Wasting oxygen since 1992, Sam thanks the gods he doesn't believe in everyday his parents didn't discard him as an infant. It would have been the sensible thing to do.
Why is choice the single most important part of stories? Because choice reveals character. Static characters make the same choices and react the same way. That’s fine if you’re a procedural network show or sitcom (think Law & Order or Seinfeld, where the maxim of “no hugging, no learning” was…
You know, it’s amazing. I can write literally hundreds of thousands of words but the moment I sit down for a blog post, I’m on Twitter, or YouTube, or Netflix, or staring off into space, drooling like some deranged mental patient (apologies to all my mental patient readers, checking in…
What began as a simple Slog update has unsurprisingly morphed into another long-winded reflection. I’m (overly) introspective by nature. I reflect (too) often. Before I can fully move forward (clears throat) in LOST parlance . . . Reason being, I am addressing some writings floating on the Internet where I…
Well . . . 2020 kinda sucked didn’t it? With that belated understatement out of the way, my last post came way back in October 2020 when I celebrated the completion of the first draft of The Darkest Fate. Since then, I’ve been in the editing weeds, occasionally changing it…
Tomorrow, I’ll be 28. The first draft of my novel is complete. Happy birthday, me! . . . So what’s next? I must admit, my current situation feels a bit like Wile E. Coyote running off the cliff; if I look down, I’ll fall. I deliberately left much of my…
On the last episode of Sam Writes a Novel, our hero sat atop a pile of words – almost 190,000 – at the halfway mark of 2019. For context, he entered the year with around 120,000 words written, a compilation of outlines, notes, and scattered scenes. The first half of…
Next time you feel empty or underwhelmed watching fantasy of any genre, ask yourself if the supernatural or technological leaps are analogous to anything a human goes through.
2019 has been a busy year for me, inasmuch as “busy” applies to a person who sits in one place to do his work and aspires to such an existence pretty much indefinitely. The sheer fact that I am Slogging at all is an achievement, a startling contrast to my…
A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE will end with A DREAM OF SPRING. HBO’s adaptation, called GAME OF THRONES, ended with “The Iron Throne.” The titles tell all.
“The Long Night” brought us ice, now “The Bells” arrives with fire to complete the song started by George R.R. Martin and finished by Game of Thrones
