The Day Job: Making a Writing Group Work

One time when I was in a writers’ group, a member submitted a manuscript that he was a little nervous about. He said it had some four-letter words in it. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but he was conscientious. At the next meeting, the critiques progressed swimmingly until we got […]

The Day Job: InterNetTion

So, you’ve been slaving over your writing for weeks on end, isolating yourself in your writer’s garret, awash in the miasma of tossed away drafts and abandoned ideas. You know it’s time to get out and renew your creative engines, but the next convention is weeks away, or maybe you’ve never been to a […]

The Day Job: Carpe Penicullus

I experienced a chilling moment while on a flight this year. The attendant said, “If Denver is your final destination, thank you for traveling with us.” She creeped me out. “Final destination,” indeed! Bill Bryson writes in A Short History of Nearly Everything that “Even a long human life adds up […]

The Day Job: Quitting It

Keep telling yourself, it’s not about the money.

When I first got it into my head that I wanted to be a writer, I had a pretty specific (if contradictory) vision of what that would be like. On one hand, the life looked incredibly romantic. You know, that sensitive Byronic picture of the writer […]

The Day Job: Get Out of the House

When writing isn’t the day job, then your writing “office” is probably in your house. Of course, for writers who do make their living through words, their office is probably at home too. For many, the idea of working from home is the ideal. Sleep late. Trundle down to the computer […]

The Day Job: Writing Thoughts to Contemplate

I like short, pithy advice about writing. Maybe I’m just a simple guy, but I think more about the easily digested suggestions I’ve read than the long, theoretical essays contained in the several dozen writing books on my shelves. For example, when I had a chance to have Connie Willis sign a copy […]

The Day Job: Generating Hard Science Fiction Story Ideas Painlessly

Editors frequently bewail the paucity of hard science fiction stories, and many writers would love to be able to write them, but what, short of a doctorate in science or math, will give a budding science fiction writer the knowledge and background to write a hard science fiction story? Stan Schmidt, the editor of […]

The Day Job: Finding the Time

I teach high school and college English, have three school-aged children, drive a forty-minute commute to work, and I’m an essentially lazy person. I love long reading sessions where I bury myself in a recliner I bought just for reading, and I’m addicted to complete televisions series on DVDs.
Napping appeals to me. […]

The Day Job: Being Professional

One of the ongoing arguments in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) concerns what makes a writer professional. A small but influential cadre within the organization defines the term easily: a writer is professional when she makes her living from selling her writing. Anything less makes the writer a […]

The Day Job: Growth, Learning, and the Search for Teachers

It arrives in snippets.
In high school and college I’m sure my English teachers were caring, competent purveyors of English education. Undoubtedly they offered helpful advice, inspiring direction and constructive criticism. If only I had been ready to learn.
Now I’m ready. Where are they? Where’s the instruction to help me grow as […]