Blog
Writing Process (An Update from the Front) 10.25.18
Let's talk a little about the writing process... Of course how I do it is probably different than how you do it, but seeing how others negotiate the speed bumps is--to me at least--always interesting. I'm in the latter stages of writing the first draft for...
5 Reasons I’m Spending October with Clive Barker
5 Reasons I’m Spending October with Clive Barker It’s October, and for Americans, certainly, that means Halloween. Do other countries have Halloween? I could look it up, I suppose, but I’m far too lazy. Anyway, as you know, Halloween is the season for scares. For that...
The Tyranny of Digital
I turned eighteen in 1984 so I spent my formative writing years in a pre-digital, pre-mobile device world. Hell, it wasn’t just the formative years. Let’s be generous: good word processing didn’t take hold until the 90s. The iPhone and the iPad are both too young to...
(Don’t) Just Dive In
Just diving in doesn’t work. How do I know? Because it’s my default approach to writing, and I have boxes (and hard drives) full of unfinished stories. But allow me to clarify: By “diving in” I mean writing before your premise has fully percolated. When I have a...
Stingy
I have a tendency to write lean — as in close-to-the-bone. In my college days, I was compared to Hemingway from time time, not because I was as good as him, but because I was similarly stingy with detail. I haven’t dissected why it is I’m so terse, but I have three...
It Takes Two 2
I don’t know George R. R. Martin, and I would not presume to speak for him. I am, however, willing to speculate about his motives and processes. It seems to me — and I could be wrong — that Martin is a fan of the father of the High Fantasy genre, J.R.R. Tolkien. That...
