I listened to Marc Maron's interview with President Obama on Monday. If you're not familiar with Marc Maron, here's a quick version: a stand up comic busts his ass, hosts a show on Comedy Central, but never gets the breaks other comics around him … [Continue reading]
Yesterday, I finally watched this interview with Andy Weir (the author of The Martian): Yes, it's almost an hour, but it's a good chat! Some of my favorite bits from this interview: Weir serialized The Martian on his website and offered it … [Continue reading]
Peter Salerno was my great grandfather. He came to America from Italy with very little and ended up doing well for himself. The quick version goes like this: He went out west and followed cattle trains. He bought cattle, butchered them, and sold … [Continue reading]
The advice usually goes something like this: Hook your readers with action right from the start, and then...every single word, sentence, paragraph, and page must drive them through more action -- until the end, when readers can barely handle any … [Continue reading]
I listened to this episode of the A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment podcast yesterday. I loved Jess Walter's point about the importance of the page (as it relates to writing). During a live interview before an audience in Minneapolis, when asked who he … [Continue reading]
This week, I seem to have bumped into articles and videos about how multitasking and other hurried methods of producing usually have a negative effect on production...or it's just where my mind is at this week and those articles stood out more. (My … [Continue reading]
One of my favorite podcasts is Otherppl with Brad Listi. (If fact, it's the only podcast to which I've subscribed to premium content; after all, it's less than $10.00/year.) I love the way Listi digs and gets writers to talk not just about their … [Continue reading]
Reading this piece about John Steinbeck during lunch yesterday got me thinking about what is lost in one's pursuit of what they love doing when bound by other things. Before getting to that, though, a bit about Steinbeck's writing. There is … [Continue reading]
I got into a bad habit the past week. I allowed myself to do other things before writing: Let me edit this podcast... Let me clean the kitchen... Let me run these errands... Let me do this and that...and then I'll write. The problem is, I … [Continue reading]
Last weekend was the third annual writing retreat with a friend. Just like the two before, this one was at a Texas State Park (we returned to Cooper Lake State Park). After hiking around Caddo Lake State Park last year, we looked forward to hiking … [Continue reading]
A week from today, I will be writing. Rewriting, actually. (Rewriting a novel and hanging out with a friend on our annual writing retreat.) I've talked about the retreats here and here (and other times on this blog). I won't talk about all the … [Continue reading]
There is a part in this Otherppl With Brad Listi podcast interview with Stewart O'Nan where O'Nan talks about waking up early and getting straight to one's writing desk as quickly as possible without other things getting in the way. O'Nan says: It's … [Continue reading]
It's pretty easy to go online and find articles saying that if you get up early, you're better off than those who stay up late. (I started writing this at 4:18 a.m. on a Saturday morning.) It's also pretty easy to go online and find articles … [Continue reading]