I’m an IT project manager by day. For the past couple of months, I’ve started applying to my creative life some of the productivity techniques and principles I use at work. I thought I’d share some of my successes, with the hope that at least one of you may find them helpful. Please feel free [...]
Author Archive > johnremy
Hole in the Ground Contest!
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” This is the opening line to the Hobbit. According to Wikipedia, it came to Tolkien while he was grading papers. Not only should this bring hope to teachers and grad students everywhere, it’s the first step on an epic journey that many of us have [...]
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Goals
What do you think of your goals? Are they all thorny stick, no carrot cake? Do your goals tire you more than they inspire you? If so, you’re not alone! Think of this post as a Dear Abby or Savage Love column for those of you who, like me, are in dysfunctional relationships with your [...]
Guest Post from Tracie Welser: Writing Conventions and How to Survive (an Incomplete List)
Tracie Welser is a graduate of the 2010 Clarion West Writers Workshop. Her recent publications include “A Body Without Fur” (May/June 2012 Interzone) and “Her Bones, Those of the Dead” (forthcoming in Outlaw Bodies). You can find her online at This Is Not An Owl and twitter: @traciewelser. “Writing, at its best, is a lonely [...]
On Gatekeepers and Making Our Own Rules
My SF-writing dreams are as traditional as they can get. I want to make a living by selling my fiction to publishers. I long to see my name nestled with other SF-award nominees, on the cover of Asimov’s, on the New York Times Bestseller list, and on the shelf of the local bookstore. The [...]
Guest Post from Brooke Bolander: This Too Shall Pass
Brooke Bolander is the nymph stage of a foul-mouthed cicada that only emerges from the earth once every thirty years. She’s also a larval writer and Clarion UCSD grad, with stories featured or upcoming in issues of Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Reflection’s Edge, and [PANK]. For more aimless ramblings, check out her website at brookebolander.com or, if you’re into [...]
Revision: Art or Craft?
Do you see your writing as more of an art, or a craft? Is your ability to tell stories something inherent and intuitive, or is each sentence the product of conscious, deliberate, meticulous crafting? (In D&D terms, are you more sorcerer or wizard?) I think I’m a mix of both. Some aspects of writing flow [...]
Delicious Prose
Stories are like meals. Some I tear through the way I attack a greasy mountain of chili cheese fries. I slurp them down, satisfying guilty cravings that sometimes leave me regretting the experience. Others are like expensive sushi, and I let each morsel linger on my tongue, willing it to melt slowly into memory. I [...]
Guest Post: Research, or, Why You Should Start at the Library, by John Klima
John Klima is the Assistant Director of the Waukesha Public Library. He also edits the Hugo Award–winning magazine Electric Velocipede. As of 2010, the magazine has also been nominated for the World Fantasy Award four years in a row. In 2007 Klima edited an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories based on spelling-bee winning [...]
Getting a Handle on Your Short Story Queue
At the Rainforest Writer’s Retreat, there was a friendly competition to see who who could win the highest word count (for my session, it was Keffy, who did most of a NaNoWriMo in 3.5 days). I, on the other hand, was putting down more calories (in the form of brownies and cake baked each day [...]
