If we are driven primarily to write for our own satisfaction, what does it means to say to keep the reader in mind?
Sometimes the inspiration I get from an image is indirect.
I've crossed some kind of personal Rubicon in terms of how I come up with ideas and treat them.
On the problem of audiences growing weary of stories that never actually end.
On "sending a message".
What I learned while writing my latest (and strangest) novel.
Take any two projects that seem like they could be the same, and there's a good chance under the skin they're nothing alike.
I hate all the bookkeeping that goes with writing a story, but I know I can't avoid it.
"An original message is a unique and transformative perception of the conditions for our existence."
You never get the whole story in your head at once. Except maybe when you think you do.
Single images, strikingly chosen, make the best cover designs. More than that is tinsel on a painting.
Those who create because they want to, the way they want to, are not children of lesser gods.
On the anatomy of a discarded story.
Every time I see an artist whose work makes me tell myself, "There's a story there," I know I'm on the right track.
Especially when you want to write about your world, of which you've not seen very much yourself.
Commercial success for creative work is less about the work itself and more about its circumstances.
How consistency, foolish or otherwise, can be the hobgoblin of small minds in SF&F.
"Just depict, don't also imagine" is a poor program for art.
Too many times I've started a project only to shelve it because it was nothing but putting some attitude on display. And a bad attitude at that.
Over the course of my life I've emigrated from one kind of imagination to another -- from just "making things up" to seeing what we have in front of us in a new way.
On examining what feels like the formula I've devised for most every book I write.
How I've unthinkingly made too many fun things into "research" or "creative work".
"Getting lost in your knowledge management system is a fantastic way to avoid creating things."
People see your results, not your efforts. By design.
"The 'three-act structure' and the 'hero’s journey', are editing tools, not writing tools."