By trade, I’m a Software Engineering Manager in Dallas.  For years, I’ve enjoyed reading and have dabbled with poetry and some short stories. The ideas for novels of my own have been there, but I suffered from writer’s paralysis. Riddled with indecision, I didn’t know how to start a novel, let alone finish one.  Then I discovered a book about writing that changed my perspective.

“On Writing” by Stephen King, showed me that I was Pantster not a Plotter.  I thought the way to write a book was like in school.  Start by creating an outline and break it down ad infinitum into its details.  I thought I had to know everything about the story before I began.  That’s what it is to be a Plotter and that works for some people.  Mr. King explained in his book that although he has plotted novels, he is mostly a Pantster ( write by the seat of your pants ).  He takes an idea and visualizes it as discovering a piece of a fossil peaking up from the ground.  Like an archaeologist, his writing slowly chips away at it to reveal whatever is hidden. He said he never knows what the magic of writing will bring for him as it’s a journey that’s different every time.

This concept opened me to the possibilities that I did not have to know everything about the story to begin writing one.  Last year, I completed my first novel, “Saint Jim” and this blog is my attempt to continue to expand further into the realm of writing.

There is magic out there and it comes when you begin to type; that’s when the door opens.

Duke Droste