writing

  • I originally planned to cover the second C of Capture, Configure, Control today, but I decided to do another post about Capture. To me, Capture is the piece where it’s easiest to go awry. It’s far too easy to use the email inbox as a place of Capture, and that rarely works well for anyone.…

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  • Monday Musings

    July has just flown by this summer. It normally does feel like it goes faster than June, but this year, it seemed exceptionally speedy. Saturday is August 1, and for me, it’s a “new year.” I like to have new years throughout the calendar – why should January get all the fun? But reading James…

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  • “Once I started sitting at my desk all day writing, my energy level gradually declined, and I started putting on the pounds. I was smoking too much, too, as I concentrated on my work. Back then I was smoking sixty cigarettes a day. All my fingers were yellow, and my whole body reeked of smoke.…

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  • Since I am (was) attempting to write 52 bad stories, I also thought it would be good to read 52 good stories. I am reading through The Art of the Short Story by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn. If you are looking for an anthology of classic short stories that will make you swoon…

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  • Since I am (was) attempting to write 52 bad stories, I also thought it would be good to read 52 good stories.  This week’s story is A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Márquez. Pelayo and Elisenda have a sick child, and after a storm, they find an old man with enormous…

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  • Like any manufacturing plant, here at the Story Factory, we value quantity over quality. More words, more hours, more stories. The goal is 52 stories at the end of the year. So far, we are on target. Which, I know, isn’t much to say at this point of the year, but on the other hand,…

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  • I is for

    This month I am participating in the A to Z blog challenge. http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/ The challenge involves 26 posts in April, all somehow connected to the alphabet. My theme for the month is short stories. The Story Factory needs market research, of course, so I will be reading a short story for each letter of the alphabet…

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  • G is for…

    The challenge involves 26 posts in April, all somehow connected to the alphabet. My theme for the month is short stories. The Story Factory needs market research, of course, so I will be reading a short story for each letter of the alphabet and trying to learn some new techniques for my story writing. My…

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  • This year I am reading The Art of the Short Story by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn. There are 52 stories and essays from 52 writers, and I am focusing on one each week. This week’s story is Cathedral, by Raymond Carver.Carver is said to be a master of the craft, and this story…

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  • “As for ‘Write what you know,’ I was regularly told this as a beginner. I think it’s a very good rule and have always obeyed it. I write about imaginary countries, alien societies on other planets, dragons, wizards, the Napa Valley in 22002. I know these things. I know them better than anybody else possibly…

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