Writer. Editor. Thinker.

Who am I? Why am I writing?

I cannot be the first writer (as a matter of fact, I know I am not) to say that the hardest thing to write is an author bio. Actually, a bio of any kind is difficult: how do I encompass all that I am, all that I believe I am, in a handful of sentences? How do I communicate my desperation to connect in this world, to have the threads I am throwing catch and hold in the minds of others?

I worked out this little slogan, “Writer. Editor. Thinker.”, some time ago, back when I believed I would need to be A Brand just to succeed in this world. I think it serves me well because who I am tends to manifest most often as a collection of opinions. Multiple people have told me that for any topic that comes up, I seem to already have an opinion on it. I do have a lot of opinions. I observe the world and think about it, allowing the ideas of others to polish my opinions as I grow.

So perhaps the easiest way to talk about myself is to share some things about how I view writing—as craft, as ethos, and as utility.

The story is the story.

You know that scene in Inception when Ariadne talks about design as a process of discovery? That is…kind of how I feel about stories: the story exists, pure and cohesive, in some liminal Story Space. As a writer, the decisions I make are less about guiding the story and more about conveying it in the best possible form. I am convinced there is no feeling in the world to match the euphoria of realizing a story beat that perfectly ties together all the threads you’ve been weaving throughout—like the feeling of finding a particularly esoteric easter egg in someone else’s work, multiplied by a thousand.

Few things in storytelling make me as angry as an author taking a character or a story to a place that doesn’t make sense for that character or story. Few things disappoint me as much as an author failing to see the better story they’ve buried underneath their proverbial darlings, visible to the audience only in glimpses of brilliance. I hope never to become so convinced of my own authorship that I fail my story or my characters—and, ultimately, my audience.

The Writer’s Ego.

I believe all writers have a particular type of ego, one which I’ve confirmed among my writer friends: I believe simultaneously that I am the greatest writer who ever lived and the worst writer who ever lived. I also believe that both extremes must be kept equally in check. The pitfalls of believing I am the worst may be obvious to anyone who has ever endeavored—or, more often, failed from fear to follow through on their plans. But I am equally wary of the pitfalls that come from believing I am the best: the moment I become convinced that I have grasped greatness, I blind myself to the ways I might still reach.

The goal of all writing is communication.

Writing is not a solitary act—the author is in constant dialogue with the audience. If you are a writer who writes only for yourself, I would love to have a conversation about that impulse! I do not know such a writer.

When I judge writing, I do so by the traditional metrics—but that is not my only criteria. I am in dialogue with the writer (to whom I address my annotations), and I judge the elements of grammar and style with consideration to whether the author has adequately communicated with me. When I suggest a style change, I consider parallelism, syntax, and figurative language—but I also consider connotation, usage, comprehension, and poetry.

Yes, poetry. A YouTuber whose content I love has the following quotation in one of her videos: “Justice for Hannah Ann. Just as…” Hearing this throws me every time. Do you hear it? Try saying it aloud. The beginning sounds of both sentences is so similar that it sets you up to hear a repeated phrase. It’s jarring. I read a romantasy novel this year that more than once used the construction “-ness -ness” (in consecutive words). The flow was…kind of gross.

Then again, perhaps I was not the intended audience for either of those works. This touches on my purpose in publishing my writing: I am looking for my audience. If fifty people loved my book and wanted to talk about its themes for years on end, I would consider myself successful. It’s not about publishing a bestseller; it’s about connecting.

For me, to be a writer is to be Walt Whitman’s “Noiseless, Patient Spider”, spinning threads and casting them into the unknown, praying for one to catch. Any time someone connects with my writing, I feel…accomplished. I have done what I wished to do—I said something. And it resonated with someone. I was understood.

Which brings me to my next thesis…

There are no new stories, only new ways to tell them.

I have a quote for just about every scenario. Most of them are short—some are no more than epithets. When the quote is from a movie or tv show, I can recall longer pieces, because I have heard the audio enough times to memorize it. With books…I cannot remember a whole passage—even a whole poem (save for “The Red Wheelbarrow”, obviously). I recall…snippets. I had never thought of hating him, because I despised him so thoroughly…poor, obscure, plain, and little…cord of communion. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books—I have deliberately memorized these phrases because they resonated with me.

My goal as a writer is to resonate.

There is a strange thing that happens to you when you write your first story: you begin to see elements of your story in everything you read. Instinctively, you wrap mental arms around your story, whispering all the ways it is special, nothing like this story. But maybe you can use this lesser story as a springboard—and how fast can you get to publication?

I write genre fiction. I am not writing original stories. What I am doing is telling them as only I could tell them. I am using the words only I would use. Perhaps someone else will find among those words the ones that express their life.

So this is a writing blog…?

Eh. Probably…? I want a place to share my art—things I have written or painted or drawn. I also want a place to share my thoughts—on writing and art, but also on the ways those topics intersect with life as I experience it. Maybe some posts will just be screenshots of me ranting to my friend and fellow writer on Discord. Maybe some posts will be snippets of stories that never went anywhere. Some posts will almost certainly be poems (I write a lot of poems). I am throwing out some threads, hoping they will catch. If they catch with you, then…

…well, then, I will have found my audience.