You know, as I listen to artists talk about art, it seems like they're all afraid. I say artist (or writer), because that's what aspiring artists and writers most commonly call themselves. It's not what I call myself, but I've explained that already. I sat next to a lady on the plane who talked to another lady about being an artist. "I'm an artist" she kept saying. And about any quirks - "must be … [Read more...]

Some of the advice I hear given to would-be writers (I never look like I'm open to advice, so I only catch about 5% of what most of them do), is stuff I find incredibly harmful. Toxic, even. Outright poison. I'll choose [this list] because there's some good stuff in it - but I'd count about half of it harmful. Just a few examples: "Write for 24-hours straight." That's a recipe for seriously … [Read more...]

I'm sorry, but I think most critique/review based writers groups are a way to get people to read your stuff and talk about it without actually having to publish it. I just won't go. Besides, why would I care what this or that random group of strangers says? I prefer King's attitude - show it to people you already know like the things you like, whose tastes you've learned to trust. The other thing … [Read more...]

OK, you're right, you can't write a book. Now that's decided. So write a scene. You can write one scene, can't you? Then, after that, write what had to happen before, and what has to happen after. Even then, you don't have to write all of it - just the beginning and end. If the story is whole and coherent, OK, then you can write short stories. If it's not, write another in-between scene, and check … [Read more...]

Eventually there will be pruning, and perhaps chunking the thing into parts, but that's a different act. As far as the writing goes, I'm treating it like the way I talk - if there's still more to tell, I'm not finished. … [Read more...]

I figured it out. The reason I'm motivated to put comment guidelines in place on my other blogs (e.g. "not all comments get published - the default is 'not published' - like anything else in the writing world") and efficiently (brutally if necessary) repel polemics in social media, is that I'm basically designed to write creatively. It's one thing to put up with dishonest attacks in a poly-sci … [Read more...]

Food for writing, namely the reading a writer does, is like a musician's familiarity with music as an ongoing historical reality. A musician steeped in the tradition as tradition, Motown, Townes Van Zandt, and so on, might have the capacity to be a Bob Dylan instead of merely imitate him or worse - become part of the ephemera of the moment, and not even an age. So the writer who eats some Dumas … [Read more...]

Writing requires the habit of taking what you are doing seriously. I don't know how else to get anything done. … [Read more...]

All true stories are the telling of one true story. … [Read more...]

A story can be three pages and feel long, or be 30 pages and you zip right through it. A story should always be (only) as long as it needs to be in order to be what it is. Unless the publisher needs a different length - then you have to murder it. Caveat: That said, a short story is 14 major scenes. Why?: Because that's the number of scenes in the short story I'm writing. When I'm writing … [Read more...]