Thoughts on ‘Summit Fever’

Last week over at Writer Unboxed, Annie Neugebauer wrote about the perils of ‘Summit Fever,’ a condition in which mountaineers allow the desire to reach their goal–the top of the mountain–to supercede good judgement in getting there (and back down again) safely. If the mountaineers are lucky, they make it safe and sound and maybe […]

Put a Bow on it

Yesterday (Sunday, the 16th), at pretty much high noon, I pushed back from the computer, the final chords of the Grateful Dead’s spirited-but-sloppy “Scarlet Begonias” first set closer from July 16, 1976 still ringing in my ears, and said, “Finished.” The latest WiP had been completed. Not finished finished, mind you. In early evening I […]

Back In Business

Here I sit, early in the morning trying to bang out a post before work. It’s been a full week since I’ve been on the job, though I did briefly check in on my work e-mail on Friday. I like my job, but it’s sure been nice to be home. Also nice is the fact […]

Post-Game Presser

If you’re a sports fan, you’ve probably seen this. Your favorite team has just had its most convincing, most complete victory of the season. In this game/match/whatever you call it, they’ve done everything well. In winning, perhaps they’ve snuffed a multi-game losing streak. Or, maybe, it’s been a season of inconsistency, victories almost equally-balanced by […]

Just Write It

There was a big brouhaha on Absolute Write a week or two ago over a piece of advice frequently handed out there. It’s advice that is surely dispensed wherever writers gather, be it an internet forum, a conference, a book signing, or a café in Paris. The advice: Just Write It. I’ve given this advice […]

Sucky First Drafts

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the first draft of anything sucks.* This ‘truth’ is a great comfort to writers who read their first drafts and want to tear their hair out. “Oh, this sucks!” they scream, while dragging their poor monitor to the window, as if it’s the monitor’s fault. But then they […]

Monday Musing: NaNo

Like Hurricane Sandy, NaNoWriMo is bearing down on us. As I mentioned Friday, I’m still not certain if I’m participating this year, though I have checked out my regional forums in NaNoland. There’s a lot of NaNo chatter out there right now, so I  thought I’d share a few thoughts on my own experiences with […]

The Same Old Ground

Running over the same old groundWhat have we found?Same old fears — Roger Waters By the time this day is over, I should be *finished* with Barton’s Women. And of course, by *finished* I mean  I’m “in the time between this rewrite and the next.” I stopped 18 pages short of the end yesterday, wrung […]

An Old Question Revisited

In my second-ever blog post, I asked Is it Always Going to Be Like This? I was talking about the sinking feeling that comes when you read your work: the sensation that it’s not good enough, that it’s not as good as you thought when you wrote it. The cringing at every page, the thinking, […]

Kick Back Time

The desire to get away can be a powerful motivator. I’ve seen a few of you in recent weeks report on making a big push to finish up a project so you could  go on vacation with a clean slate. I wasn’t aware I was doing that until mid-week,  but that must have been what […]