Black Gate Update

I have almost all of the book reviews in now for issue 12, and almost all of the game reviews as well. The cover is excellent, one of my favorites. I need to get John to post it. Need it be said, then, that issue 12 should soon be ready? If it weren’t for the required delay between layout and printer, I think we’d have a version ready by the end of this month. John’s been working at it for a while now.

Which brings up an interesting point — is anyone out there interested in a PDF version of Black Gate (in addition to the printed version, of course)?

Writing Thoughts

In the past I would stick with the writing of a scene as I’d planned it, doggedly persisting even if it felt like it wasn’t going well. I suppose I used to do this because, well, NOT writing is easier than writing, as any writer can tell you, and this writer at least has to be constantly on guard about making excuses to NOT write.. I realized the other day, though, after I was about 1000 words into a new chapter, that the scene was boring me. I polished it up and re-read it and walked away, thinking I was being lazy for not writing on… But I’m glad I walked off. I realized that I needed to ditch the scene and write one that was interesting to write — after all, if I’m not enjoying writing the scene, how much fun will it be to read?

So my tip to myself for the day was to learn to trust my instincts. If there’sa reason I don’t feel like writing the scene, maybe the answer isn’t laziness, but that the scene isn’t working. The odd thing about this tip, though, is that I couldn’t have told this to young Howard and have had any affect on him. It’s all fine and well to trust your instincts, but my epiphany this time was that I should learn when I’ve developed the instincts to trust.

Howard