Well, I got it. Writer’s block. I’m at the finale of the story. In video game terms, I need a final dungeon, a perilous place that challenges the hero and put him in extreme danger. Much more that than any area previously explored. Now, I know that transferring mediums is not always a smooth process. What works in video games might not work on the written page. But the concept is sound. Unfortunately, I’m having trouble visualizing the dungeon without platforming properties (the whole room rotating on a hub, pitfalls, swinging from hook to hook in a bottomless room, etc). I’ll work through it ..read more

I decided that Chased By Flame didn’t do enough with the theme of time travel. So I began writing a piece that has my character Mykel getting thrown back in time into multiple timelines (essentially reliving the same week over and over a la Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day). I constructed four different timelines that have the same writing but altered little details so it’s a different story in each timeline. My plan is to have a total of four different timelines, all leading to a specific point. I just finished the first timeline and on my way towards the second. I’m very excited about this becaus ..read more

I’ve decided to follow a new philosophy (well, new for me, anyway)> I think a day can go smoothly if you have a goal at the end. Work goes faster if you have something to look forward to later. Whatever that’s a TV show, time spent with friends and family, or even a round of video gaming, I find myself looking forward. It gives me a certain purpose. It gives me structure (how I divide my time around that end goal). Even my writing has improved. People in my writing group are responding to my chapters. I know I might be preaching to the choir here (most of the world probably already know thi ..read more

I got a great idea. I think I have a way to have both plot points I’ve been juggling for days to occur. Both of them. How? Time travel. Plus, if this works, then I’ll be able to take some additional ideas from the story’s original manuscript and use them in the same fashion. It’s going to be tricky because it involves time travel. I’ll have to work hard to make it understandable (as much as you can understand a fictional science). I still don’t know if it will work. But I’m more excited than I’ve been in a long time. Here’s hoping ..read more

I save everything I write. I have notes on scenarios that ultimately didn’t make the cut. They’re brilliant pieces of work, but they’re not in the right style or they don’t fit the characters’ personalities. So I save them. They serve as reference points, something to examine to jump-start the writing should the need for such scenarios come up. Some writers say that writing around certain pre-written scenarios, that rewriting drafts should be like starting from scratch. I have no problem with that. Sometimes the piece is more organic if its re-written this way. But ideas and proposals and scen ..read more

When I wrote my first fantasy novel, my goal was to create a fantasy that appealed to everybody (more specifically the people I went to high school with). Not only did I realize that my friends were not big readers, but my plotline required an education on the sacred science fiction concept of time travel. My family had no idea about the nuances and tiny details that came attached to a fictional science. I realized I had to change my message. Writers should write what they love. They shouldn’t compromise their vision of their fictional worlds for anything. Yet without compromise, there’s littl ..read more

Just because a writer has a plotline that is undoubtedly one of the most creative pieces in that writer’s career, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s usable. Does it achieve a dramatic hook? Yes. Does it have the readers on the edge of their seats? Yes. But you can’t use it. Why? Because it forces a character into situations that he cannot handle. In my example, a wizard is imprisoned because he was forced to use magic to save a burning library (in my example magic is outlawed). The wizard goes to jail, which forces the apprentice to take on his duties (among which acting as a mediator with certain ..read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about philosophy lately. One of my favorite fantasy novels, the Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind, has philosophy in abundance. Lately, I’ve been pondering the Wizard’s First Rule: People are stupid. They will believe anything if they want to believe it or they are afraid of it. I found that very true. I am only smart enough to know I stupid I really am. I do stupid things every day. Everybody does. It’s part of being human. By embracing our humanity, we forgive ourselves for the mistakes we make, and then are able to move on. But I also found a deeper meaning in t ..read more

A story is like riding a bucking bronco. You can control it, but at some point, it’s going to go where it wants to go. As Robert Jordan said of his (originally planned six-book series) “The tale grew in the telling.” Some might say an author has great skills because he/she knows how to handle the story. Again, I believe that the idea only goes so far. Creativity, by definition, is spontaneous, wild, random. So the writer is linked with the reader, in that they’re both enjoying the ride. But the writer must beware. If there’s too little control, then the story gets out of hand. The characters d ..read more

An author’s worst enemy is forgetfulness. I can’t tell you how many times I came upon a great idea and didn’t write it down in time. A great idea can unify the storyline, can provide an ending that represents all the hard work you’ve put into the story and bring it to a level of satisfaction that every writer — no, every artist — can spend lifetimes hoping to achieve. That happened to me recently. I have to work backward with the scraps of memory I have left to compose a satisfying narrative, but I know that whatever I cobble together will be inferior to the original idea that came to me. So t ..read more