Monthly Archives: November 2008

Reading is key for any genre

Good novels deserve a better place in the life of a writer than as decoration on the ol’ TV stand. Too often, young writers will say they do not want to read that many books, especially those in the style the wish to write in. The trouble is, just the opposite is true; to become …

November 30, 2008 – 11:11 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Tips on getting published | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Two troublesome states of mind on writing

Some people would rather blather on and on about free term life insurance rates than tackle a novel, and yet strangely most people imagine that they have at least one good novel in them. This ambivalence about the task of writing ultimately has to be set aside if one is to become a successful writer. …

November 30, 2008 – 11:03 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

A great writing exercise

One great writing exercise that can keep your mind limber and your writing wit sharp is choosing a completely off-the-wall target and writing about it with every ounce of passion you can muster. For example, there’s a lot of loose talk about the side effects of Alli, the rapid weight-loss drug that’s taking the market …

November 30, 2008 – 10:55 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Keeping reviews fresh

I do a lot of review writing, and when you review as many videogames and movies as I have over the past seven years or so, it gets a little challenging to keep things fresh. If you’re not careful, you can end up blathering on about Mulberry trees just to keep yourself amused and avoid …

November 17, 2008 – 4:54 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Struggling with the supernatural

Lately it’s been easier to write about diet pills that work than to make progress on my mystery novel, Thirty Minutes or Less. I’m in a delicate point in the novel where I need to lay the groundwork for the supernatural elements to come, while still grounding the series in a very realistic world. Also, …

November 17, 2008 – 4:49 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Other writing gets in the way, lately

There’s been a fair amount of other writing getting in my way of working on my novel of late. It’s a bit frustrating. I know I need to write my Torah commentaries and videogame reviews and blog assignments on a regular basis to keep all my plates spinning, but it’s my novel that really energizes …

November 3, 2008 – 1:40 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

45 pages in about 24 hours

I wrote 45 pages in about 24 hours late last week. Unfortunately, that work wasn’t on my novel. Instead, I stoked my creative fire pits to blazing on behalf of my sermon-writing. These efforts including my first full-length sermon, as well as a Torah commentary, and while this sort of writing can go quite a …

November 3, 2008 – 1:35 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in late night writing | Tagged , , | Comments (0)