Here I go for my last NaNo hurrah. I won’t finish this one, nor will it be 25,000 words long, thank all that’s good and holy. But it will be my last shot at reaching 50k.

The story looks fun so far. I hope you enjoy the excerpt.

Read more… »

I’ve seen a disturbing trend of Merc-dom on the net lately. But I just can’t believe she turned Engadget to her cause. This latest installment is just too much to bear.

Don’t believe it! Merc is not here to dance. She’s definitely not “here to boogie”.

Merc desires only to DOMINATE and ENSLAVE all life.  She will steal all your readers and, when finished absorbing their fandome, suck out their eyes so they never read another author.

Save your readers now! If you can…

If you aren’t a fan of Janet Reid’s blog, you may not have read this yet. As she demands, go read it.

What do you see?

I’ve decided to take a bit of my own advice. If I’m going to keep a blog, it might as well move the world a bit. I’ll be posting these howls frequently, at least monthly, hopefully weekly.

What do you see when you look at this tree? If you’re most people, you see a sapling sprouting from a dead stump.

If you’re an artist, be your vehicle paint, words, or movements of the body, then you must see far beyond this.

It’s a provoking picture is it not? A question. A journey. A death and a rebirth. There was a struggle, one that was lost. But from that loss a seed was planted. A new journey began. A sapling was born in the flowing waters of the river, with an uncertain future and a harsh past. It is a beautiful, perfectly chaotic, and yet orderly conflict with infinite permutations of possibility, all waiting for the artist to see beyond the skein of linear events.

It’s a story waiting to be told, but it’s also a metaphor of the artists’ life. We will suffer trials and defeats. We will look into the tapestry of our life and see deep undercurrents, failings, conflicts, and events beyond our control.

But they must not frighten us. Our defeats (as only the novice labels such opportunities) must not be our end.  Instead, we are reborn into something more spectacular and more beautiful. In each examination of the moment, we find deeper undercurrents and conflicts. And we perch serenely atop of them, riding the storm of life, and continue to grow. We feed our creative energy and plant strong roots by developing ourselves in every aspect of being. We ride the storm.

And in this, our lives become the ultimate masterpiece. The ultimate landscape from which the artists who follow us will model their early works and hone their talents.

And so I invoke you. Pick up your brush and set it to work on your canvas. Create your masterpiece. And remember, at each moment of your work, to see deeper into the beauty of conflict. Look deeper into the rejuvinating power of setbacks. Be thankful for the obstacles dropped in your path and see the wonderful paths they unlock for you.

Your Assignment (should you choose to accept it):

Sit down right now and write 200 words about turning a setback into an opportunity–fictional, historical, or memior are all fine. And, no, it can’t be about Thomas Edison and his thousand failures before he created a light bulb. Have fun exploring.

Alright all you Critique Circle and gamer addicts. Finally a tool for you.

Slife records not only which applications you use on your computer, but how long you spend on specific websites and emails. It can give you a good marker for how much time you are spending writing vs. browsing forums, twittering vs. nano-ing.

It also allows you to put a limit on how long you spend in an app or web site on a given day.

So why chart how you spend your time? Just like budgeting your money and tracking your expenses, it encourages you to use it more wisely. It’s easy not to think about how much time or money we spend on a certain distraction, but when it’s in front of you, and you can see that it’s taking up a third of your time and money, it’s hard to ignore.

And by nature, we’re competitive creatures. We like to achieve things. If you can just get that “writing bar” to top 100…

It’s completely private and customizable in what it records. It’s also free.

I totally want to write a story about a sewage diver after reading this article.

Though I think that the gastroenterologist probably wins my vote for quirkiest and most awkward MC.

Crown Plaza hotels says it’s around 10pm. I find that I’m most creative around 10am (as soon as I’m deep into my day job and can’t exploit it!). That’s right, being contained or suppressed or forced to do something not creative brings out my most fantastic musings.

There’s not much I can do with that, but realizing it is still a fantastic thing. I can make a concerted effort to jot down whatever pops into my head during those times and store them for later. Maybe even steal a bit of that creative juice.

How about you? When are you most creative?

It’s amazing how closely the characters in Under the White mirror my NaNo struggle. Seems like we’re all slogging through the white together, just trying to keep our heads on.

My writing has certainly slowed a bit this week, with work and other interferences. But I’ll be plowing ahead again in the week to come, trying to make up some words. I think I’m only around 18k now.

Click the read more link to check out an excerpt about Thorn and Eril’s journey through the white.

Read more… »

Wow, this is great, inspiring material for writers. And, beyond that, it’s great stuff that we don’t really think about as a people (because it’s not particularly pleasant).

Go read about 10 very awesome ways the world could end (or you could write a great sci-fi story about your galaxy).

Writing is such a strange art…

You make up characters in your mind, give them personalities, and watch them come to life.

Then, inevitably, they spend the rest of their fabricated lives thwarting you and disagreeing with what you tell them to do. (It’s no wonder authors are so fond of killing them.)