How I Write

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  • Organized Chaos

    Manuscripts of upcoming books perch precariously on an antique oak desk. A black 1932 telephone sits silently on the corner. A red art deco lamp on the other. Ancient artifacts, jeweled dagger, .32 revolver, tattered books on witchcraft, all implements of my stories' antagonists line the shelves. This is my sanctuary. The place I go to write, each evening, alone, long after dark.

  • Defined Working Times

    Twelve o'clock, the witching hour when my time finally becomes my own. When others are fast asleep, darkness and silence overtake my home except for one room. The room in which I write, steadily, every night, sometimes until dawn.

  • No Distractions

    No distractions but the whispers from the corners of my imagination which are tapped onto the keyboard, click, click, click. And the creak and groan of the house, water dripping from a faucet. No one to disturb me except whoever, whatever watches silently in the dark.

My Tools

My Most Important Tools

Personal Computer

Call me old fashioned, I prefer the structure of an organized workspace and a personal computer. Though I still have a typewriter, I find it much easier to edit and research without using white out and a card catalog! Laptops and tablets aren't my thing. I don't own a cell phone.

Pen and Paper

Always Useful

Yellow legal pads lay throughout my home. I find it important to get my thoughts onto paper before they escape through the cracks in the floorboards. I like the look and feel of fine writing instruments, parchment and the flow of the ink. 

Books

Writing Needs Some Reading

To be a good writer you need to be a good reader. Style is learned by reading the works of great authors. My library is lined with hundreds of books, tattered with dog-eared pages and highlighting. Books well read that gave up their secrets. 

Software

A computer is only as good as its software. Word, Adobe products such as Photoshop and Illustrator and online editing programs all speed up the writing process.

Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it's produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.

Ken Robinson

Main Working Principles

The Most Important Steps To Follow

Write A Lot

To be a good writer you need to continually practice and hone your craft.

Read A Lot

Great writer's are voracious readers. What makes a writer great? You can answer this for yourself by reading what great writers have written.

Cultivate Your Ideas

A great story doesn't just happen. Its seed is sometimes planted years before and it lays dormant or germinating. Then it sprouts with new ideas.