Chapter 13 begins January 31, 2009

I had no ambitious plans for my beginning work on Chapter 13 of The Sleep of Reason. My hope when I sat down to it this morning was that I would get about 500 words down to establish the tone and set the stage for a couple of important developments to come later in the [...]

Still a mystery January 29, 2009

I picked up a collection of essays by George Orwell, called Why I Write, thinking that it might give a history of his motivation, the genesis of his ideas, the day-to-day craft as he practices it, and other such insights about writing.
I was disappointed.
Aside from the eponymous essay, which is a mere ten pages long, [...]

Orwell’s Four Reasons for Writing January 26, 2009

In his essay “Why I Write,” George Orwell spells out the four reasons any writer has for writing. According to him, a writer’s motivation can be,

Sheer egoism.
Aesthetic enthusiasm.
Historical impulse.
Political purpose.

Knowing Orwell’s writings, as most of the Western world does, this list is not surprising, nor is it surprising that he devotes the most discussion to [...]

Chapter 12 is finally finished January 24, 2009

I’ve finally put Chapter 12 of The Sleep of Reason to bed, and like a reluctant child who doesn’t want to go down for the night, this chapter stayed up far longer than I thought its appropriate bed time.
It comes in at 6,500+ words, which seems about right now that I’ve finished the first draft. [...]

Word work January 21, 2009

I’ve had this short story I’ve been fooling with off and on for several years. It’s set in a hospital, though that is only tangential to the plot, and I have one scene where the hospital security guard comes into a sort of waiting room for coffee and donuts. My intent is portray the guard [...]

Unlike the others January 19, 2009

I’ve written five novels. None is published, but that’s probably mostly due to my own inertia than to their possible worthiness (or maybe not).
My first two were young adult novels, the first and third parts of a planned trilogy involving interwoven plots and characters. I haven’t looked at these in more than a decade, so [...]

Chapter 12 moves along January 17, 2009

In the last week, I am pleased to report, I’ve made good progress on Chapter 12 of The Sleep of Reason. I’ve managed to get down nearly 3,000 words, and I think they’re good words. This puts me three-quarters of the way through the chapter, and I think it gets me past the hard part [...]

Spent a thought January 14, 2009

“I acknowledge that no man will ever write a good style that has not well studied, and exercised himself in writing, selecting with a most perfect delicacy, in all cases, the proper term; but he must go beyond this, and be able to deceive the world, and never let it come into their heads that [...]

As told by January 12, 2009

I’ve said a few times in a few forums that you must treat the narrator of your story, especially if your narration is in the omniscient third person, as another character. A narrator must have a personality as much as any of the other characters in the story, even if this personality doesn’t make much [...]

Chapter 12 progresses January 10, 2009

I think I have turned a corner in my struggles with Chapter 12 of The Sleep of Reason. I’ve worked through two of the four scenes that the chapter needs to cover; they were the workmanlike scenes. I have nearly 3,000 words written getting all of that down. Now the fun part can begin.
This chapter [...]