Daily Archives: September 8, 2008

Supernatural companion?

One of the big troubles with creating a mystery series is explaining why a particular person is always around when death pops up. After all, I’ve been alive and kicking for 41 years, soon 42, and I’ve never once stumbled across a murdered body. There are as many ways to solve this dilemma as there …

September 8, 2008 – 4:13 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Writing to completion

Mediterranean cruises are out of the question until I finish my new novel and get it accepted somewhere, but that’s one of the beautiful things about completing a project; it’s the first step toward getting something in print and reaping the rewards of that success. It may seem obvious to say this but: you can’t …

September 8, 2008 – 4:05 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Oddly, emotional pain is a motivator

It may seem odd or insensitive, but my mother’s death seems to be bringing out the best in me creatively. I started my new novel shortly after I learned she had terminal cancer, and although matters of taking care of her leading up to her death, as well as her funeral, have kept my wife …

September 8, 2008 – 4:00 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Writing in short bursts

I call it “the James Patterson method,” but it’s working for me; one of the best tools I’ve found in making progress on my new novel and not losing interest is to write in short bursts. Rather than composing a novel of maybe twenty chapters of twenty-to-forty pages each – long, ponderous things to write …

September 8, 2008 – 3:54 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

A meditation on Hope…

After spending five years doing sports journalism in northwestern Wisconsin, I developed a tribute community as a fictional setting for some of my stories, based on those experiences. Hope, Wisconsin is what I named it, and it’s an amalgamation of all my Wisconsin experiences. I first visited hope in a graphic novel project I’m still …

September 8, 2008 – 3:43 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Feels great to be writing again

It feels great to be writing a novel again, for the first time in over a decade. I’d let myself venture into the world of script-writing, working on comic book and stage projects, but honestly never really finishing anything for the last several years. Now, I’m a few short chapters into a very exciting-to-write novel …

September 8, 2008 – 3:35 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)