How to find the right writing schedule.| Jim Nelson
A piece of writing advice worth remembering.| Jim Nelson
What if someone simply made their own version of Neuromancer? Not a movie trailer, but the movie itself?| Jim Nelson
B. R. Myers asked an emperor-has-no-clothes question: Instead of rewarding authors by who they are or who they know, why not judge their books by story, language, themes, and meanings?| Jim Nelson
Last year I wrote about dysfunctional narratives, a type of story that Charles Baxter first identified in the 1990s and which now seems overly prevalent today. He quoted a description of them by poet Marilynne Robinson, who also identified this type of narrative. She called it a “mean little myth”: One is born and in […]| Jim Nelson
Flannery O'Connor Previously: Writer's block The year that was 2020 will most likely go down as one of the most significant years of my life: The COVID-19 pandemic, lock-downs and masking, the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing riots, all leading up to the most contentious presidential election...| Jim Nelson
John Turturro in Barton Fink Previously: An all-too-familiar utopia From a novel-writing perspective, 2018 and 2019 was a creative interregnum. After publishing Hagar's Mother in late 2017, I found myself juggling energy between two books.| Jim Nelson
Previously: A literary eulogy Earlier when I’ve paged through my past blog posts to locate my favorite for a particular year, one usually jumped out at me. For 2018, I find myself torn between two favorites. The tiebreaker in a case like this is: Do I have anything more to say on the subject? On […]| Jim Nelson
Not rethinking realism, as in rethinking philosophy’s single, objective reality, hard as rocks and nails. No, I mean rethinking realism in the sense of questioning the elevation of literary realism over the many other forms of fiction. Realism has long been the go-to form in literature for telling a story a certain way. An entire […]| Jim Nelson
Previously: Portable dreamweaversNext: An all-too-familiar utopia Blogging in 2017 was again marked by another foray into the world of Kindle Scout, this time for my Bridge Daughter sequel Hagar’s Mother. That year I also ran a three-part series discussing the crossover between writing fiction and writing code, and some short entries on how I use […]| Jim Nelson
Previously: An unusual parableNext: A literary eulogy 2016 was a busy year for blogging. Amazon accepted Bridge Daughter for their Kindle Scout program, which entailed a month-long nomination process before they agreed to publish it. It was the start of a fairly intense roller coaster ride, most of which I captured in blog posts along […]| Jim Nelson
Previously: The mysterious B. TravenNext: Portable dreamweavers The year 2015 was more productive than the prior for blogging. I managed to eke out twenty-six blog posts, or about one every two weeks. In the world of blogging this is nothing to crow about. I never intended for this blog to be a daily writing exercise, […]| Jim Nelson
Previously: IntroductionNext: An unusual parable This blog launched on the first of August, 2014. It was not a big year blog-wise, but I still managed to put out eleven posts (one of which I’ll return to later this year). Worried I would run out of ideas, I devised “Twenty Writers, Twenty Books,” a series where […]| Jim Nelson
True story: I started blogging before the word “blog” was coined. In 1995, I created a web site known as Ad Nauseam, where I sporadically vented about the software industry, Silicon Valley, and the rise of the World Wide Web. Like most blogging efforts, I ran out of steam after a few years, and set […]| Jim Nelson
I once wrote erotica by accident. Writing and getting the story published is a wild tale. If you know of anything of my output—my novels, my interactive fiction—that might surprise you. You’ve probably never read anything by me that remotely involves the sex act: No kinky sex, no ho-hum sex, not even missionary style. Generally, […]| Jim Nelson