Writing the blues away

Ouch!
The post for today did not go online as planned, due to a web glitch while I uploaded it.
This is bad!
Here’s the belated post.
Sorry sorry sorry.

I’m going through a writing bout – partially caused that my professional life has come to a complete standstill after my PhD dissertation.

So I’m sending CVs around, and writing like there’s no tomorrow.
Because, in all fairness, there could be no tomorrow.

To me, ebooks and author-published stories are really today’s pulp racks.
Which means I suddenly understand in a very hands-on way what being a hack in the golden age of the pulps might actually feel like.
A heady mix of dread and exhilaration.
Ideas come freely, and writing them is easier than usual.
As long as this lasts, I’m on a roll. Continue reading →

13 January 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Dealing with plain hostility

As many friends of mine know, I collect books about writing – handbooks, critical collections, author memoirs.
I’ve been through close to 100 volumes on the subject of “writing” – and while not a single one of them holds “the Truth”, there is not a single one of them that did not teach me something.
Which is cool.
And yet…

A classic chapter in almost every writing handbook is something called “Dealing with rejection” – an essential set of “rules” for those bad days when a letter or a mail comes telling us that our story sucks.
Boy, it’s useful – because our stories do suck, sometimes.

What I find sorely missing is a chapter about “Dealing with plain hostility” – a set of rules for those bad days when someone decides to slam us, basically to vent their own frustration and make somebody else miserable. Continue reading →

Interesting article by award-winning blogger Anne R. Allen…

Is Writing a Hobby or a Profession for You?

3 January 2014
by Davide Mana 3 Comments

Writing Prompt – Ruins

From a Distance

Something different, for the first prompt of the year – a digital image I actually used as visual reference for the next Aculeo & Amunet story.
As it usually happens, I start with some image references and then my story and my description go in quite a different direction, but it is all right this way, I guess.

Interesting overview of the benefits of writing (and no, getting rich and famous is not one of them)

5 Surprising Ways Writing Makes Your Life Better

13 November 2013
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Characters at Large into the Media Landscape

I’m taking part in a strange experiment.
As part of my online course on The Future of Storytelling, the 50.000-odd students were asked last week to create a character, give him/her/it a web presence, and let them interact with each other.

So, during this week, some 50.000 imaginary web citizens entered or will enter the net – as Facebook profiles, as blogs, as G+ identities, as tumblrs, as e-mail addresses, as podcasts.
They are out there, or will be soon, interacting with each other, and with… you.
With us.

There will be stories born.
There will be stories, I think, developed across the media landscape – a weird, heady mix of storytelling, multimedia and roleplaying game.

Now, admittedly – setting up a character with a virtual life is no laughing matter.
It takes time, imagination, effort.
Outlining the character was simple and fun – I picked an old character from some stories I wrote 30 years ago.
But then translating it to the web in a believable way… ouch!
It’s a chore – I got bogged down in passwords, nicknames, whistles and bells.
But the results… ah, the results will be fun.
Of that I’m almost certain.