Today I spent some time looking at my big-picture timetable for some of my current writing projects. I don’t remember if I’ve given the matter serious consideration before; it’s so terribly easy to let the struggle for a daily rhythm become all-important. I have other issues with big-picture planning that tend to deter me, but... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: Eustress, You Say?
Eustress, You Say? I’m told there are two different kinds of stress, one healthy and one unhealthy. At the moment, I can’t really see a difference between the two. Anyone who has been following this blog (or any of my various Internet efforts, for that matter) knows that my newest book, Makkarios: Come Together,... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: Directing My Own Funeral
Any time I deal with people, I find that an event that normally would have nothing whatsoever to do with me suddenly takes over my life. I suppose that’s why I don’t like dealing extensively with people. My routine this week got overthrown by an unexpected event of the previous week. One of my coworkers... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: The World Turned On Its Head
One each appointed day (multiples of seven, if you hadn’t noticed), I’ve been trying to cultivate the habit of coming home from work, turning on my computer, and putting together each post for this blog before I do anything else. Today, I had such a soul-sucking day that I just couldn’t write. Sometimes when this... Continue Reading →
The Bivalve Outside Its Natural Habitat
Keeping things short today, because I think I know how to get my current project from point E to point F, which has been the subject of considerable thought lately. What’s hindering me today? My own personality and temperament, in many ways. I always suspected that I was my own biggest hindrance, and now I’m... Continue Reading →
Pull The Plug
Technology has been my bane this week. My mp3 player died after a long decline. My DSL modem is following close in its wake—in fact, I had doubts whether it would last long enough for me to post this safely. The mp3 player I can survive without, although I’ve discovered just how accustomed I am... Continue Reading →
Mid-Course Corrections and Endings
I can hardly believe that, when I turn out the light to sleep tonight, there will be only nine days left of the month. Nine days left to steer my NaNoWriMo experiment into some sort of harbor. That fact dawned on me yesterday—I’ve been so caught up writing each chapter that I lost sight of... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: Multi-tasking
Firstly, I have to say that I’m still enjoying NaNoWriMo, though I am currently about 500 words behind schedule. I keep hitting that point where I have to choose between writing and eating with clean spoons. When one writes at a normal pace, mundane necessities of this sort fall into place around each other; at... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: NaNoWriMo, banzai!
I’m reluctant to use the word ‘irony,’ mainly because it has been so abused in common usage as to have lost most of its impact. At the same time, I hesitate over the word ‘paradox,’ due to a similar objection: it is wielded often enough, but seldom by people who have more than a vague... Continue Reading →
“Read Me!”
Speaking of contributing to the noise, today I’m wrapping up the process of putting another novella on Kindle. It has occurred to me that creative writing courses might be considered negligent for not dealing with the business side of writing. At least, none that I took in college said a blessed peep about the subject.... Continue Reading →
Noise
I needed two weeks to work this one out. This topic deserves more than one post, so I expect I’ll revisit it sometime in the near future. The topic is NOISE. Noise hinders me as a writer more consistently than probably any other aspect of life. Right now, I am alone in the house where... Continue Reading →
The Spiral
Often I find flesh-and-blood people, with a precious few exceptions, to be far inferior to fictional ones. It’s as if they try to be one-dimensional. If only literal people put as much effort into character development as a good writer puts into developing a literary character…. I’ve given this post the title “Spiral” because... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: Family
I’ve said before that people exhaust me, but I ought to qualify that statement. There are a few people who don’t. I have a great family, not so much in terms of membership numbers but rather in terms of quality. That is to say, few as they are, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. That’s... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned” : Health
I’d like it known that I feel lousy today. I’m on the second day of a (usually) three-day migraine. Well, I call it a migraine, but the symptoms are a little idiosyncratic—but that’s beside the point right now. For more than two days now, I’ve been dragging myself around like a half-drowned cat, looking pathetic... Continue Reading →
“Slowly I Turned”: Day Jobs and Interruptions
No question about it—my day job provides the biggest hindrance to my writing. The job and I are deeply unsuited for one another. One reason: I can never find any time to myself. I’m an introvert in the extreme. People drain the energy right out of me. I need to withdraw in order to regain... Continue Reading →
H. M. Snow, Fantasy Novelist 