My Writing Plans for the Near Future

Last time, I talked about the state of this blog and looked back at my original intentions for starting it. I noted that while my readership has grown beyond my expectations, I have neglected to hone my writing craft over the past year or so. Given how powerful stories are, and given my own undeveloped gifts in the area of writing, today I want to briefly highlight my plans moving forward:

1. One of the highlights of living in the Indianapolis area is how easy it is to attend GenCon every year. This year, I have signed up to take a short story writing class from Mary Robinette Kowal, who has been nominated for multiple Hugos for both her short and long form fiction.

2. Last year, my friend and I worked on short fiction pieces each week, shared them with each other, and critiqued them. Then life got busy, and we more or less drifted away from this endeavor. This week I plan on discussing with him starting this back up again. And even if he is not able or willing, I plan to start writing short pieces each week, if for no other reason than to get back into the practice.

3. I would like to devote at least one blog post every week to the topic of fantasy writing or related topics. While I understand that this is probably the area that the least number of my readers are interested in, having that as a requirement will help me redevelop the disciple of writing. But, don't worry, I've still got lots of Standard Pauper to cover, sprinkled with a dash of gaming and other random musings.

Thanks for indulging me in this introspective look at this blog and my purpose for it. As always, comments are appreciated. In particular, this week I want to personally thank Aaron Brassard for his thoughtful email of encouragement. It's always great to hear from my readers!