Monthly Archives: January 2009

A fat-burner for the mind

One of the best ways to cure writers block is to read extremely good writing. Now, I’m not talking about reading someone else’s work at then sitting down and doing something just like what that did. No, what I mean is that sometimes you just need a fat burner for the mind. And for me, …

January 26, 2009 – 3:56 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in creativity | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The best discipline

People ask me how I get time to do the writing I do, where I come by the discipline to get things done, despite how much I tend to take on. Here’s my secret. The best discipline is discipline. Now, don’t misunderstand. Don’t read that wrong like faulty laptop memory. I’m not talking about giving …

January 26, 2009 – 3:51 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Favorite quirks

Sometimes it is the quirks that make a person memorable, more than their actions. I’ve built a lovely group of characters in my current novel, but not because they are all action heroes and damsels in distress. No, unlike what bad tv stands for these days, I enjoy the quiet characters who are just leading …

January 26, 2009 – 3:45 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Reconsidering scenes

As I face the prospect of starting my novel over from the first seven pages, one of the challenges I face is deciding how closely I want to follow in the footpath of what I wrote before. With no backup or hardcopy to go buy, trying to reproduce the same beat and rhythm and dialog …

January 25, 2009 – 10:13 PM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Rants and asides | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Losing most of a novel

I was over 100 pages into my novel, THIRTY MINUTES OR LESS, when tragedy and stupidity combined in a perfect storm and, like a tight corset, squeezed my manuscript back down to about seven pages. I’ll admit it: I was an idiot. What did I do? I failed to back up my novel, either on …

January 12, 2009 – 3:35 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Color me unimpressed with PayPal!

Usually this is a blog devoted to advice on writing, but tonight I need a space to blow off some steam. For well over a year, I’ve been actively using PayPal for online transactions. It’s an industry-standard for folks who transact on the Web, right? Well, color me unimpressed and highly disappointed with PayPal in …

January 8, 2009 – 12:09 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in Rants and asides | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

To use brand names, or not

I believe it was Stephen King who first popularized the convention of using recognizable, real name-brand items in his fiction work. Rather than hide behind euphemisms and half-camouflaged descriptions, King made a habit out of calling a Coke a Coke, a Ford Mustang a Ford Mustang, a Price Pfister faucet a Price Pfister faucet and …

January 7, 2009 – 1:17 AM | By Craig Hansen | Posted in writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)