Knowing what I know now, I’ll be happy to blow out a disjointed, gangly mongrel of a first draft in the future if only to clear my mental sinuses. I mean, if that’s what it takes to get a tighter second draft that I might actually enjoy reading, then sign me up. Lemme ‘splain: The …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPMWWEscRP0&feature=player_embedded] Jeff Vandemeer’s post on author platform got me to thinking. Really thinking. If you haven’t watched, do yourself a favor and take the 4 minutes to do so. Sure he’s pimping his book Booklife, but he’s doing it because he sees a need. He’s experienced enough of the insanity of the writing life to …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB0EYZooakU] The barn leaned over The vultures dried their wings The moon climbed up an empty sky The sun sank down behind the tree On the hill There’s a killer and he’s coming Through the rye But maybe he’s the Father Of that lost little girl It’s hard to tell in this light And I …
In the secret space of dreams, where I dreaming lay amazed. When the secrets all are told, and the petals all unfold. Attics of My Life – Grateful Dead As a writer, I dip into my memories, scrounging around for bits and pieces to create my Frankenstein stories – not literally mind you, just that …
One of the many problems with my first draft of Shadow of the Black City was the weakness of the desert magic. I hadn’t put enough time into it – and, really, I don’t think I was ready to tackle the issue. I knew this was a problem before I even started revisions, so I’ve …
Nomad Khyrg al Wahid witnesses an airship crash in his arid highland home known as the Jashem. Two survivors emerge from the wreckage: an ethnographer and his assistant from Bogozechi, a dark industrial city rife with intrigue. Khyrg’s clan rival, Anwar ibn Masaud, having also followed the crash, arrives at the crash site moments later …
From Dichotomy Wiki.: A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts. In other words, it is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets) that are: mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultaneously to both parts; and, jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the …
Writer Identity, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Process Read More »
I didn’t know what to expect when I began revising the first draft of my first novel, Shadow of the Black City. Right now, I feel like I’ve got even more questions than when I began. Sweet. Truth is, it’s not all bad news. Sure there are page long deletions (alright, pages upon pages, but …
The Revisionatrix is a Cruel (and Cool) Mistress. Read More »
Everyone who writes finds themselves lacking motivation at one time or another, probably more than we’d like. But there is hope. Even though most of us can’t afford to employ Mr. T (even at his advanced age, I’ll bet he can still whip most of our asses) here are some pretty obvious ways to rejuvenate …
Millions of people doing their thing on any part of this earth at any given time have great story ideas swimming in their head (to wit). There is a subset of people who try to get those ideas from their heads onto paper in the form of writing, visual arts or music. Within …