Heinlein’s rules for the digital age

I’ve been thinking a lot about Heinlein’s rules and how they apply to my own writing career.  While a lot of newer writers like to debate Heinlein, all of the long-time professionals tend to agree with him.  For that reason, I think it’s worth taking a serious look at his rules and doing my best… Continue reading Heinlein’s rules for the digital age

Managing excitement and an idea for an epic fantasy novel

After getting about 40% through Star Wanderers 1.0, I hit a wall and decided to put the project on the back burner for now.  The beginning part, which I’m hoping to shop around as a novelette, has some issues with it and those are keeping me from making any real progress in the rest of… Continue reading Managing excitement and an idea for an epic fantasy novel

Thoughts on outlining

I’m on track to finish my fifth novel in a couple days, and surprisingly, the writing has been going very smoothly. Usually by this point, my eyes are bleeding and I feel as if I have a hundred caltrops in my pants.  Finishing a rough draft is still the hardest part for me, since by… Continue reading Thoughts on outlining

Killing the sacred cows while doing data entry

Sorry for the lack of blog posts; I’ve been working 40 hours a week at this temp job, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things outside of writing.  I’m still plugging along at about 1k to 2k words per day, but a lot of other stuff is falling behind.  Fortunately, the job… Continue reading Killing the sacred cows while doing data entry

Change of plans

So I was going to start Edenfall this week…but then, I realized I wanted to spend some more time in the universe of Worlds Away from Home, so I decided to work on Into the Nebulous Deep instead. ITND is a direct sequel to Mercenary Savior.  Basically, it grew out of the realization that James’s… Continue reading Change of plans

Writing update, getting ready for LTUE, & Katniss must DIE

So I’m back at work at WAFH, making slow but steady progress.  At this point, I’m throwing out about half of what’s on the page and redrafting stuff to fill in the gaps, but that’s only going to increase. It’s not particularly hard, but it does take a lot out of me.  I’m finding that… Continue reading Writing update, getting ready for LTUE, & Katniss must DIE

Major project shift

I’ve got this goal to finish my current work-in-progress, To Search the Starry Sea, by May 1st 2010.  However, the deeper I get into the story, the more I realize how many problems it has–how much it sucks, in other words. Normally, this wouldn’t keep me from dropping the project or putting it on hold.… Continue reading Major project shift