Walt Disney hooked me on storytelling – at six, I walked out of The Apple Dumpling Gang wishing I could tell stories of my own. Isaac Asimov turned those daydreams into a mission – at twelve, I read Asimov on Science Fiction and realized I want to be a writer.
Writing is the most pivotal human activity! Broad brush, humans conquered fire a million years ago, tools half a million years ago, articulate speech fifty thousand years ago – but it wasn’t until we could capture our thoughts and pass them on to people far from us in space and time that humanity really started to expand across the planet.
But writing didn’t stop at counting cows and recording lineages – creative writing is the most pivotal kind of writing there is! Humans learn about the world by sharing narratives, not just of what we’ve learned, but of what we might become – so the creation of sustained, realistic, compelling narratives is one of the most important things any human can do.
So, ever since I read Asimov on Science Fiction and realized I could be a writer myself, I’ve been on a mission: to promote creative writing in all its forms, and to help you realize you can be a writer too.
Pictured: The Night of Writing Dangerously.
Posts About Writing
[twenty twenty-four day one one seven]: still behind
Well, not as far behind as I’ve ever been, but, still, not good progress on Camp Nano this month. Quite a hill to climb, or, in this case, build. Onward!…
[twenty twenty-four day one one five]: prioritizing wordcount
Way behind on word count, please enjoy this picture of sushi at One Flew South in the Atlanta airport. Lots of work to do, not much time left to do…
[twenty twenty-four day one oh eight]: entitle me, bro
Not much time to post today – flying out to Clockwork Alchemy, where I am the Author Guest of Honor. But, it’s still Camp Nanowrimo, and I had wordcount to…
[twenty twenty-four day one oh five]: going back to victoriana
Hey folks! I’ve got just a quick post for you now, because I need to go heads down on Jeremiah Willstone #2, CITADEL OF GLASS, for Camp Nanowrimo. Prepping to…
[twenty twenty-four post seventy-nine]: aheadiness
When you need to solve a problem, it’s generally too late to learn how to solve the problem. Contra Iron Man’s assertion “I learned that last night,” it’s simply not…
[twenty twenty-four day sixty-three]: all growed up
So! Thinking Ink Press has been around for aaaalmost a decade now, and we seem to be getting some of our proverbial shit together. Presented as a case in point:…
[twenty twenty-four day fifty-eight]: the seven-part story test
So I’ve developed a new tool for story analysis that my co-editor on The Neurodiversiverse, Liza Olmsted, called “your seven-part story test,” and it fits in one long sentence: “Who…
[twenty twenty-four day fifty-three]: you can’t predict edits
So I’m done with the bulk of my first-round edits for The Neurodiversiverse, and I can report that you can’t predict how long an edit letter is going to take.…
[twenty twenty-four day thirty-seven]: editors have superpowers …
Editors have superpowers, but you can’t save everybody. One of Ayn Rand’s most useful distinctions for writers is between abstractions and the concretes that realize them. She’s obviously not the…
[twenty twenty-four day thirty]: the questions i now ask
As a writer, it’s important to have humility – no matter how enthusiastic you are about your work, there’s no guarantee that it will land the way that you want…
