• Pen case

    Too Many Words About Fountain Pens

    I get back to posting and immediately take a break to talk about fountain pens for about a thousand words.

    Tags: writing, pens

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  • Shut up and write.

    The Intervention, or Killing My Darlings With Help

    You need to kill your darlings. Good friends will line them up in front of the firing squad for you.

    Tags: writing, process

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  • Skull pipe

    Why I Write Horror (and Children’s Stories)

    I seem like a generally well-adjusted, kind person, so I normally get asked pretty quickly why I write horror. I have reasons (and it’s not just a fertile imagination).

    Tags: writing, fiction, horror

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  • Shepard at the door

    Another Season, Another Schedule

    I love my schedule. It gives me guardrails, and I need it. I also need to be flexible enough to throw the whole thing out and make a new one every few years (or months).

    Tags: writing, creating

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  • Rough Draft

    What I Learned Finishing My First Novel Rewrite

    The rough draft of my novel took just five months. The first rewrite took over a year. I learned a few things in the process.

    Tags: writing, process

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  • Lamy 2000

    That Magic Moment (That’s Surrounded by Work)

    There is a magical moment, one that happens at least once per finished piece of writing, when I know that something needs to be written, and why. It takes work to get there, but it’s the most important moment in my writing process.

    Tags: writing, process

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  • Wurlitzer

    Music for Writing

    I’m taking a break from writing to talk about writing… specifically, how music makes everything better.

    Tags: process, writing, music

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  • Shep with headphones

    The One About Headphones

    I’m taking a break from my novel to talk about something I care deeply about: headphones and adding a soundtrack to writing.

    Tags: music, writing

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  • Outdoor Writing Setup

    My iPad Pro is My Favorite Writing Tool

    I have been thinking a lot about how I use my iPad for writing because I don’t have my iPad right now. I had to send it in for repairs after incident with my son and some hot chocolate, and now I'm enumerating the ways it has been great for my writing.

    Tags: writing, tools

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  • Rough Draft

    The Push

    This weekend, I finished the rough draft of my first novel, and it wrapped up (one of many) big pushes I have experienced trying to get any big project across the finish line. This time, I made notes for my future self.

    Tags: writing, process, novels

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  • Cousin Time

    Holiday Writing

    I wrote every day over the holidays, and ended up finding the joy of “margin” to be less stressed going forward.

    Tags: writing

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  • Cappuccino SF

    My Winter 2020 Writing Schedule

    For those interested, this post is a “behind-the-scenes” look at one of things I'm doing to crank out about 6k-7k words/week toward my novel (and none of this counts).

    Tags: writing, process

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  • Qwerkywriter S

    New Book Sneak Peek

    Okay, so this is different, but I thought it would be fun to put out a sneak peek of one of the chapters I was just working on for my book.

    Tags: book, writing, horror, Bible

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  • Jeremy and a Pipe

    NaNoWriMo and How I Quit Before it Began

    This year, I signed up for — and then quit — NaNoWriMo in all of twenty-four hours.

    Tags: writing, creating

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  • Keychron K1

    A Short Dissertation on Mechanical Keyboards

    Seeing as I've been busy working on my first novel, I thought I'd take a break from trying to be creative or inspirational to sing the praises of my favorite keyboards.

    Tags: keyboards, review, gear, writing

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  • Outdoor Writing Setup

    Why I’m Trying to Write Fiction

    So, I’m trying to write fiction again after… many years, and it feels scary, new, and interesting all at once.

    Tags: writing

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  • Writing process screenshot

    My Writing Process

    I documented my writing and creative process for “cross-training” at work.

    Tags: old stuff, writing, process, video

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