K. Marvin Bruce

  So, I try to post every weekend.   I’m in the middle of a new novel—well, wait.   I’m at the beginning of a new novel, and I have three promised non-fiction papers to finish.   Then after that, back to fiction. I didn’t post last weekend, however, because the internet went out.   Actually, it was my modem that went out.   Hard to believe that in this day and age it takes 48 hours to get a tech to fix something so damned essential, but that’s the world we live in. I tried to get some writing done since you don’t technically need the internet to do it.   It didn’t work.   A weekend without the internet and with no way to post on my beloved blog.   What’s a struggling writer to do? Come up with ideas, that’s what.   My best ideas come up when I’m doing something unrelated to the actual writing I live for.   Taking a walk.   Taking a shower.   Driving.   At least on the taking a walk option I can write things down. ...

If you’re like most working writers, finding time to practice the craft is a major issue.  Between working and commuting and eating breakfast before and supper after work, about 19 hours of the day are taken up.  Not much time left for writing (or sleeping). Many years ago I realized that if I was going to get any writing done I’d have to get up pretty damned early.  Most days that’s just before 3:30 a.m.  I try to write while eating breakfast.  Ideas come like a furious January snowstorm, but most remain scribbles in my notebook.  When does a writer have time to write? When I was young I had plenty of ideas for stories.  I read constantly, and when I wasn’t reading or watching television, I was writing.  It wasn’t until college, though, that it became an obsession.  After my master’s degree, working in a retail chain, I spent my time off work writing a novel. After I got married and time after work was occupied with other things...