If you have a map to take you from A to B, and B is not where it should be, sometimes you need to follow your nose. This is easier if you have road signs to follow, as one’s nose isn’t always reliable. And if there’s construction going on, well… good luck, pal. This is… Continue reading Readers Can Get Lost
Category: Writing
Celebrate Your Milestones
When you seriously undertake an endeavor, finding success is never immediate. It’s a long hard climb to the top, and sometimes you can lose sight of the ultimate goal. That’s why you set milestones for yourself. It could be finishing a chapter. Knocking out a round of edits. Sending out a given number of queries.… Continue reading Celebrate Your Milestones
Celebrate Relentlessness
This is going to be another one of those posts that’s as much a reminder to myself as it is to anybody else. During my abortive attempt to catch this morning’s train, my iShuffle offered up a song I haven’t heard in a while – KMFDM’s “Megalomaniac.” Even more so now than years ago when… Continue reading Celebrate Relentlessness
Pull The Trigger
Courtesy Terribleminds You have an idea. Something’s been on your mind that you’ve been wanting to express. It’s chased its tail around in your brainpan. It’s yapping and frothing at the mouth. You know what you need to do, but it’s just so cute sometimes to see the idea act this way, especially since you’ve… Continue reading Pull The Trigger
Professionals Have Standards
I’m getting old. There used to be a time when I let things slide. Mediocrity would slip right by me and I wouldn’t even notice. Or maybe I’d wave at it. My point is, I didn’t have standards. What I did was good, regardless of how good it actually was. Looking back, I shouldn’t have… Continue reading Professionals Have Standards
The Real Thing
I think e-readers are cool. I like the idea of not having to cart a bunch of books, even paperback ones, onto a plane where weight is always a factor in how much you can carry and how much of a pain in the ass you’ll be to the people behind you. But it’ll be… Continue reading The Real Thing
Choose Wisely
Dichotomies of personality are fascinating to me. Studying Jungian psychological theory and philosophy could eat up a great deal of my time and probably make my reviews of films like Dark City, Inception and even The Dark Knight more interesting. But I tend to be a lazy slacker, while wanting to do things that require… Continue reading Choose Wisely
Exploring Inspiration
We get inspiration from a variety of places. It might not even be intentional. We catch sight of something, hear a snippet of conversation or music, and suddenly our mind is off on an unexpected tangent. Inspiration runs away with our concentration, laughs at our attempts to focus and taunts us with ideas and dreams… Continue reading Exploring Inspiration
Preserve the Key Ingredient
Sometimes, you have to stop yourself and realize that something’s not quite right. You’ve got some great elements put together but the end result isn’t quite as good as it could have been. There’s nothing wrong with using chocolate and butter together, and butter compliments corn, but somehow you ended up with a chocolate and… Continue reading Preserve the Key Ingredient
One's Own Hype
I’m glad that the writing competition I mentioned yesterday has a deadline in August instead of its original, which would have been tomorrow. I think I have more work to do than I thought. Creative people in general, and writers in particular, need to take care when it comes to their own hype. It’s one… Continue reading One's Own Hype
