I greet you somberly on the morning after a terrible tragedy that, in combination with recent natural disasters and artificial discord, has left many people reeling, overwhelmed, and lost. Nothing can remove the hurt that many feel, and confusion will be the theme of many lives for days to come. I do not say that…
Reading aloud. Why don’t we all do this? It’s not a rhetorical question, I seriously want to know why every writer doesn’t use this life hack ALL THE TIME. Editing is a resource intensive task, drawing on attention, concentration, and higher cognition in order to both assess content and, hopefully, identify errors (typographical, grammatical, and…
We, as writers, spend the bulk of our time considering how to write better. We attend workshops, go to conferences, watch TED Talks, and spend hours in hyperbolic time chambers training until our writing can reach the “next level.” And there’s nothing wrong with that. Writing is, after all, what we do and hope to continue doing…
And I’m back with the second half of my list of the Top 10 Best Lyrics! Last time, I kicked things off with lyrics from songs all over the emotional spectrum, and today won’t be any different. To recap, here’s the songs lyrics were pulled from last week: “Stressed Out” – Twenty One Pilots “The…
Let’s be real here for a minute: writing is HARD. The act of creating something wholly new from the ether takes a lot of time, energy, and effort. What truly makes it difficult, however, is that once those resources have been expended…you still may not see the results you desire when you want to (if…
Hello again, true believers! Stopping to think about, that’s kinda a weird way to start a comic book. What was Stan going for with that? Eh, I digress. Today, let’s talk about WHY you’re writing, WHY I’m writing, and WHY anyone ever has written. It’s a short topic and we’ll get entirely done with it…
Welcome back to another Monocled Gamer! Today, I want to talk about my favorite game: Mass Effect 2. Yes, 2. Not 1 and definitely not 3. 4 is right out. More specifically than just raving over why Mass Effect 2 is one of the greatest games ever made (which I could do for hours), I…
Ah, writer’s block. Bane of all creatives, everywhere. Most people are familiar with this term, regardless of whether or not they do any writing, predominantly as it’s endemic to the creative arts. We who toil with paper and pen (or typety-typing and LEDs) do not have a monopoly on lulls of inspiration, but I feel…
Call me Ishmael. (Don’t actually. That was just for dramatic effect.) Names are such important things. We take our own very seriously, and I’ve yet to meet a writer who takes their character names less seriously than that. Nonetheless, a character name is an altogether different thing. Most of us, like and use the name…