I like receiving comments on what I write. Many, many people do. It's often, secondary of course to the idea behind it, the main reason I let people read what I create. It's not a bad thing; my ego likes hearing praise, but my brain and my ambition as an author also requires critique in order for my trade to develop, because you can never get better at something if everyone tells you you're doing...

Someone once told me that you should never write according to expectation. Not creatively, at least. Your words are yours for a reason, and should not be weighed down with what group of readership will enjoy what, or when. This includes, and perhaps should be especially applied to, what your family expects and wishes to read. If you are to become your own person, to secede from the role that...

At least, lately. And I'm not sure why.I love a good story. I like writing good stories. So it confuses me when I gaze into the front page of a story that looks really promising, but can't bring myself to start the first chapter because of something as par for the course as emotional investment. What I mean by 'emotional investment' is, well, you know how there are, in any story with a decent...

I'm kicking myself into gear for the remainder of the holidays and will be participating in a 100 Theme Challenge.What's that, you ask?I have two lists of 100 simple themes. One is of circumstances and concepts, and the other is of emotions and emotional states.I use a random number generator (this one - http://www.random.org/ ) to generate a number from 1 to 100, and then I look at my lists for...