Darius Jones's Blog: A Writer Begins, page 17

One More City–with Merle Haggard

So, you probably don’t know this about me, but I’m a huge country music fan. Huge. Not the new stuff, but the classic country. From around the 30s to mid-70s (from about Jimmie Rodgers to Waylon Jennings). The modern stuff, just doesn’t really do it for me.

As such, I was truly bummed this week to learn Merle Haggard had passed away. Many of you, especially those of you outside the U.S., might not have heard of him. Well, let me cure you of that with a look at three songs from one of America...

Diego and the Peaches

So, done a lot of thinking lately. And I think that I may have been doing this blog “wrong.”

Not that anyone can blog the “wrong” way. But I’m a story teller, and stories have been a bit sparse on this blog. And I want to change that. Now, these won’t be fiction stories (as you probably know: once you publish a story on your blog, it’s considered “published” and most magazines/publishers will no longer consider it). Instead, these will just be plain stories. Nothing less, nothing more. They’...

Title Reveal: The Sludge Ship Chronicles

It’s time to come clean, as it were. I’ve been writing and working whenever I can, as you all know. That’s resulted in the first draft of a play, and now it’s time to do the title reveal as I steadily edit, condense and refine the second draft.

The play’s working title is “The Sludge Ship Chronicles.” What, you’re asking, is a sludge ship? Well, it’s a ship that carries sludge, obviously. In the bad, old days, empty sludge ships filled their cargo holds with raw human waste from sewers. Then...

Thoughts on Writing My First Play

So, I’ve done something strange or weird or wonderful or just plain crazy—I’ve written a play. And it’s a comedy. As for the name and all that, I want to get to a second draft before I do a title reveal or anything like that. But that will come in time…

Right now, I just want to capture some basic—very basic—thoughts I had about the experience of writing a play. You see, I’ve only written straight-up prose before: short stories, novellas, novels. But plays…Plays, man…They’re something differe...

How You Can Support the Art of Fiction

People often have more power than they think. The easiest thing to do in the world is throw up your hands and say: “Well, what am I supposed to do about it?” and just move on and forget. The following post is designed to discourage you from doing that.

A question I often think about, but am rarely asked is: “How can I support the art of writing fiction?” Well, here are some ideas. Broken down into three areas, in no particular order:

1. Buy books from writers you enjoy
It doesn’t matter to m...

Writing and Running

Hey everybody, I’m taking the opportunity today to keep this blog super short (as discussed in my Jan. 1, 2016 post). I have a longer piece I’m working on today and the top priority is getting that done…TOP PRIORITY.

I will be back on the regular blog schedule next time (2 weeks from now, Feb. 12) with news about this latest piece and any new developments in my writing.

Stay tuned, things are sure to get interesting.

,Darius

Until then, enjoy the linked article which features one Mohammed...

Rothko, ‘Nothing to Lose and a Vision to Gain’

A man once said, “You must constantly fight against the illusion that you have something to lose” or something very similar. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. And I’ve been wondering if that man didn’t lift or modify that quote from an earlier artist (who also was speaking at a commencement ceremony).

What am I talking about? Last month, I was down in Texas. Houston to be exact. We decided to hit the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (a museum not to be missed, if you’re in the area). Th...

My Writing Life in 2016

Whew. Is it 2016 already? Man, time flies. So, let’s get right down to it. What are my plans for writing this year? Here they are, broken down into some bite-size chunks. As always, these goals are realistic and “Epictetusian” (not relying on others or outside influences to be accomplished. For example the goal: “Get 2 of My Stories Published” doesn’t cut it.).

1. Go to 2 Cons.
My plan last year to go to three Cons, alas, was too ambitious. This year I’m hoping to go to two. One down south, a...

A Look Back at My Year in Writing—2015—A Sort of Capitulation

2015 was a tough one. No doubt. I’ll try to recap here the main developments and the things I achieved and didn’t achieve. Next week, we’ll look forward to 2016 and what I’m planning next.

1. I didn’t get a new work published.
This one stings, no doubt. I think two of the stories I wrote this year (“Pacha-Mama” and “Barabanchik”) are both top notch. Unfortunately, the big bad world seems to think otherwise, at least for the time being. That was tough, can’t pretend it wasn’t.

But I view i...

The Craft: How to Know You’re Ready to Write Your Story

[This is part of a continuing series on the art of writing fiction.]

Has it been 2 weeks since my last post? Man, time flies.

So…A couple of posts ago, I talked about rejection. This time, let’s talk emotion. Let’s talk where I’m at in my writing right now. No retrospectives, no looks at other writers or other writers’ work. I just want to answer: Where am I at? And where’s my writing at?

I think I’ve made progress in one small area: story selection. I’ve written about this before too. You k...