Blathering
My First Novel
Like everyone I’ve ever seen answer the “when did you start writing?” question in an author interview, I wrote a novel in grade school. Now, I’ll be fair – this wasn’t my FIRST novel. First came a story Grace and Read more
Life
On Injured Reserve
I haven’t updated this blog for two weeks because I have been in the hospital. So sorry, everyone. I’ve not written so much as a clever tweet lately. I am recovering from surgery now and should be back on my Read more
Blathering
My writing process
My writing procrastinating process. At least last night. Step one: Listen to music while playing 2048 for two hours. Step two: daydream about David Bowie. Worry about ethics of daydreaming about actual person, switch to Spike the vampire, Feyd from Dune… Read more
Blathering
Plot by Character
I am terrible at plot. (And character, description, mood, theme, setting, and everything else, but particularly plot.) Andy Duncan taught me this plot trick. I don’t know where he got it. You write the names of your characters on a Read more
Blathering
Fighting Writer’s Block
The thing you do to be sane and happy should besomething you can control. -Cory Doctorow How to fight writer’s block? Well, we identified it as a mood, so what causes the mood? Boredom with the project? More advice Read more
Blathering
What is Writer’s Block?
When I asked my friends what would be a good subject for my writer’s blog, the vast majority answered, “Writer’s block!” (And I stared at them mutely because that’s been the subject, in a way, of ALL my posts.) Either Read more
Blathering
Why can’t I write the final draft first?
A first draft of a story looks like this: The final draft of a story looks like this: They are both words on pages, nothing more. Why can’t we just write the final draft the first time? We forget that we’re Read more