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The Organised Writer

Antony Johnston is a working writer—he worked on Dead Space, and his comic The Coldest City became the Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde. He wrote up his methods in a book called The Organised Writer, which I’ve read twice. This isn’t really a book on … →

February 14th, 2023 #writing

Cow tools

I bought Antony Johnston’s The Organised Writer and have read it twice, so far. Inspired by his system, I’ve taken to organizing most things around the house. Also, pandemic and all, it has to get done sometime. A compilation of tools. Handwriting Papermate … →

February 5th, 2021 #writing #organization

The year in THE WIRE ROAD

2020 has been a rough one. Hell, there’s seven days left for it to really wreck us, so keep your guard up. The routine that got thoroughly disrupted was my writing routine. Starting in 2019, I got up every morning at 5:30 (weekends included), showered, … →

December 24th, 2020 #writing #personal #wire road

AAAAAH

I am very proud to announce that my short story, “Ritual,” ( https://madvillepublishing.com/product/runaway/ text: won first place) in Madville Publishing’s Runaways anthology competition! The anthology comes out in Spring 2020—Madville’s aiming for March—and … →

January 22nd, 2020 #writing #published

Progress

My wife pointed me to a literary magazine requesting short story submissions. I had a piece she thought would be perfect for the theme. I agreed, and I started looking for it. This led to converting a lot of my old writing to more current formats. Which also … →

April 13th, 2019 #writing #personal

Novelty

It’s easy to go big when you’re thinking about starting new habits. That’s a mistake. Changing everything all at once means you’ve lost your stability. You need to make small changes first, let them become habits, and then repeat. That’s what I’ve discovered, … →

February 9th, 2019 #writing

Writing down the road

The cliche is real. I started writing The Wire Road because of a dream. That’s half-true. I started writing it because of a dream, and then also a road sign on the interstate. The dream provided the inspiration for the protagonist and his quest. The dream was … →

May 29th, 2018 #writing #wire road

A postmortem

November was not a great month. We were all set to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in a decade I wasn’t working retail. We had set the itinerary, told the families, and packed the car. Tuesday night my daughter got sick. Wednesday, I got sick. Friday, it was … →

December 11th, 2017 #writing

NaNoWriMo progress

National Novel Writing Month is upon us. The official challenge is 1,700 words a day for 30 days, leading up to a 50,000 word first draft. I’m playing it a little differently. I want to get back on the horse and make writing a daily habit. My target, at least … →

November 2nd, 2017 #writing

Writing around the story

I don’t like “worldbuilding.” The word is unnecessary. All writing is construction, from the sentence to the scene. And all writing, all of it, requires placement. Making up a portmanteau for something every writer does already is both unnecessary and … →

January 20th, 2017 #writing