I am often asked how I get ideas for my writing. While ideas are generated several ways, the most common is the “standing orders” I have given my subconscious. In this context, a standing order is a permanent instruction I have given my subconscious. For example, one might have a standing order to lock the…
My first attempt at writing a novel was a disaster. My “thriller” wasn’t very thrilling. In fact, The Wolverine was a crappy novel, but I found value in the process of writing it. Prior to writing The Wolverine, my fiction writing was limited to short stories. Unsurprisingly, writing a novel is considerably more challenging than…
Years ago, a friend asked me why I enjoyed writing fiction. Somewhat facetiously, I said that writing fiction wasn’t as restricted by reality as nonfiction. That statement was truer than I realized. The artist recreates reality in his vision of what is important and significant. It is in this sense that when I write fiction,…
I recently read an article about the process of writing a novel. When discussing character development, the author writes, “Perfect characters are boring…. Flaws create conflict. They drive decisions. They make your characters feel like real people.” I don’t want my heroes to “feel like real people.” I want them to be larger than life,…
Over the years, I have heard countless people express a desire to write a book. While that is certainly a laudable ambition, I am unaware of anyone who has actually written a book. I think a primary reason for this is they don’t understand a simple truth: writers write. And I speak from personal experience….
When writing the first draft of a novel, I frequently think, “I didn’t see that coming.” A character says or does something I didn’t anticipate. When I have explained this to friends, they are surprised. They think I know the action and dialog that will occur in each chapter. While I know these things, it…
Good writing is organized, and an indispensable tool for organizing our thoughts is an outline. An outline is a road map for our writing, allowing us to identify a logical order to present the points we wish to communicate. As I noted in a previous essay, thoughts occur to us randomly. If we write in…
In a previous post, I briefly addressed psycho-epistemology—the interaction between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind in the writing process. When we brainstorm, we must rely on the subconscious mind. The purpose of writing is to communicate. Effective writing makes it easy for the reader to comprehend the main point being communicated. This requires…
One of the most important, and overlooked, aspects of writing is the relationship between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. Ayn Rand called this psycho-epistemology, which she defined as “the study of man’s cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious.” Psycho-epistemology does…
Writing historical fiction presents both challenges and opportunities. The challenges lie in choosing the degree of historical accuracy to include. The opportunities lie in the ability to present events and characters in a more idealistic manner, that is, what could have been and should have been. As an example, the Shattering Paradigms series takes place…
It has been said that the teacher often learns more than the students, and I can vouch for the truth of that adage. For the past ten months, I have been teaching a writing class for ESL students. The experience has greatly expanded my understanding of writing. To set the context, my students are all…