Finding Voice
I heard an interesting conversation the other day about finding my writer’s voice. After mastering the writing craft, voice isn't found by looking inwards with some advanced form of navel-gazing. Instead, it's found by outward engagement with the world. I’ll find it...
Time to Discard the Broken-Down
My Stanley coffee thermos (see photo), which I have used every day for the past several years, has started to breakdown internally. It has served its purpose well, but it’s now time to throw it away. Several of my beliefs are just like that. It's time to move...
My Seventh Mentor
Recognizing that my mentors are all one-way, fantasy relationships, I have decided to add one more, No. 7: the Seattle-based, prolific writer and philosopher Charles Johnson! Paraphasing Dorothy Boyd from the movie Jerry Maguire: You had me at “writing is a way of...
A New Thriller Genre?
There are quite a few sub-genres of thrillers: Psychological thriller.Action thriller.Crime thriller.Political thriller.Mystery thriller.Spy thriller.Legal thriller.Science fiction thriller.Techno-thriller. I wonder of there is room for one more? How about a...
Synesthesia and The Texture of Reality
I’ve recently been researching a rare neurological condition called synesthesia, which is defined as “a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.” The most...
Craft, Style, and Voice
Voice comes after mastery of style.Style comes after mastery of craft. Voice comes after mastery of style.Style comes after mastery of craft. Voice comes after mastery of style.Style comes after mastery of craft…. Key message: To develop my voice, master my...
Disney At The Museum
I recently attended the Museum of Flight’s The Walt Disney Studios and World War II exhibit. As with any corporate-based exhibit about itself, it was unsurprisingly pro-Disney. For example, it certainly didn’t delve too deeply into such issues as the USA’s Japanese...
My Thoughts on My Need to Blog Daily
I could blog once a week (focusing on optimizing SEO and website visits) instead of once a day (focusing on volume). I should blog once a week (focusing on optimizing SEO and website visits) instead of once a day (focusing on volume). But I don’t. I don’t because I...
A Better Brain-Computer Analogy?
I'm not fond of the Brain-Computer Analogy that suggests neurons are like digital circuits and the brain is a complicated computer. Neurons are orders of magnitude more complex than any digital device having a simple binary output of 0s or 1s. Binary elements—bits—...
The Essence of The Business
The essence of the healthcare business is “doctoring.“ If you have no physicians doctoring, you will have no patients, no nurses assisting, nothing to market, and nothing to bill. Without doctoring, nothing happens. The essence of the writing business is writing. If...