I just listened to Joe Hill give some advice on New Hampshire Public Radio. I admire, among other things, his discipline in choosing a pseudonym and sticking to it for several years without much success, all the time knowing that if anyone knew he was Stephen King's son, he could succeed on his father's merits.
He mentioned that he writes his first draft longhand and that means that since he is typing for the first time when he starts his second draft that he is not so wed to ideas or story-lines. Choosing not to type them is a lot easier than deleting ones already typed, I imagine.
His most difficult lesson, and the most obvious, and the least appreciated or accepted, is that no piece of advice is magic, no words from a mentor will write your story for you. He didn't offer to make the special King Tea that makes stories pour out while you sleep, but instead insisted we type them word by individual word. Just like he does.
I see that this is a podcast. The webpage is here and look for 10 minute writer's workshop on whatever pod-catcher you use.
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For me, blogging is a place for first draft ideas. I feel embarrassment when I see the mistakes I made - in almost every single frickin' post -but in the larger sense, in ideas and flow, I am willing to relax my standards. I sometimes write a blog post to see where my ideas take me, what I really know instead of think I might remember. An example of that can be found on another blog of mine, surprisesaplenty, where I work out how I feel about criminal action and consequences for police officers. it really isn't relevant to this blog, but if you are interested, well, there it is.
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