by Jim Stitzel | Feb 24, 2006 | Writing
I don’t know how it is for other fiction writers, but usually the way I land on complete stories is by snagging “scenes”:http://open-dialogue.com/blog/?p=229 that spin about through my head and writing them down on paper. They’re incomplete...
by Jim Stitzel | Feb 24, 2006 | Writing
I find that I tend to go in cycles. For several weeks my mind will race through dozens of topics and issues, providing me an endless source of article fodder. Then I’ll hit a dry spot, a veritable intellectual desert in which no good idea will grow. It is these...
by Jim Stitzel | Jan 25, 2006 | Writing
When taking the first steps into your new world as a speculative writer, it’s often a good idea to ignore the first things you ‘see’. It’s all too easy to get caught in the Land of Clichés, where the environment in which your story takes...
by Jim Stitzel | Jan 19, 2006 | Writing
I’ve seen a friend do this and I really like the idea. It allows for a certain level of creativity. Here’s what I want — regular readers, lurkers, and surfers-by, I am going to let you decide what I write about through your requests. It can be silly...
by Jim Stitzel | Dec 22, 2005 | General
During my commute home from work the other night, a song came on the radio that caught my attention after a minute or two. It was something in the pop rock genre, but what stood out to me about it was the fact that for the duration of almost the entire song, it never...
