A new story – Corvius and the Furies

Steve Anderson

Sword and Sorcery is alive and well…

It has taken me far too long, but I have a rough draft of a new story done. What should have taken a couple of weeks to a month to write took considerably longer. But it is finished, at least the unpolished version is done. I’ll have to edit, send it to my critique group, and probably rewrite some more, but I’m happy with the initial words on the page.

This short story is a stand-alone that I wrote for a magazine, but I missed the deadline. I will shop it around and hope it snags some attention. I write what I would enjoy reading, so hopefully some editor somewhere will enjoy it too!

It is as hard to start over as it is to start from scratch.

Steve Anderson
photograph of crumpled paper near a pencil
Where to begin?

Starting is tough. Starting again after a break can be tougher.

Writing is a habit that is tough to get started. Once you do, it can be hard to maintain. Life gets in the way, family, friends, and our individual needs all compete for time at the keyboard. If you work, volunteer, or go to school, the time you have in a day is even harder to juggle. But it can be done, I have struggled. Quitting is not an option I’m willing to consider.

Life throws a variety of challenges at us. Good things like a promotion at work, an unexpected windfall, or finally doing something on our bucket list go hand in hand with losing a job, paying an unexpected expense, or finding out an item on the bucket list is now beyond reach (For example: You can’t go to a live Ozzy concert anymore). The same is true for our writing routine. I might get 3000 words on the page one day, but struggle to get 100 the next. That can be frustrating all by itself.

If your routine takes a hit, or you get sick, hurt, or have to change your schedule, it can be next to impossible to peck at the keys. I have made just about every excuse I could think of, or outright chose not to write more times than I can count. None of that helps get words on the page, and while that may not be the most important aspect of writing in the long run, it is far easier for me to polish what I’ve written than stare at a blank page. It is harder yet, to stare at a half-written story and not try to finish it.

I wish I had some easy advice to get you back on track.

I’ve read lots of articles about procrastination, writer’s block, and building a better routine. All of that is great, and reading it gave me a sense that I was working on the problem. The truth is, I am the problem. No amount of thinking, talking about, or reading about writing will ever replace the act itself. Writing is a passion for those of us who aspire to see our work out in the world. None of the tricks and strategies I read about helped me more than pushing myself to get my butt back in the chair and my fingers on the keys.

Ignore the things that distract you, all the pleas for your time, and get words on the page. Everything else you can deal with later. There is nothing easy about it if you are determined to make it work. But that is one of the reasons writing can be so rewarding. Carve out a block of time and get to it. No matter what you do, I hope you keep writing.

Another (infrequent) Update

Steve Anderson
grey concrete buildings under cloudy sky

An update on how things are going: Writing has not been the center of my world lately. Life, family, and pain have been vying for my attention. Not long after I got back from vacation in January, I started to have flank pain like a kidney stone (which I’ve been through before – owwww). My doctors didn’t think it was a stone, and I was eventually scheduled for gallbladder surgery. A few days ago, the surgeons ruled that out (before I went under the knife). But that leaves me back at square one. Hurting.

Still, even when I didn’t feel up to it, I fired up Word and kept pecking at stories. I have a new chapter of Jack’s story done, and a new sword and sorcery short story, which I hope will be more commercially viable. I haven’t given up on writing, I’m just more aware of my limitations lately. Age is relentless; cherish your health while it lasts.

The world has not beaten me down.

We live in a wide-open world, despite the darkness that gnaws at us from the news or is thrust at us in real life. I refuse to believe all that is good and wondrous about this life has fallen into decay. Hope is most vital when troubles, trials, and tribulations test it. If you have spent any length of time reading this blog, you might remember that Hope is my muse. She has not deserted me, nor do I expect to give up on her.

So, I hope to get back into the swing of things – I’m adapting to whatever is causing my pain (or I’ve already passed some stones to feel better), it’s hard to say at this point. Either way, I’m determined to keep at it, and posting here more often is part of that. So expect to see more from me here, more updates, more writing commentary, more sources of inspiration, and maybe even some more poetry (sorry in advance). As always, keep reading and keep writing!

I’m still here, still writing, and still posting!

Steve Anderson

My hiatus, break from writing, or whatever you want to call it is over. New February, new me, or something. I have still been writing, reading, and critiquing with my writer’s group. But I also devoted more time to my family over the holidays, a cruise with my wife in January, and some relaxing time with my friends. So expect to see more from me in the weeks ahead. I’m not going back to a post a day, but I’ll post here as I finish more of the projects I have been working on.

The world is still a magical place, and my time away has given me more reasons than ever to keep writing. See you with another update soon!

Setting in Fantasy (Urban or Otherwise)

Steve Anderson
interior of colosseum in rome in italy

Setting is Mentally Fun (But critical to most stories)

If reading is fundamental, then the setting for a story may be the bedrock it rests on. In Urban Fantasy, that setting is a city, either part of it, like a neighborhood, or specific locations as dictated by the plot. If the city is an analogue of one in the real world, the similarity should be clear and may involve places that are drawn from the real world. Other Fantasy stories may not rely so much on setting, especially if the story is mostly internal, revolves around a single character, or unfolds in a single location that remains mostly in the background. In High Fantasy the locations are perhaps more important than in Urban Fantasy as they are pulled from the author’s imagination to prop up the entire world in which the stories take place.

In any case, the setting should enhance whatever is happening to the characters. Whether the characters are in New York, Paris, or the white city of Gondor, the location should add its distinctive flavor to the story. Real world settings offer familiarity to the reader (even if they have never been to those locations), while wholly imaginary locales allow the reader to see slices of the world in which the author envisions their work. Maybe the protagonist has to ride the subway to Times Square, visits the Louvre, or has to light the beacon fire high above Minas Tirith.

Setting as a Character

In stories where the protagonist must survive the elements (or the mean streets of Chicago for example). The setting can become a character or an antagonist by itself. Obstacles the hero must overcome need only be part of the setting to give the flair or flavor of the story’s location a bigger part to play. How different might “To Build a Fire” have been if the story were set in a deserted town, or along the route to the Caradhras Pass.

And settings as character are not limited to environmental challenges. Zombies on the streets of L.A., a wizard fight in the Roman Coliseum, or a cult uprising in Menzoberranzan are just as dangerous as frigid temperatures, wild animals, or a lightless cavern in the Underdark. The important distinction in any fantasy setting is how it shapes the narrative. What does any given location inform how the story unfolds for the readers.

Setting should not override the Story

No matter how breathtaking the world of a story may be, it should not be more prominent than the characters around which the story revolves. Readers connect with a protagonist, their allies, and to some degree at least, to the antagonist and their allies. If a setting takes preeminence over the characters in a story, an author risks turning their work into a thinly disguised travelogue. It may be pretty, scary, clever, or whatever the author envisions, but it probably won’t be a great story.

That isn’t to dissuade authors from crafting incredible backdrops for the action in their work. Some of the most memorable scenes in Fantasy come from well developed settings. The Emerald City came to life from L. Frank Baum’s imagination, Harry Dresden has fought back supernatural threats all over Chicago, and Wong probably still owes Stephen Strange five bucks for a tuna melt. The emphasis for all of those moments is that the setting enhanced but didn’t overwhelm the situations the characters faced.

I’m still writing, still on my journey. I hope you are pursuing your journey, whether it is reading or writing (or both). Keep at it!

Spring has sprung…

Steve Anderson
pink flower field

Ok, I’m a bit late in posting (in fact, it’s been months since I posted anything). Spring is about to give way to Summer, but I’m still here, still writing, and still encouraging others to keep writing, too. My last post was about how much I hate winter, but I love Spring so much I had to get out in it. It should come as no surprise that Summer is my favorite season. I’ll try not to stay away the whole season like I did with the Spring thaw.

I have several projects going on. My Kindle Vella experiment has turned into a full length novel (which I am about half way through), and I still have a few short stories I’m working on to break things up if get stuck in another one. I cycle back through them to keep progressing, but life has gotten in the way more than I care to admit lately.

I’ll check back in with updates as those projects are closer to being done.

I hate winter

Steve Anderson
monochrome photography of bench covered with snow

And I do not use the word hate, lightly. Ice, snow, wind chill factors, and all the trouble they bring have been one of the greatest struggles of my life. When I was a child, I lived in the more temperate Southern climate of North Carolina. Winters were cold, but seldom deadly. Now I live in Iowa, where winter hurts my face.

I choose to endure this torment for my family’s sake. They love the abominable weather here. In general, I have adapted to the cold as best as I’m able. But the recent polar air plunging out of the arctic circle has reminded me of the deep seated loathing I have for this time of year. The only consolation I have is that I no longer live in Chicago where I’d be shoveling even more lake effect snow than I do on the frozen plains.

The last week has been more of a struggle for me than I’m used to. My family moved into a new house in October, and this is our first winter in a new environment. We’ve had to adjust to a new furnace, winterizing our doggy door, and compensating for a larger, draftier house built over a hundred years ago. I have never dreaded an ice storm more than I do living here.

But it hasn’t stopped me from writing!

Honestly, I have no other reason for writing this rant than to lament my terrible distaste for all things wintry. Christmas and New Years are over, the food and celebrations are done, and only bitter cold and long nights await me until spring. Of course I can endure until then, but I don’t look forward to the frigid days and darkest nights until the spring thaw arrives.

In the mean time, I am working on my new novel, The Winnowing. I’m also writing a new script for my application to this year’s Veterans Writing Project through the Writers Guild Foundation. I also keep up with my weekly writer’s group critiques and submitting my monthly words in turn (though I’ve been struggling lately). Even though winter continues to vex me, I keep working on the projects that I need to finish, one page at a time.

New year, big changes…

Steve Anderson

Writing updates and plans for 2024.

city skyline at night

Kindle Vella was a no go for me.

I really liked the idea of episodic writing and structured my current WIP for that format. The more I dug into Vella, the less I liked it. So instead, I’m retooling the story into a standard novel. I’m not sure if I’ll go Indie or try traditional publishing again, or both. But at least I’ll be able to share more of the story with my audience here.

Speaking of that, here is a tease for the story so far. I’m calling it, “The Winnowing”. The main character is Hank Porter, a would be Broadway actor in New York City, who survives magical terrorist attack on Times Square. Like many survivors, he is changed by the experience, but beyond the emotional trauma, Hank is also changed by exposure to magic itself. I hope that hook will bring in readers who enjoy magic in realistic settings (not just Urban Fantasy).

What to expect on the website this year.

I took a lot of time away from here last year. In part because of the year of posting every day in 2022. The other part was some upheaval in my family life that also slowed my creative output to almost nothing. This year, I hope to be present more than last year, but not posting every day again either. Once or twice a week seems like a good number of posts to set for the year.

Sometimes I just get an urge to share and this site gives me an outlet. I fully expect the same will be true this year and that I’ll pop in randomly to post when something exciting or interesting to me happens. Writing updates, craft notes, and even a few snippets of prose or poetry are possible as well. So stick around for that if it sounds like your cup of tea (or vodka or tea and vodka or whatever).

Mostly I’m excited to get back into a regular writing routine and make this year more productive than last year. I hope my audience likes what I do, and maybe grows a bit as I publish more content. That is kind of the point for me at least, to reach more people who like what I write. Anyway, see you again soon!

Happy Holidays!

Steve Anderson
man standing beside christmas tree

It’s still the most wonderful time of the year for me. The days between Christmas and New Year’s Day have always been a time of reflection in my life. I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I do try to take a look back at the year gone by and plan for the year ahead. My writing this year has suffered from a lot of bad timing with a move to a new and bigger house (with a private office!), health issues and family emergencies, to all the normal problems of living and breathing everyone faces.

Life has a way of catching us by surprise. Sometimes that is a good thing with new opportunities, and sometimes it’s tragic with loss and struggle. The former is always welcome, but the latter can break us down and leave little room for joy and good cheer. In my life, I’ve been fortunate enough to balance the two without losing all of the happiness and joy in my heart. I struggle like everyone else but do my best to rise above the day-to-day turmoil.

Now that my family and I have settled into our new home, I intend to be far more productive than I have been. Expect all-new Jack stories, new short stories from several series posted here, and some other projects I’ve been working on while I wasn’t mired in non-writing tasks. I plan for 2024 to be a great year for my work. I hope you will agree. Happy Holidays!!!

Kindle Vella Update

Kindle Vella Update

Steve Anderson
black letter blocks on yellow background
Photo by Thirdman on Pexels.com

Introducing – The Winnowing

The first episodes of my new Kindle Vella seris have made it through my writer’s group and I’m revising them now. The story is good (IMHO), and I have plenty of twists and turns planned to keep readers turning pages. I’m still not convinced Vella is a perfect fit for me, but I won’t know for sure until I try, right?

Anyway, I’m wading into this one week at a time. The story is outlined, I put a beat sheet together to keep my characters on track, and there is still a lot of room for discovery writing before the series is finished. I’m plantsing my way to the finish line one week at a time.

The Hits Start Early

Vella readers don’t have time to dawdle, and characters in this series don’t either. The first scene of the story goes from status quo to inciting incident as fast as I could manage while giving readers a chance to get an idea of who Hank porter, the main character is before unleashing pandemonium on the world (and Times Square). Each episode (or chapters for those of us whoe write novels) is a balancing act between action, character development, and plot progression. Each week will have all three elements but the proportions may not be consistent.

What is the Winnowing?

I’m so glad you asked, heading thingy. It’s a terrorist plot to remake the world (or at least the people of that world) into a magical utopia. Maybe a magical dystopia is more accurate, as the maestro behind the plot intends to rule the new world as a tyrant. But he has to get there first. Hank and a motely crew of would be resistance fighters are the only people who stand a chance of stopping the plot.

So once the first episode goes live, I’ll post a link here on the site to make reading it easier. Vella is notoriously difficult to navigate, so I want to make the process as simple as possible. This is one of the main worries I have about trying the platform out. But you can’t make omlettes without cracking eggs – or something. Stay tuned for more updates and a release date.

Kindle Vella – My First Attempt

Kindle Vella – My First Attempt

Steve Anderson
black tablet computer on brown wooden table

So, I’ve spent a lot of time working on short stories over the past couple of years. Some are arguably better than others, but this spring I found Kindle Vella. It is a tiny new platform on Amazon that is designed especially for short stories. I thought, “What a perfect fit.”

So I have concocted a short story series to try my hand at their episodic short story format. I have my reservations about the process, but what the Hell. Here goes nothing. You can follow along if you like, or just catch a few highlights of my experiment here. I have a solid outline and the first few episodes ready for beta reading. Wish me luck.

The Story…

Set in an ordinary world, much like ours, but beneath the surface magic has been simmering for hundreds of years. Before the story begins, a group of shadowy figures have opened the floodgates for magic to return. In the first Episode readers will meet one of these shadowy figures, the Thresher, who unleashes a sinister plot in New York City. Pandemonium ensues…

Readers will also meet Hank, a happy go lucky aspiring actor. He spends his days auditioning and looking for behind the scenes work on Broadway, and his nights waiting tables to pay the bills. Hank is front and center when the Thresher begins his diabolical plot, which will prove to be a blessing or a curse from Hank’s perspective.

Once I have the story live on Kindle Vella, I’ll put a link up so the story is easy to find. In the meantime, I’m still writing. I hope, you are, too (if that’s your thing).

Break the chains of your imagination.

Steve Anderson
five boys standing near body of water
Kids at play

I had a revelation of sorts while I was waiting to find out I’d been rejected again. Not like some broken record of imposter syndrome or anything negative. Instead, I realized I’d been limiting myself with my writing. The insight is simple, but if I forged chains to hold back the breadth of my imagination, maybe others would benefit from reading about my epiphany.

I’ve always thought of my work in terms of Novel length stories, or short stories. I knew there were other formats, but I didn’t really feel that novellas or any other medium fit me well. Studying screenwrtiting this year gave me so much more insight into not only the process of writing, but into ways to show and tell stories. The revelation was like discovering I’d been playing in a large sandbox, but that it was only one of many on the playground.

Use of childhood spent at play is intentional

I spent a lot of my childhood playing alone. Before I discovered reading for entertainment, I told myself stories while I played. I suspect children have done the same thing for longer than there have been anatomical humans. But as I grew up, I had less time or reason to continue those stories. As I wandered through adulthood, I still had plenty of stories in my head, but they didn’t have much of an outlet.

Without a place to flourish, stories, characters, settings, and plots can wither and die. Like allowing the Nothing to destroy Fantasia, (look it up if you don’t get the reference) storytellers need to get those ideas out of their heads. At least I do. But that is only one facet of the journey. If alll I ever write are novels and short stories, that would be fine, but writing scripts with those stories gives me more insight into storytelling.

In other words, writing in more formats, even (I know, it’s shocking) in more genres can make us all better writers. I may never be a great romance writer, but if I can pull off a love story in a feature length film, or TV pilot, I’m sure I can do the same thing in a novel or short story. The same is true of other genres and formats. A play about a murder most foul can teach me to show my audience a dramatic incident in other formats, too.

Just do it.

I’ve put this theory into practice already. The first product is a finished script for a parody you tube show. I set up a channel for a family summer project, but now, its grown into a much more substantial production. It’s made me reevaluate how I tell stories and connect to my readers. I encourage everyone to step outside their comfort zone a bit and see if the same is true for you.

The chanell I’m using is: https://www.youtube.com/@hauntedsafari1614 – check it out if you want a quick laugh. But whatever you do – keep writing.

Resilience in the face of rejection.

Steve Anderson
entrepreneur rejecting offering from man with outstretched hand
Ouch.

Rejection Hurts

No matter if its a personal rejection or a professional interaction, not being accepted can feel like a punch to the gut. It takes the wind out of my sails more than I’d prefer to admit, but a rejection (or a hundred rejections) doesn’t define a creative. What I do after the punch is what really matters.

Will I shut down the creative process I’ve built up? Should I listen to that nagging voice in my head that says I’m not going to make anything of myself? Does anyone out there really want to hear what I have to say anyway? Those questions have been with me since I started writing again in 2017, and I doubt they’ll disappear with or without more rejections.

The important answers aren’t in those questions or a dozen other negative thoughts that come to mind when I read another rejection email. The important response is to keep writing, to keep reading, to keep looking for inspiration, and to keep sending out stories with characters, themes, and settings that I am passionate about.

I didn’t get in to a writing program this summer.

That really bummed me out, harshed my Zen, and hurt my feelers. The one thing it didn’t do was make me want to quit. I hope that by sharing my response, it may help other creatives who face similar issues. There are only so many seats at the table, only so much room in a magazine issue, and only so many novels published by a given imprint in a publishing cycle. I keep at it till something sticks.

Here is another lesson rejection has taught me, I keep getting better. Nothing causes me to evaluate my work more than, “We regret to inform you…” Rejection forces me to seek out new ideas, to scour my work for flaws, or as my writer’s group likes to say, “Opportunities for improvement.” All of which helps me grow as a writer.

Maybe there will be a few more (or dozens more) rejections between me and my goals. Maybe I’ll be picked up for the next project I write. Either way, I’ll keep my butt in the chair and write. I hope you stick to whatever you’re creating, too.

Let me dust this thing off…

Steve Anderson
man in gray crew neck shirt wearing a goggles

Believe it or not, I’m still writing. I’m still seeking out places to send my work to. And I’m still waiting for an answer back from this year’s Veteran’s Writing Program. Honestly, the waiting has put a bit of a slowdown on my other projects. Not because of writer’s block or anything like that, but because I’ve been studying a lot the past three months. I have been studying screenwriting, more approaches to short story form, and storytelling (and showing) in general.

Time keeps on slipping…

The wait is almost over. The Writer’s Guild Foundation will announce the writers accepted into this year’s mentorship program by April 19th. I may or may not be a part of that group, but I’m still hoping to make a trip to LA this summer if my muse should see fit to accompany me. Either way, I keep writing, studying, and creating. The fire of a thousand stories still burns in my belly. (I hope it wasn’t something I ate.)

At any rate, I have written some new stories. I revisited a real-world setting from my youth in Lake Forest, Illinois, for my most recent story. It’s a contemporary fantasy set in a fictionalized version of the far Northern suburbs of Chicago (for any of you unfamiliar with the area). I took some random elements and crafted some new characters with a magical background element that rushes to the forefront of one particular character’s life.

Add magic, and let the hijinks ensue. Poor kid isn’t even going to know what hit him. But that’s just the introduction of the fantastic to the story. There are more layers to peel back as I get into this new world, which is very different from Fantastic America, my Jack stories, or anything else I’ve been working on lately. At least the themes I intend to tackle are different, and the mechanics of the magic system are inherently different. I hope the humanity and reliability of the characters remain the same.

I’ll be sure to update the site next week with news of my acceptance to or rejection from the program.

Syd Fields, Dan Harmon, and Blake Snyder

Syd Fields, Dan Harmon, and Blake Snyder

Steve Anderson
potted plant near a sofa

I haven’t posted anything here in a while, and most of the posts I have made were short updates. This was going to be another of those posts, but I changed my mind as soon as I started typing the header. I’m still going to give you an update, but I’m going to dive a bit deeper with the content than I have been lately. I hope you enjoy.

What have I been up to?

What a great question, I’m glad I asked. For the past three months I’ve been reading about story telling, writing new stories, and learning a new aspect of the writing craft – screenwriting. If you recognize the three names at the top of this post, you may even know why I have fallen silent for a while. Each of these writers approach writing for the screen from different perspectives, but they are all creating a similar finished product.

I started with Syd Field and his updated how to manual, Screenplay the Foundations of Screenwriting. Syd taught lots of people how to write for Hollywood. The format was similar to the three act novel structure, and that made following his book easy. There are a lot of functional differences between novels, short stories, and screenwriting. Syd slides those lessons in as I read, so I never felt overwhelmed by Hollywood jargon. If anything, I felt like a fan granted a tour of the writers room that I didn’t even know existed.

I learned something else after finishing his book. My next writing project felt easier to write, because the principles I learned for screenwriting worked just as well for short stories. Three acts are the same, the turns between acts land in the same places, and building characters and settings that grab your readers is as universal for every story I’ve ever read as it is for any movie or TV show I’ve ever watched.

I had never heard of story circles.

I’d watched quite a bit of Dan Harmon’s work without ever realizing it. Community has provided me with meme material for years, and I have enjoyed every Rick and Morty episode I’ve watched. But I’d never looked behind the scenes at the writer until I started studying screenwriting in earnest. The story circle makes so much sense to me. I spent a solid month working through permutations of Dan’s eight point method, and loved how easily it fit stories I’ve already written, and projects I still have in mind.

Of course, I’m never satisfied with learning one or two new ideas. I have to experiment with new things, and try to mix them together. So the venerable three act structure had to collide with story circles on my desk. I have been having so much fun, I almost feel guilty. Well, maybe not guilty, but I do feel like I would have saved myself a lot of trouble if I’d learned these things sooner. No MFA in college is definitely haunting me as a writer now.

What about Blake?

Again, I’m asking all the right questions. Syd and Dan have some terrific insight into writing and specifically screenwriting, but Blake has perhaps the best practical advice for screenwriting I’ve come across yet. I’m not all the way through Save the Cat, and I won’t spoil it for anyone who has yet to read it. Blake pays homage to Syd in his introduction, so I knew I was on the right track from the very beginning. I’m loving what I’ve read so far, and once I’m done I plan to play theoretical collider all over again. A unified screenwriting technique is on my horizon.

If not for the screenwriting program I am trying to get into, I never would have considered writing for the screen. My attention was focused on novels and short stories. The visual storytelling that Hollywood is famous for would never have occurred to me, and I would have missed out on so much good advice. Even if I don’t make it into the Veterans Writing Project this year, I have put in the work to improve my craft and write better stories. Not a bad way to spend the dark weeks at the end of winter, in my humble opinion.

Tom Petty was right…

Steve Anderson
photo of brown labrador retriever sitting in front of driveway

The waiting is the hardest part.

I haven’t posted here in a while, but I have been busy! I’ve written a new Jack story and started a new short story series. But I’ve done all that to keep my mind occupied while I wait for word back from a writing program and retreat I signed up for in January. Its only been two weeks, and I won’t get an answer back until April. Not knowing is driving me a bit crazier than usual. I’m a writer, so some crazy is normal for me, but this is ridiculous.

My newest story is set in an inconspicuous suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. It revolves around Hannah Davidson, a medical research grad student who has come to stay with her mother and grandfather for the summer. The troubled son of a wealthy family takes an unhealthy interest in her, and the result sets more in motion than Hannah can handle. I enjoy remodeling real world settings into fictional universes, and giving details and back story to Angel’s Landing has been no different.

I won’t spoil the read for anyone, but I will say not everyone or everything is as it seems in the small town and countryside of this new story. Somethings will even change right before Hannah’s unbelieving eyes. Stay tuned here and I’ll share more later. Thanks for sticking around while I wait for news about my application.

Yes, it’s still winter…

Steve Anderson
flower sprout from the ice covered ground

But spring fever has struck me earlier than normal this year!

I have so many projects in motion right now. I’ve finished a fourth jack story, and I’m so pumped with how the series is coming along. I have the manuscript for Fantastic America out again (fingers crossed). And I’m applying to the Veterans Writers project, which is for screenwriting (something I’ve been studying since last Summer). All of that and I keep coming up with new premises for the story I’ll tackle next.

I didn’t intend for this to be an update post, but it turns out that is where this is going. I have an idea bumping around for a writing craft post for next week, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested. In the meantime – keep writing!

Am I living through a winter slowdown?

Steve Anderson
macro photography of snowflake

I’ve spent the last few years learning how to tell (I mean SHOW) the stories I want to share. Along the way, I took lots of courses, read books on craft, tried lots of writing software, hired coaches, and joined writers’ groups. Altogether I’ve spent thousands of dollars and many hours relentlessly pecking at my keyboard. I’ve made goal lists, checked off boxes, and patted myself on the back for the content I’ve created.

I have lots of short stories, and a completed manuscript, but I’ve sold next to nothing. The constant stream of rejections has made an impact on me at last. In this overcast wintry period between Halloween and New Year’s Day, I’ve avoided the urge to write. For me, writer’s block has always been an obstacle best overcome by sitting in front of the keys and writing. I might procrastinate, or make excuses, but ultimately I sit back down and write. Until now.

I wrote a post about a health scare I had around Halloween, I went into a diabetic coma for a few hours. That scared me. I changed a lot of habits I’ve developed over my adult lifetime, and could easily use that as an excuse to justify my behavior. That’s all it would be though, an excuse. The slowdown is all on me, and I’m the only one who can fix it.

This post is part of the overhaul I need to get moving again. So, thanks for reading this if you’ve made it this far. Sometimes the best way for me to work through my struggle is to type it out on the page. This is one of those times. I have a lot more stories to write, more worlds to build, and more rejections to log in my excel spreadsheet. It only takes one acceptance to get the ball rolling, right? So I write.