Do We Really Need ANOTHER Blog on Writers and Writing?

Probably not ... but I'm doing this for a selfish reason. Writers keep asking me about craft and story and process, and I keep answering these questions in emails and during writer events. So it occurred to me that to capture much of this in a blog might be a good idea. Not that I mind revisiting all these topics, because I don't. New examples, fresh outlooks and different voices force me to rethink some ideas and answers. I like all of that. Teaching is a two-way experience: I teach you and you teach me. A nice experience all around.

Today I begin a somewhat systematic series of steps in order to make available my various thoughts, experiences and "answers" to situations, dilemmas, and curiosities encountered as we write our hearts out. I'm going to throw in old and new stuff. Old would be represented by the occasional appearance of "rejection" letters I wrote when I was a publisher. New will be the questions that are asked by clients and workshop attendees as recently as yesterday. 

Hopefully I can be brief, direct, and show examples. Fortunately examples are easy to come by as most writers will share bits and pieces of their work ... and then there are the many published works that show both the skill and magic of a great writer and unfortunately work that was not polished for a world of readers. I will not make fun of any but I won't hide from even using my own errors in judgment and lack of craft to make a point. After all, why not? The great Jane Austen line comes to mind: "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our own turn."

So today I break a bottle of fine red wine across the bow of this ship, The Blog. I set her to sail up and down the wide and narrow river ways and across oceans of many kinds, hoping that with her goes goodwill. Hurrah!