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This week, I've been considering the origins of ideas. Where do story ideas come from? Do they emerge organically while buttering toast or doing some other rote action? Or do they require effort? A mining of earth, perhaps. Every writer is different. I know, I know. If I were some guru that knew how to do marketing very well and could easily wield hashtags and capcut in the same way that I approach metaphors and poetic forms, perhaps I'd be in a shifted position. Not theorizi

In this world, the more we do, the more we work, the more money we siphon into our bank account, the more accomplished we can feel. Writing for three hours straight. Working the day job, then writing. Waking up early, before the sunrise, just to write, then putting in a whole day of childcare or desk work or whatever work you need to get done--the more we do, the more we succeed. At least, that's the definition of success in this country. But I would posit that there are some

If you're a writer, you must be on a glorious mind vacation if you've never heard of AI. AI is everywhere. If it's not in the oddly specific, too-perfect, ranging into the uncanny valley advertisements, then it's in the all-hands office meetings in which stakeholders discuss a company's trajectory. It's in cautionary tales of employment seeking, jobs that seem too good to be true and, when the recruiter asks a candidate to complete an AI screening interview, one realizes it i

Imagine your favorite story (mine is a forever toss up between Jurassic Park-- book or movie-- Silence of the Lambs, The Empire Strikes Back, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, or The Catcher in the Rye ). To be honest, I could keep going, but I digress. Take one of your favorite stories, we'll use The Empire Strikes Back for this example. Looking at the story, it is firmly told from Luke Skywalker's point of view. Sure, there are moments where we drift into Princess Leia

There will be days when no words emerge. Writing is a walk, a pilgrimage through the crevices of existence (and learning where your own soul dovetails with them). The walk lasts your entire life, if you choose to accept the journey. So, therein lies that truth: there will be days when no words emerge. When all you have left to show at the end of the day is a blank page. This truth is one that holds nuance. If you battle against that truth, it can be frustrating. If you person

I'm currently reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. That sentence alone should give you insight into my emotional state. I've empathized and connected with the panoply of characters that inhabit this tome. This engaging, dynamic, completely enthralling piece of classic American literature. To be clear: I'm not a fan of Westerns. Even during my decade working in film production, the Western genre was a blind spot in my filmic encyclopedia. I could name the greats, but not t

The idea strikes you in the middle of the night. Your eyes open, a faraway rhythm pulls you from sleep and you have to write. You are compelled to develop an idea, to create a choreography on the page from a sequence of words only you and the muse understand. Thus, the dance begins. The pursuit of an idea, to craft a story from an image or a line of dialogue that arrived with no provocation. Like the wind, you cannot see it, but you know it exists. Now, the journey becomes, h

Burn out is real. In America, our lifestyle is very go go go go go....then go some more. Five day work weeks that spiral into two day weekends when we attempt to pack in all the life we couldn't experience Monday to Friday. Then there's the day jobs, the responsibilities that we must attend to, the blessings we prayed for, the unforeseen circumstances that require immediate attention, and the side hustles that are either dreams or making some real money. So when do we rest? O

When starting a new idea, the initial seed of a thought can come from anywhere. It could emerge from an intriguing article. It could be spurred by an odd turn of phrase. It could even appear in the middle of the night from a dream. So after we receive this rush of inspirational energy, what do we do with it? How can we know that we are on the right track in developing an idea? There are some telltale signs. First, it feels good to write it. The words flow with ease, you barel

So, you've been thinking of a setting. Maybe it's a cabin that someone (you don't know who) built many eons ago, made from space wood. Wood that defies gravity, maybe. And the main character, an astronaut escaping a bad marriage (or trauma or a significant loss) back on earth, has landed on Mars and stumbled upon this cabin. But Mars is uninhabitable, so who could be living in this cabin. Is that smoke pillowing upwards from the chimney? Why is there a chimney? Isn't the air