Category: Life

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Notes from a Season of Writing

Writing goes through its own seasons, much like life in general does. Right now I’m in a season of change. What was comfortable yesterday has become stifling. And what was safe and a source of pride has somehow morphed into a daunting obstacle. In the immortal words of Bruce Springsteen, I want to “change my clothes, my hair, my face” – and a few things besides. Actually it’s not about appearance at all. It’s about what’s going on under the hood. I’ve been slacking on my diet, I’ve been slacking on exercise, and with the resultant lack of energy, I’ve Read More …

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The Power of Validation

In my querying adventures I’ve come to a conclusion that probably doesn’t surprise anyone but myself: Social validation is a powerful little thing. I’ve never had more than an arm’s length interest in social media. The whole fishing for likes and retweets and friends has always seemed a little silly to me. But when an agent “liked” one of my pitches for one of the many pitch wars on Twitter, the dopamine hit was real. A hit of energy. A hit of hope. Of course my chances of anything coming of it are only slightly better than winning the lottery. Read More …

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Of Special Snowflakes

Whenever I talk to other writers, my first impulse is to be extremely impressed. They lay out their ideas, they talk about the stories they’re outlining, and my immediate assumption is that they’ve got a winner, that they’ll be published long before I ever will, and that they’re amazing. Sure, they probably are amazing. But in many cases they haven’t even written word one of that novel. All they’ve done is to set down a bunch of ideas on (real or virtual) paper, and to wax eloquent about it. And I automatically assume that they’re about to pen the next Read More …

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Whose Character Development Is It Anyway?

Reading fiction is about a lot more than just entertainment. And writing fiction is about a lot more than just story. It’s about putting imaginary people in imaginary situations and letting them figure out how to deal. Which really means that it’s you figuring it out while inhabiting the character. It’s not an easy thing to do, and more often than not you’ll default to your own gut reaction, and then you catch yourself. Wait a minute – this character would never do that. So you start over and come up with a different solution. Sometimes it takes many iterations Read More …

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The Ghost of Opportunities Lost

This past week was another powerful reminder of the transience of opportunity, and the dangers of procrastination. Several years ago I heard about a course that David Wolverton, a.k.a. David Farland, was teaching at BYU. Basically a full semester of instruction on how to write marketable books and make a career out of writing fiction, taught by a master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre. It sounded interesting, and I told myself that some day I might want to take that course. Then I forgot about it. When it came to my attention again in 2021, I had missed Read More …