Darius Jones's Blog: A Writer Begins, page 11

El Cid’s Infinite Loop

So, lately, I spend a lot of time writing and editing. And doing a little research on top of that. The stuff I’m writing now follows a thread and a character (Yusuf) who first appeared in The Ghul of Yazd, a short story I wrote on a whim. That character lives in medieval Islamic Spain, Cordoba, to be precise.

I’m still writing pieces in this vein, so I do a lot of research on 12th century Spain. I read secondary sources (meaning historians looking back at that time), but more and more I’m de...

Mix It Up: The Strange Connection between Avicenna and 2 Chainz

Sometimes, doing what you like comes with a price. The price of loneliness, the price of ridicule, the price of just plain obscurity. But great achievement, great art, isn’t about doing what other people want you to do or making stuff just to make money. It’s about listening to that inner voice and following it wherever it leads…

Which brings us to today’s post. I’ve written about following this voice before (writing that story that burns in your belly), but today I want to follow up with a...

Jammin’ on Deadlines

Working hard this week. I am “work-working,” fiction writing and now, blogging a bit. I’m jamming on multiple deadlines, so will keep this short.

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So, a quick update: I’m working on a story and it’s going pretty well. I took a little time out to understand where the plot is headed, got it figured out (thanks, B–!) and now I’m ready to forge ahead. This is my major writing project at this time and everything else writerly (blog, submissions, etc.) is taking a back seat!

I also keep submitting...

Listening to Music While Writing

Hey, everybody. How’s it going?

A post today on a writing tweak I’ve started back up this year. As you know, I try to analyze my writing a little and figure out new tweaks that help me become more productive. At the beginning of this year, I said I would try writing with music again.  Well, I am and it’s going well.

 

Here’s the setup: I just go to the café, get my coffee. Sit down, plug in my laptop and put  on my headphones. Sometimes, I just cruise through my favorite tracks on YouTube, bu...

Listening to Music While Writing–Again

Hey, everybody. How’s it going?

A post today on a writing tweak I’ve started back up this year. As you know, I try to analyze my writing a little and figure out new tweaks that help me become more productive. At the beginning of this year, I said I would try writing with music again.  Well, I am and it’s going well.

 

Here’s the setup: I just go to the café, get my coffee. Sit down, plug in my laptop and put  on my headphones. Sometimes, I just cruise through my favorite tracks on YouTube, bu...

The Craft: Theseus in the Labyrinth

The young king staggered back and stood alone in the darkness. The great beast’s chest heaved one last time and stopped forever. He wiped the bloody sword blade on the hem of his tunic and grabbed a torch from the wall. And in that moment, gazing down at his vanquished enemy, he realized that the real Minotaur, the real man killer of Crete, was not the beast itself, but the labyrinth. The beast that he must slay was not the dead creature on the ground, but the tons of mute rock and wall surro...

A Good Writing Day

I’ll make this one simple and quick. I just want to recount a good writing day I had recently because they can be hard to come by and I want to hold onto it, in case I need it later.

It’s easy to recount because I can break it down in three, easy pieces…

Not Checking My Email
One of the big rules I have for my Writing Day is ‘Not Checking the Email in the Morning.’ Why is that? It’s simple: I don’t want to have a possible literary rejection hanging over my head.

Now, I know it’s good to be t...

The Craft: What I Learned about Writing from “Mike Tyson’s Punchout!”

Here’s a funny little realization I had on the connection between a classic Nintendo game  and my writing.

In the olden times, when we weren’t fighting off the dinosaurs or gathering brush to feed the fires in our caves, every spare moment we had not fighting off said-dinosaurs or gathering said-kindling, was spent hunched around the fire, or better yet the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. (Most caves, oddly, had electricity!). And one of the most popular games on the NES was “Mike Tyson...

Here’s to Crappy First Drafts

Funny thing happened this past week. My buddy, D—, finished the first draft of his novella.

Now, what’s funny about this is that it’s been awhile since D— wrote something, well, anything really. So, I was happy to hear a while back that he was writing again. I’d like to think that I helped to fire him up, motivate him and get him writing again.

Back in the day (I won’t specify which one), D— and I used to hang out a lot, talk about writing…And then write stuff and share it with one another....

A Crazy Week—In Real Life

Hey Guys,

I was intending to write a good, substantive post this week, but life has conspired to intervene. Work is crazy, life is hectic…But writing is good, that part…is pretty darn good.

So, anyway, everything is pretty unsettled. So instead of writing a proper post when—frankly—I don’t feel like it, I’m going to make this an ultra-short post.

One short note: I am working on revising a short story at an editor’s request, so that is a bit of good news. But of course, that also eats into b...