On Blogging

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October 16, 2016

Moody blogger

I’ve been thinking about my ViVid Strike intro at RandomC. In the comments, I received some criticism that struck a chord with me. Several people wondered whether I was cynical for not being taken in by the main orphans’ struggles. From where I stand, that’s absurd. In the context of my life, I’m the least cynical version of Stephen W. Gee that’s existed since I was a child. Teenage Stephen was a cynical bastard. College Stephen was only a little better. Early professional Stephen was...

September 5, 2016

Radical transparency. I’ll try

To anyone who knows me well, they’ll know I’m not the most emotionally accessible guy. That’s not to say that I’m closed off. I try to be honest about my feelings, and coming from a father who’s John Wayne levels of stoic, I’ve come far in opening up. Yet I’m also the kind of person who believes that everyone should deal with their shit, and it annoys me when people complain. Don’t get me wrong. Griping once in a while is fine. Everyone needs...

February 13, 2015

Wasted work

Earlier today, I wrote another post. I started off with an idea, lost it part way through, and rambled to an incoherent conclusion. That’s why you’re reading this post instead of the other one—it will never see the light of day. Not unless I remember what I was trying to say and rewrite the whole thing. A younger me would have been annoyed at this. “What a waste of effort!”, I would say. “I could have been writing something good!”, I would complain. To...

September 28, 2014

Comments re-enabled

My experiment with turning off the comments is coming to an end. I’ve re-enabled comments across the site. When I turned them off, I thought I would be able to better focus on polishing my writing. And it was nice in a way. The experience was very … clean, I suppose is the word. It was focused. There was no conversation, no moderation, no clarification. There was just the writing. But ultimately, what the experience taught me is that writing, to me, is...

July 11, 2014

Writer, author, full-time author

To me, there are distinct differences between these three titles, and when I will allow myself to use them. To become an author, you must sell something you’ve written. If you’re a traditionally published author, that means selling a book to a publisher. For independently published (read: self-pub) authors like me, it’s the first time you sell a book to someone who isn’t a friend or family. If I’ve never spoken to you in person and you are the first one to buy...

June 25, 2014

Turning off comments

When I created this site, it was based on a suggestion by my marketing mentor, Seth Godin. Actually, it goes back further. When I first started blogging for Random Curiosity, I took some, but not all, of Seth’s advice. Then when I started this blog, I took more, but still not all, of that same advice. Now I’m going to take a little more: I believe that everyone should write in public. Get a blog. Or use Squidoo or Tumblr or...

June 24, 2014

Connection

A funny thing happened when I wrote nine posts in one afternoon: I lost all sense of connection with this blog. When I write two posts and schedule one of them out for later that week, I stay connected. By the time the scheduled post appears, I still remember writing it. Lately, it’s felt like I’m not even the one writing this blog, but someone else who has the same name. “Oh, that post published today?” I’ve found myself saying. “Cool. I liked that one.” Or I didn’t....

June 19, 2014

On the lookout for ideas

The last nine posts (including this one) were all written in a single afternoon. I was only able to do this because I had all the subjects ready to go. To me, idea generation is best done all the time. It should be a constant process, a part of your brain that is always on the lookout for good ideas. Whether for a book or a blog or anything else, you should always been on the lookout for things you can...

February 5, 2014

Unexpected directions

It’s funny where your writing can take you, if you allow it. When I started writing my previous post, it had a different title. I set out to write a completely different post comparing The World’s End to its Cornetto counterparts, but by the time I was finished I had gone off on a tangent, and it would have taken a lot of revising to get it back on track. So I changed the title and hit publish. There is worth in telling the...

October 24, 2013

I’ve never regretted any of them

I said I wouldn’t do this as much anymore, but I ask you to please excuse me while I indulge. Sometimes I can’t help but contemplating my navel (trope!), and this time it’s in regards to blogging. Namely, it’s about why I bother at all. I often think that if I didn’t write here and/or at Random Curiosity, I would have a lot more time to spend writing the fiction I love the most. I can’t give them up though...