College Life

   College has started. I said last week it hadn't started yet. Now it has. It's a bit worse and not quite as bad as I thought it would be. However, there is a lot of work required. Lots of writing and reading and pulling out my hair. So, this blog post is late. And I really don't have a lot of time to write stuff, so I'm just going to give a link and hope that I have something more substantive to give for next week. (But that doesn't mean you should leave.)
   

The Writer's Kiss

   I've been reading recently. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise: a writer must always be reading in order to keep sharp. But most of the time I'm reading fiction, investigating how others tell stories that I might better tell my own. Though, I must admit, sometimes I read merely as a means of entertaining myself. The difference the current reading holds is that I am reading a book about writing: The Writer's Art by James J. Kilpatrick. It's a wonderful book; humorous and educational. I've learned a lot. One of the first points Kilpatrick makes is that writers need to be clear when they write. They should cut unneeded words and simplify any wordiness. This reminded me of the KISS acronym: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
   

Writing Update: July 17 2015

   There's a particular feeling of despair that comes over one when it is Friday night and I have no ideas for a blog post. When I have no idea what to write about, I go for something simple. Which is why I aimed for a writing update.
   See, there's this thing I'm supposed to be: an author. I've even come out with two books (that's what that 'Books' tab at the top of the page means). The issue is this: the second book in my Kitten Mysteries series came out last July. And it's been a year (that's how time works, sadly) which means that the next book (The Kyge in the Mist) should come out soon if not now. The issue is that the book doesn't write itself and writing has been very slow recently. So I have almost nothing to say about the writing. So I'm not sure why I'm doing a writing update. Logic would dictate I would do something else, but, well, writing updates are easy and I haven't done one in a while. Maybe I should combine this with a reading update...

Reading Update: July 2015
I recently finished the audiobook of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Very interesting book. I should do a review of it soon.
I am currently rereading The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien. It's a fascinating book with amazing writing (as most people already know). I may even have a post coming soon about the scene where Gandalf, Theoden, and Saruman converse about Saruman's betrayal of all that is good. Look for that coming up, er, soon.

Back to Writing Update
Anyway, the writing is slow, but blog posts are continuous! Though, they may be a little late. So, I guess that's all I have to say for this week. If you want to encourage me to write more, comment below or yell at me on twitter @jesseorice.

Writing in Community

   Writing. It's nasty. It's annoying. It's hard.

   Why did I want to be a writer?

   

5 Tips for Editing a Story

   I have discovered that I learn more about writing by reading bad books than I do by reading good ones. This kind of makes sense, because when I read a good book I'm so drawn into the story that I don't care much about how it was composed. However, when reading a bad book I'm wondering why it is bad and once I've figured out why it is bad I can understand how to fix it. So that's what this blog post is about: a few tips that I've discovered on how to edit a story.