There are so many things I could talk about in regards to my process and the art of writing.  I think the best place to start is to talk about the breakthrough that eventually led me to the publication of my first novel.  In the fall of 2003, I attempted to write my first novel, a fantasy about a war torn post-apocalyptic Earth.  When I began writing, I followed the advice of my UAlbany writing professors--start with the idea and let the story write itself.  No outlining, no planning, no endgame in mind.  The result of these efforts was 100 manuscript pages that were leading me nowhere.  I was at a dead end and frustrated out of my mind.  So I walked away from it, not intent on ever coming back to it.

The next summer, while working as a summer school teacher's assistant, an idea sparked to life.  I wanted to write an innovative novel about dragons that lent a voice to these magnificent, mythological creatures.  However, I didn't want to be stonewalled by the same creative approached that made my last foray into novel writing an abject failure.  So I said to Hell with my so-called professors' advice and decided to create a detailed, intricate outline for this new novel.  After a few days of work and research, I had a smooth, flowing outline for what would become my first complete and now published novel, Fenicus Flint & the Dragons of Berathor.  The vast majority of the novel was completed in two months time, with the remaining chapters pieced together a little at a time over the next ten months. 

Over the last seven years, my process has been streamlined so that the vast array of ideas I generate (and I mean VAST) can be crafted into living story lines with little to no writer's block to get in the way.  So what do I do?  When I get an idea for a new story, I first of all write it down in my writer's notebook.  Any standard composition notebook will suffice.  Then, as I start to gather several ideas for scenes or story events, I write them down on a 3x5" index card.  Over time, I amass enough index cards to tell the entire story.  Once I've reached this point, I lay out all the cards on a table before me and start to rearrange them in a logical and cohesive order that best tells the story in a riveting, entertaining manner.  Those cards are then numbered and affixed to a bulletin board, much like they are in an animated feature storyboard process.  The beauty of this process is that it doesn't require me to think of the story from beginning to end in order to outline or envision it.  Instead, I focus on the images/ideas that stir me the most, and then I work to fill in the gaps with events that help move the plot forward.  It likewise allows me to pick which chapter I want to work on instead of writing chronologically.  I find the greatest amount of writer's block occurs when a writer is forced to work on content that is not burning a hole in their brain.  Hence, my cure for writer's block.  I find the chapter/scene that appeals to me the most and then I go to town on it.  When I'm finished with the drafting, I usually have to go back through the text and fix and continuity errors that may occur if I strayed at all from the outline, but it's an evil of the process I am willing to work with.

If any of these ideas work for any of my readers, please feel free to adopt them for yourself.  I know this is not terribly original, but it's a process by which I've found some success.  That's all for now.  Never let go of your dreams.

Writing has been part of my life since before I can remember.  As I now see my first novel making its way into the public eye, I look back on all the trials and tribulations that have led me to where I am and what I hope to become.  This blog will be a repository for all my thoughts and experiences as both a writer, publisher, and teacher of creative writing.  Feel free to comment on my posts.