I once went to a book signing of a prominent author (someone quite famous and established, but I won’t name-drop). As the last one in line to get his signature, I was surprised and pleased when he said, “Looks like you’re the last one. Tell you what, I’m starving, let’s go get a bite to…
Tag: inspiration
Time
I’m in the process of cleaning up Gary Reilly’s ninth Asphalt Warrior novel before sending it off to our eagle-eyed editor for the thorough polish. If you don’t know, Gary Reilly was a close friend of mine who had one story published in his lifetime—in 1977. That story, The Biography Man, was published in The Iowa…
Real Writer Life Top 10
1. Check out this fantastic piece in The New Yorker on the land-based writing habits (and more) of Herman Melville. Melville felt he had all of Moby Dick in his head and just needed to write it down. By the way, if you’re writing fiction, I hope you know you already belong to the same…
The Immediacy of Action
Writing an action sequence is a unique part of writing. All of the rest of writing—setting a scene, establishing a character, revealing an epiphany, etc.—are all different as well. But they are clear siblings of each other. Action stands apart from all the others as much as a raven sitting on a wire amidst blue…
Sharpen the Saw
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey calls it “sharpening the saw.” In the vernacular of the origin story, “We’re too busy writing to get better at writing.” I think it’s not just the writing that’s the problem, just like it’s not the erstwhile lumberjack’s saw that’s the problem. It’s his perspective….