Category: Writing

I recently put a short story I wrote on Amazon. It’s called When You Come Back.
You can find a link to it here.
When I originally wrote it, mental illness was not necessarily on my mind. But, the majority of its readers have told me it resonates with them to a fairly strong degree. So, I’ve put it up for $1 and any proceeds I receive will go towards The Trevor Project, in support of mental illness assistance.
If you’re not interested in the short story, or in providing Amazon with some of the overhead that comes with buying a Kindle book, you can donate to them directly.
If you want the story in PDF form, you can contact me.

An extension cord walks in on its son, a vacuum (three-pronged cord of course), plugging itself into an electrical outlet. Aghast at what it sees, the extension cord can only cry out: “You shameless plug, you’re grounded!”
 
I’m going on vacation this upcoming week. This original joke is the best I could do. The actual shameless plug is my friend Brandon’s review blog, as well as my competing review of his blog, where I verbally abuse and critique his writing even if I have not experienced whatever he is reviewing.
It’s all in good fun.

I’ve been struggling a lot over the past few months in starting a new post, or a new piece of writing for myself, and faltering a few paragraphs in, not sure what to do with myself. A large part of this, as was mentioned in a previous post, is due to my habit of editing as I write. I don’t often plan my writing ideas, put them in some flow chart or other organizational structure, or summarize the points I want to make before I write. This helps keep my writing natural, and keep its place as a release valve rather than work. This also puts me in the position of sitting down with what seems to be a well-formulated idea, only to have it peter out faster than anticipated.
I recently had a conversation with someone who pointed out that this isn’t necessarily bad, as it still shows that I’m thinking about these topics. I start to second-guess my own thoughts. It also means that I am still writing, even if the finished product does not get produced as prolifically as I would ideally have it. All this has led me to think about the importance of completing projects in life, and to what extent my large folder of draft documents can be justified and excused.
Continue reading “Drafts and Completion”

The way that I approach a first draft is not quite the same way that other (more experienced and successful) people approach one. The general advice is to hack through it without looking back. Particularly in writing, it is important to not focus on any grammatical errors, any misspelled words or issues with flow. One needs to get all of their ideas onto the page before they can hope to begin the process of refining those ideas.
I do the opposite.
Continue reading “First Drafts”