While chatting with my partner-in-crime Tracy McCusker of Dusty Journal this afternoon, we started talking about the hoary old guideline of 10,000 hours to master your writing (or whatever skill you’re attempting to master). At which point she dropped this delightful bomb of bitterness into the conversation: If I see that 10,000 hours, I CAN [...]
Advice From Every Side
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A short one today. Even the most well-meaning friend can unwittingly undermine you with a destructive or demoralizing piece of advice — even when it’s technically sound. By way of example: I recently started passing around a fantasy novella I’ve been working on to some beta readers, with the intent of releasing it for free [...]
Outlining for Fun and Word Count
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Until recently, I was not big on outlining. I believed that making things up as I went along was vital to the creative process, that it kept things fresh and unpredictable, that it prevented boredom. I believed that outlining somehow sterilized the process and rendered it artistically inert. Wrong. Now, I’m not here to tell [...]
Scene and Structure: Make Something Happen!
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Imagine if Star Wars began like this: EXT. OUTER SPACE A Corellian blockade runner sails peacefully across the stars. C-3PO Oh dear! Princess Leia, if Darth Vader attacks us, what will happen to the Death Star plans? LEIA I don’t know, Threepio. I guess we’ll just have to try to safeguard them somehow. Captain, are [...]
A Jedi Like Your Father: What Luke Skywalker Taught Me about Writing Characters
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For the longest time, I struggled with strong character motivation. Still do, actually. Unless I make a conscious effort to do otherwise, I tend to write reactive characters to whom shit happens — who just sort of blunder from one encounter to another, maybe having an emotion or two about it, but with no all-consuming [...]
[Guest Post] Your Workshop Story Is Probably Shit
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Today’s incendiary guest post comes from Tracy McCusker, former editor, published poet, and avowed pottymouth. There’s a certain kind of story that can be found hanging around self-published short story collections and small-press slush piles. This kind of story has a certain whiff about it. It’s verbose. It’s stylized. It’s littered with impossibly academic sentences. [...]
Dabbler or Disciple: How Serious Are You About Writing?
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Today’s guest post comes from Ruth over at Bullish Ink, who delivers some stern truths about the passion and drive the writing life requires. Do you want to be a writer or do you just want to write? Here’s the difference. Those who want to be a writer experience the Writing Life as an unquenchable [...]
Writing When You’re Sick, Tired, or Just Hate the World
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In a perfect universe, I’d begin every writing day with nine hours’ sleep, a perfectly brewed cup of coffee, nothing on my work schedule, and a gentle rainstorm to keep me from even thinking about going outside. I’d have a clearly formed idea, a flawless outline, and several unbroken hours to work. While I’m at [...]
The Lurking Fear
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Among the many stops on what I call the Road to Getting Serious About Writing is a frank conversation I had with a close friend many years ago. He had just finished assembling materials for a book idea he’d been kicking around for years, and admitted to me that he was nervous about starting. “Why?” [...]
