Workout Time

I’d like to borrow a tired chiché from my music education experience, which is that the “practice makes perfect” mantra is misleading. Practice makes permanent is more often true. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Which raises the question: how does one practice writing?

Joyful Overestimation

I’m the kind of writer who joyfully overestimates his own ability every time I sit down to type.  And I’m sure I’m not the only one…  I smile, pull open my laptop, look at the pages before me and think, “finish editing the whole book today? hell yeah!” One paragraph later: “finish the whole chapter today?  Of course!” Thirty minutes and a few sentences later: “finish the paragraph today?  OBVIOUSLY!” And then I get three sentences done. But even that doesn’t diminish the feeling I get when I start working.  I…

“Rantasy” or; Hi, Fantasy, I’m Zach

Place yourself in a writer’s shoes, and you find yourself in an interesting situation. First of all, why’d you steal those shoes? Do they even fit you? Secondly, a person asks you “what’s your book about?” the primary modus used to explain books is by genre. And that’s where I answer “well, it’s a fantasy book,” and already people jump to conclusions about the book and the quality of the story.