Write Fearlessly. Write Within Yourself
I’m not a big fan of AI, though it’s clearly here to stay. Also, admittedly, when I need, say, an image of an anthropomorphized duck with a monocle writing in an ancient journal – which, because of my enduring love of roleplaying games, I occasionally do – it’s pretty handy.
Read MoreWhen I decided as a young man that I wanted to write books professionally, my life, unbeknownst to me at the time, quickly became an ongoing lesson in acceptance and rejection.
Read MoreIt's not uncommon for a new writer to review their life and conclude that nothing they did was worthy of a story. Nothing was important enough or surprising enough or shocking enough.
Read MoreWithout interest and curiosity and excitement there’s no pleasure in doing anything.
Read MoreIt’s never too late. I know you can feel sometimes as if your best creative days are behind you, that without the furtive, twitchy energy of youth, nothing you write will be good enough, or that the whole process of looking for a publisher and then promoting your book you will just exhaust you the way the idea of raising little children again seems like signing up for bootcamp.
Read MoreA good story, I decided, shouldn’t preserve anything; it should carry us forward.
Read MoreThe circularity of our journey often nagged at me once we’d returned home. What were we doing with ourselves anyway? Where were we going?
Read MoreI had to break myself of a habit once I became self-employed. If I wanted, I could chuck every supposed responsibility and spend the entire day watching reruns of Seinfeld. I liked Seinfeld, but this doesn’t actually sound like a fun way to spend a day.
Read MoreIf you’re a writer, every time you sit down to work you choose – whether you acknowledge it or not – to face the unknown. That’s the only place you’ll find your story.
Read MoreI never want to be late, or rude, or bored, or angry, or tired, or scared, or depressed, but I do love to tell stories.
Read MoreOnly you know the ending to your story, and only you know who you love and what you love – and love, of course, the is most creative force in the universe.
Read MoreIt’s an inside-out world we live in. I know it doesn’t seem that way most of the time. Well, maybe it does when you’re writing.
Read MoreIf I’m smart, when I start a book, I don’t talk to anyone about it except my wife and my agent, and even then I don’t tell my agent anything about the book except that I’m writing it.
Read MoreYou know how it is when you’re in the zone. It doesn’t matter how long you’re in it, you know when you are, and it doesn’t get any better than that. It feels great, whether you’re writing or talking to a friend or dreaming of a new idea. You’re not worried about the future or mulling over the past, you’re just interested in what’s coming next.
Read MoreI grew up in the 70s and 80s, when guitar heroes were much more a thing than they are today.
Read MoreIf I look beyond the veil of appearance or wealth or labels like romance writer or poet or memoirist, I see someone much like me,
Read MoreThe best remedy for anxiety or despair is to turn to my curiosity.
Read MoreJust as I choose every word that goes on my page, and in so doing find my way to the story I want to tell, so too I have to choose peace again and again and again.
Read MorePublishing, however you do it, is how you really finish something.
Read MoreOn the other side of forgiveness is always appreciation of the very thing I resented and resisted and devalued.
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