what writers write about when they write about writing

Gord Sellar wrote about how a draft was critiqued and what he felt that meant.

One of the great challenges for this story was the diversity of the feedback I got. Changes I made to certain characters (between the first draft and later drafts, or even during the first draft, when I realized a character could be X instead of Y) got absolutely opposite reactions from different readers.

He closed by suggesting that books, like the variety of beer he also makes, should not be forced into utter conformity.

Ultimately, great writing is about how you figure out interesting, engaging, and wonderful solutions to the problems that your stories are full of.
Beers and stories alike ought to be wonderful. That’s the point, isn’t it? And the wonderful doesn’t come from outside yourself. The wonderful comes from the friction of the interface between you, and the problems in the story.

Wil Wheaton, who wears clown sweaters, misses writing:

I used to write every day, and I looked forward to it. I kept my eyes and my ears and my soul open because I never knew when something was going to crash into my life that would make a good story. I'd like to find a way to get back to that, but I think things have changed so much, it's not really possible to change them back again.

Mur Lafferty Should Be Writing.  The link is to her podcast, well, one of her podcasts.  Podcasting takes her away from writing - she claims.  I think her super hero stories, set in the Mur-verse, are pretty darn good.  Playing for Keeps can be downloaded as a free pdf - or it could; I don't know if that was a limited time deal.

Lafferty and Scott Sigler have managed to find a creative way to break into mainstream publishing.  Sigler especially has worked to build a name for himself by offering his stories in podcast form.  Once he had a following, he got a publishing deal and prepped his podcast groupies to all buy the book when it first came out.  It was briefly the best selling horror book on Amazon.  I am not actually sure what he is doing now, but was a huge fan of his podcast for more than a year.  I discusses his podcast and book on my previous blog here.  Intensely active online, he found my post and commented on it.  I should check out his podcast again. [Later] Wow, the Starter is now being offered.  The Rookie was a lot of fun.  Time to learn more about the Galactic Football League.

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