Posts tagged writing
Are we overexposed?
Feb 26th
Let’s face it, the days of privacy are just about over. And who do we have to blame for their dismissal? Ourselves. First, we found each other on Myspace, connected on BeBo, facebooked long lost friends and tweeted daily activities. Now everyone’s buzzing with google. And in the future? Who knows. As they say, the possibilities are endless.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love social media just as much as the next guy. As you can see to your right, I’m a frequent tweeter tweet-head twitterer twip twit user of twitter. I have those updates posting to my facebook account, and now they also display to the few people I might’ve missed on Google Buzz. If you want to know what I like to read, you can check out my shared items on Google Reader, or the list of books I’m reading and have read on Shelfari. Maybe you want to hire me? You can see my professional information on LinkedIn. I also blog semi-regularly if you’re interested in my thoughts. Occasionally I even talk to people in real life!
What’s in a title?
Jun 8th
I’ve decided to start a series. I thought of a great name for it. I thought the name should be “Book Reviews of Books that have been Reviewed way too much.” But then I decided that was way too long, so I switched it to “Book reviews of books that have been reviewed 100 times.” It’s a little catchier, maybe, but still too long.
So I picked out a good thinking rock and I pondered, with one hand under my chin and my other arm draped across my knee. I sat that way for a while, just thinking and staring at the ground. Then it hit me.
“Book reviews of books you should’ve already read.” Thinner by two words, sleeker, shinier. But it still didn’t have that something, that oomph that makes you want to park and read through my thoughts on some classics. I needed something better. Something catchier.
You are what you read
Apr 20th
Apologies for my absence in general, things have been hectic lately.
I started classes over at Gotham Writers again, which is always a good thing because it gets me writing and it forces me to set aside time for reading, reviewing and studying the craft. The problem is I have two classes this time and the workload is heavier than I was expecting.
In short, I have one to two free nights per week that I can devote to classwork and enough work to last three or four nights. Mostly, this work involves reading. Reading assigned stories and novels, reading lectures from my noble instructors and reading the work of my peers.
Stephen King once said something like “if you want to be a writer you need to do two things: read a lot and write a lot.” Several other great writers have made similar statements about reading. If you’re learning, studying, and attempting to perfect a craft – shouldn’t you observe successful practitioners of the craft?
Inspiration and Editing
Mar 24th
I’ve been thinking about inspiration lately. A lot of writers get asked that famous question, where do you get your ideas from? I already spoke a little on my muse and how I like to write, but I don’t think I’ve spent much time on inspiration itself.
I get inspiration from all sorts of places. I get inspired when I read work from other writers. I get inspired when I’m in the shower or driving down the road or grocery shopping. I get inspired when I’m walking around in a book store. I get inspired when I’m dreaming.
I think inspiration is what drives us as writers. I think that’s when the magic happens. And it really is a sort of magic. We sit down and we write and we get to that place where the words are just spewing from somewhere we can’t even put our finger on and then when we step back we’re in awe at this beautiful creation and we can’t believe it’s not already sitting on the bestseller shelf at Walgreens. Then, later, we come back to that same piece and we scowl and we turn our head like someone has stepped in behind us and thrown up all over it. Inspiration clouds us, and yet, it’s where we get the raw material from.
Dreams
Mar 6th
An idea came to me last night in a dream. It was a story idea, of course, as I’m struck with them at almost any given moment without rhyme or reason. Usually I hunt out a pad and pen to scribble down whatever line of dialog or narrative hits me – but this time I thought about it for a while before I wrote it in my idea book.
I thought about how personal of a connection this one was. It deals with the thought I often have of finding my Father or visiting with him even though the last time I saw him was almost 7 years ago.
This isn’t the first time an idea struck me in this manner – on the contrary it happens quite often. I think it’s something that happens to a great many writers. I know that the popular story from Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame is that she awoke from a dream about the first book and set out to write it. That dream has certainly done well for her.
Ride into the Danger Zone
Feb 27th
Some of you may have thought of the movie Top Gun when you read that line, or perhaps of the artist Kenny Loggins, or perhaps it didn’t strike you at all. That may be one of those age revealing scenarios, but I think it fits the thought I had for this post quite well.
Being only 1 year old in 1986 when Top Gun hit theaters, I wasn’t there on opening night (or at least wasn’t aware of it if I was). But I did watch Top Gun at some point in the early 90’s and, being male, I watched it again and again and again. I believe the copy I had was a recorded VHS of an HBO airing. I didn’t really care about the plot (which isn’t too bad) or the characters (which weren’t too bad either), I was more concerned with the jets. And seeing things blow up.
On Co-authoring
Feb 9th
I know my posts have been slow coming lately, and I thought I should give you some insight as to why. Simply put, I’ve been working on something.
Of course by working I mean writing, so it’s not that I haven’t written anything in the last four weeks, just that I haven’t written anything here. The fact of the matter is I was chatting with a writing friend about a simm we were both enjoying in our spare time, and an idea hit us that was just so strong we felt we should pursue it. Four weeks later, we have about about 25,000 words of a novel down and we’re not slowing down anytime soon. The words have come easily and quickly, and the whole process has really worked well.
So what is this new venture you ask? Well I’m co-authoring a sci-fi romance with established e-book author Mina Carter. Yes, you read that correctly, a romance. Although I will validate it by saying there is a science fiction type space war going on in the background, the primary focus are the main characters and the chemistry between them. Is that such a bad thing? Although some spear-chucking, chilli-shovelling men might think so, I disagree. I think it represents a great opportunity for trying out a new medium, not to mention the very real possibility of placing work in a market that I can possibly expand in (e-book).
The Importance of Simming
Jan 15th
Today I want to reflect on something that is a fairly large part of my daily life, something that both fosters strong writing techniques and principles but resides in relative obscurity from the writing world’s radar. That something is known as simming, an activity that has been around (according to wikipedia) for over 20 years but has yet to make a large enough impact on the web world to be a well known phenomenon, like social networking sites or internet dating.
Simming, which most likely grew out of off-line role playing games that date further back, is really just a game played via chat, forum, or e-mail where players collectively write a story from their respective character’s point of view. In other words, the organizer (GM or Game Master/Manager) sets a story in motion with their character and other players develop a character or characters to tell a certain part of the story as it would happen to them. Usually, simming is based on an established television or movie series (think Star Trek or Star Wars) and as such is regarded as fan fiction – a general dislike of the writing community.
New post for the new year
Jan 6th
Happy New Year everyone. And, well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays as well. I haven’t checked in for a while and that’s because, well, I haven’t had time. The holidays have been quite busy, vacation wasn’t long enough, and now we’re all back at work and/or school.
So let’s get all the updates in. First of all, I finished my two seasons of Fantasy Football, missing the playoffs in the ESPN league and finishing third in the Yahoo! league.
I got lots of clothes, a new game, a cool clock, and some other miscellaneous items for Christmas – all of which I have yet to fully unpack and put away.
Top 5 ways to know you’re a writer
Dec 15th
Maybe you’re a scribbler of poetry or fiction, maybe you’re just an avid reader with a writing twinkle in your eye, maybe you’ve just always had an inkling to write something on a page. Whatever the case may be, I’ve spent some time this weekend thinking about some ways you can tell if you’re a writer. Now, I don’t claim that this pole is the be-all or end-all, but as far as this website is concerned – it is. 
And here we go:
The #5 way to know you’re a writer: You scribble plot notes on any kind of recordable surface you can find at any given moment.
I know I’m guilty of this, but when the idea hits you got to write it down or it will be gone. I have a tiny notebook filled with ideas and fragments of scenes. They hit me like bolts of lightning – fast and powerful. If I don’t record them my muse will gobble them as fast as the remaining chapters of my 2 un-finished novels and I’ll never see them again. Gasp! My best personal example? Just after I gave blood last (yes, I’m a type O hero) a thought struck and I wrote out some plot notes on my donor sheet – the only paper in my immediate vicinity.
