I've been building a book about a detective who believes everything has a rational explanation, and I've dropped him into a world where magic is real on the first page. The detective is the Scarecrow. That's the joke underneath the whole thing — he isn't an outsider who wanders into Oz skeptical of it. He's … Continue reading The Rules Behind the Magic
Category: Books & Writing
When Nothing Comes
7-40 Challenge | Round 5 Day 8 Creativity isn't a hobby for me. It's close to the center of who I am — the thing I'd still be doing if nobody ever read a word of it. Which is exactly why the nights it won't come feel like more than a bad night. I sit … Continue reading When Nothing Comes
The Voice I Like to Read
7-40 Challenge | Round 5 Day 6 I read Phase Defiant somewhere between eight and ten times before I finished it. Not just to fix it — I'd already fixed a lot of it. I read it because I liked reading it. Every pass, it still struck me. I'd written the kind of book I … Continue reading The Voice I Like to Read
Introducing Myself
7-40 Challenge | Round 5 Day 4 Before I can write a character, I have to introduce myself to them. That sounds strange for people I invented, but it's the truest way I know to describe it. I have to spend time — not just in the story I want to tell, but in the … Continue reading Introducing Myself
The Route
7-40 Challenge | Round 5 Day 3 I sat down to work on the novel tonight and didn't write a single sentence of it. I spent the whole session working out how the major threads connect — how one specific character has to move through the story to get where she needs to end up. … Continue reading The Route
David Willis 