Now Reading
Planned books:
- Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt 2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- A Dance with Dragons (Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin
Current books:
-
After America by John Birmingham
Recent books:
- The King of the Crags: The Memory of Flames, Book II by Stephen Deas
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
- The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company (Chronicles of the Black Company) by Glen Cook
- Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook
- Neverwhere: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
Now Watching
Planned movies:
None
Current movies:
-
![Let’s Kill Hitler [HD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hESmStH-L._SL160_.jpg)
Let’s Kill Hitler [HD] by Unknown
Recent movies:
- Fringe: The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray] by Unknown
- Castle: Seasons 1 by Bill Roe, Bryan Spicer, David Barrett, Dwight H. Little, Helen Shaver
- Unstoppable [Blu-ray] by Tony Scott
- The Walking Dead: Season One [Blu-ray] by Frank Darabont
-
Category Archives: Struggles with the Craft
Gardening vs. Plotting
There’s always been an insatiable amount of curiosity about writers and their methods. It’s one of the first questions asked of an author during an interview. Whether it makes the final cut or not depends greatly on the answer, and … Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
1 Comment
Common Writer Mistakes
A recent blog post by Agent Kristin on the Pub Rants blog gives ten common new writer mistakes when sending submissions to agents. Click through to see the full list. I’ve made it to a complete read of my novel … Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
Leave a comment
Pending Submissions Page
I’d like to call your attention to a new page on the site (accessed by the “Pages” pull down menu above) that tracks my current submissions. I’ve committed to being more intentional about tracking my metrics. To date, I’m somewhere … Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
Leave a comment
A Writer’s Life
I recently spoke with an old friend from college who I haven’t spoken with in about six years. The conversation went something like this: Old Friend: So…I hear you’re a writer now? Me: (hesitant) Yes. OF: Cool. Where are you … Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft
4 Comments
Revisions and Rewrites – When to Say When
If you look over in the sidebar, you’ll see that there are three completed novels there. One of them, Loss of Innocence was the first full-length novel I wrote. A portion of it is serialized here on the site, but … Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
2 Comments
First Person Point of View
I’m writing a new novel that is 85% completed. I haven’t given it a title yet, but the file name of the document is “Thomas the Loan Adjuster.” Let’s start there. The novel evolved out of a desire to attempt … Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft
1 Comment
Reasons to be a Writer
I’m exploring some reasons why people want to be writers. In my particular case, not all of these reasons apply, although I have to say the first and second items in the list are particularly compelling. Number seven also tends to resonate a little too much with me. Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
3 Comments
Summary for Query Letter
Here’s the summary of the novel that I’m hoping to include in the query letters to agents. The instructions that I’ve received from various sources tell me that the description needs to be short, concise, and give potential readers a good idea about the content of the book. I need to know if you, as potential readers, would read a book given this description. If not, why not? Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
6 Comments
And for my next trick…
I’m going to be revisiting my first completed novel, which was titled Loss of Innocence. It started as a serial right here on this site at the launch of my blog (way back in 2006). I had initially conceived it as a near-earth military science fiction novel. It’s only as I’ve grown as a writer in the past few years that I’m able to recognize the work for what it is–abysmally bad. Continue reading
Posted in Struggles with the Craft, Writing
2 Comments
Female Characters, Point of View, and Pete
Pete attended a writer’s workshop this past weekend, wherein he learned that he’s great at plot, he’s a man of subtlety with male characters, but the female viewpoint continues to elude him. He also has point of view issues in several places because he wants to spoon-feed the reader too much information. Continue reading
Posted in Cons, Struggles with the Craft, Writing
13 Comments