Blog
Cheers Isn’t as Good as You Remember It Being
Sadly, Cheers isn't as good as you remember it being. I began rewatching the 8os sitcom on a whim before the coronavirus lockdown began. I didn’t realize at the time I was giving myself a long-term distraction through a tough period. At 275 total episodes and at 3...
Millennial Writing Must Stop
Millennial Writing must stop. The way many in the current generation write for publication is a blight on the media landscape. Their style has many annoying qualities, but I’ll focus on the two I find most heinous: The use of “we” and of ridiculous hyperbole. Here’s a...
Independent Writer/Publisher Update: March 28th, 2021
It’s been a while since I published anything to the Kindle. I hope to fix that soon. Let’s go over what I’ve been up to during the last year—besides dodging a global pandemic. Here it is: your independent writer/publisher update for March 28th, 2021... Just because I...
Don’t be a Dick–Space Odyssey by Michael Benson
Late in the book Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson, there's a classic dick move that left me angry and bitter. Kubrick sends a small team to South Africa to capture still photos of the terrain there,...
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
Clive Barker - Author, Artist, and filmmaker 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,...
Writing Process – The Tyranny of Digital
Defining the Problem Sometimes our writing process can be hindered by the tools we choose--or the tools we're forced to choose because they're the ones most in vogue. I turned eighteen in 1984 so I spent my formative writing years in a pre-digital, pre-mobile device...
Don’t Just Dive Into Your Writing Projects
Don't just dive into your writing projects. It 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...
Writers: Don’t Be Stingy with the Detail
I have a tendency to write lean — as in close-to-the-bone. Take me as a cautionary tale. In other words, writers, don't be stingy with the detail. In my college days, I was compared to Hemingway from time to time, not because I was as good as him, but because I was...
Writing Process – It Takes Two Ideas – Part 2
In the writing process, it takes two ideas--rubbing against one another--to make a satisfying premise. In this post, I'm going to give a real-world example. I don’t know George R. R. Martin, and I would not presume to speak for him. I am, however, willing to speculate...