Author: Dan
-
Underwriting vs. Overwriting: My Philosophy
Who cares? Just kidding. Almost. What is underwriting or overwriting? They’re pretty self-explanatory, but just so we’re on the same page, here we’re talking about novels. Underwriters create a draft that has less than what the final demands, and overwriters stuff in all the detail plus its dog and family. We’re going to explore both…
-
Song of Kardu is Published: Some Publishing Updates
It was a soft rollout for the most part on May 12, 2025. Admittedly, being a debut author putting his name out to the world for the first time means I know that I’m going to make mistakes and that each step of the journey is going to be a learning point. I got a…
-
Mythological Reflections on Human Struggle: The Birth of Song of Kardu
Hey peeps. I wrote this thinking it might be an afterward for Song of Kardu, but I decided it might make a more appropriate blog post. For those who want a small piece of where my book came from, here it is: Song of Kardu began as a question accompanied by a Scott Joplin song…
-
Finding the Right Daily Word Count Goal for a First Novel
The journey of writing is all uphill, isn’t it? I’ve been writing books steadily for about two years now, but I still haven’t quite hit my stride, not the one I feel that I can, anyway. If i write too hard, I feel like I’m losing quality, but if I write with too much focus…
-
Navigating Annoying Phone Distractions While Writing
Ahoy! You’re sailing these confounded waters too? By waters, I mean the figurative back and forth slosh between addicting distractions vying for our time as writers. Do I even need to ask what they are for you? Actually yes, please comment what blocks you from hours of creative ocean-crossing. What’s mine? I’ll give you one…
-
Finding Readers: Two Roads on the Publishing Adventure
Resolutions, humbug. I don’t think Scrooge said that, but he probably would. The man was all about a busy, moneymaking life, but he was also a real case of the pessimizers. I just made up that word. Love it or hate it, it’s on the page. Also, more about Dickens later. Recently, I wrote an…
-
The Winds Out Uranus
Uranus is a special place, that’s what they told me anyway. Initial probes way back when showed promise, like if a population of the galaxy’s nerds could get in there just right they could make a real home
-
World-Building Lessons from Tolkien for Sci-Fi Writers
In sci-fi, an author has to show not only cool applications of science in the future, or alternate history, or whatever branch of sci-fi the author is highlighting, the author needs to paint a picture of the evolution of culture. As the writer, you can look at Tolkien’s painstaking work…
-
My Journey to Earning 20 Thousand a Month as a Writer
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein So that’s my goal, plain and simple, live life as a writer that earns a nice twenty thousand dollar signs monthly. You could argue that money is a thing and therefore can’t be a…
