough
if you want to be read, aim for the middle. Don't write total crap, but don't write stuff that's only going to be of interest to a self-selecting few, either.
You Have To Be Willing To Feel Stupid (For A While)
One of the reasons we call some people "geniuses" is because of (among other things) their disinhibitions about feeling stupid.
Whatever You Can Bring To The Picnic
There is a place for all of us there, and we just have to bring whatever we have with us to it.
