writing category archive

I Do Want to Write!

I love Brenda Ueland and her book, If You Want to Write. Her passion is so infectious, and she inspires me every time I read her encouraging words.
As I think about what I might write on this blog and what I might do with my life, this passage seems particularly helpful right now:

I tell you [...]

Hello Writing Resistance, My Old Friend

I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. More or less. Sometimes I pursue other ambitions, but I keep coming back to the desire to write. Or at least, the desire to have written something. It would be great to have already written something brilliant and enjoy [...]

On the Sharing of Free Software

Hi, loyal readers. I'm still here. Last week was busy at work, and getting up at 3:30am tends to make my evenings shorter. Any time I've had, I've been working on writing a Java utility to help with naming and sorting my pictures. It's always a battle between finding time to write [...]

Free Culture: An 'Inside the Slush Pile' Exclusive!

In the first installment of this series, I promised to lend my keen insight to a comparison between the old print publishing business and the new online publishing business. What qualifies me to perform this service? Well, I have limited experience in the traditional publishing industry, having garnered forty-two rejections on five [...]

Free Culture?

I have some free culture I'd like to share with you. Written culture. A previously unpublished science fiction short story, by me. "No, thanks," you say. "That's the problem with the web. Any idiot can publish his adjective-laden tripe. If it was any good, someone would have paid you [...]

How to Write?

Some people say you should be assertive. Don't be wishy-washy. Don't use watered-down language ("it kind of seems like..."). Don't be afraid to own your opinion. Blah blah blah. I think this is good advice. (Although I don't think Brenda Ueland would approve of the negative tone.) [...]