Month: June 2012

Research is something important when we write fiction as well as when we write non-fiction. Research the detail is important and necessary. The problem is when we use our research as the perfect excuse to not write.
There is more to research, in many cases is the perfect excuse not to write. Make you feel that you are doing something useful and important.
Many people aspire to finish their book, their stories or their scientific paper; spend hours (or waste hours) in the name of research. The moment in witch research because it is important its transformed in the research so I don’t write is almost imperceptible. Even in many cases the person don’t noticed that it is an excuse and think that it is a real reason not to write.
That was one of the hardest lessons that I had need to learned. In my next novel (Fall 2012), some part of the story happen in Spain, specifically in Rioja. I could had drank more wine in the name of research, but this way one never writes. How do I know if my research reflect the essence of Rioja or its fantastic wine? Honestly I don’t know. But ten hours more of research, wouldn’t give me a better answer. Continue the research is the perfect excuse to never finish the story and not feel bad because I am not doing it. Without a doubt the more I wrote and happened in the story I had to return and research stuff, but following one simple rule: I wasn’t allowed to research on the time that i was writing. The result is the draft of my novel.
What are you trying to write? How much of the research do you think you need to do is a need or an excuse not to write? What happened if you begin to write even when you are not done with the research?
(I need to make a pause, if you like go to You Tube or Pinterest, I am going to research a little more.)
I am back, one hour of research that was useless for this post, but that without a doubt could help me to never finish it.
It is the moment to stop the research and begin to write, to stop using the research process as an excuse. It is the moment to sit in front the white page, confront the fears, the muses and the demons; because it is only when we face these that we can get out the words that are captive of the excuses and fears.

Like a lot of the people that belong to the tech world, I invest yesterday a little over two hours drinking the Apple Kool-aid. Without a doubt the effect of an excellent presentation that know how to reach the geek heart, without a doubt Apple knows how to show the shiniest object to capture our attention.
The question isn’t if the new OS had things that could be useful, or if the new computer is going to be faster, thinner or more efficient. In Apple case it surely will. The question is: What are my needs?
There is no secret that my main machine is a first generation iPad. For now it meets all my requirements. It can’t do everything but a good 90%, therefore it is going to continue being my main machine for some time.
Over the years I had learned to follow only real problems, (not the ones I perceive as real). Enjoy the Kool-aid, but not take it all home. Eventually the technology at home will be obsolete and eventually I will need to update the machines. Simply is important update for real reasons and not because the new OS or the new machine are shinier than the previous one.
The shinier object not always make us more effective, sometimes the one, is the one that seems has lost its shines.

There aren’t many writers or aspiring writers that I know that hadn’t dreamed with a cabin in witch they can hide and write. The one in the picture is Neil Gaiman’s. (He call it a Gazebo). A cabin where to sit and share hours, where no one interrupted the conversations that we had and hadn’t with our stories. (in many cases without internet and cellphone signal.)
Sometimes as a writer the only thing you can do is hide in your cabin and allow the demons, or muses, or the voices came and do their job.
Should had been the combination of a horrible winter and the presence of all the mentioned elements that make Mark Twain said that famous phrase: “”The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
The rumors of mine had been exaggerated also. The reality is that I have been busy with a series of projects that will begin showing up soon. The translation and edit of my first two novels into spanish, plus I the third one that it is planned to be released to the market in spanish and english at the same time (the tentative tittle is: Quarry) and another project that I am not ready to reveal, but that I will be talking about soon.
At some moment in the first six months of this year something happened that wasn’t unexpected. As a writer, there is a moment when things changed, a moment when you stop being an aspiring writer and you stop aspiring and begin to simply be a writer. In that moment the things changed from: I hope to someday be a writer to be one. In that moment I understood that I wasn’t aspiring anymore, after many years I had finally arrived.
It was then, when I shut myself into the mystical cabin, leaved the excuses outside and I sit and write. I write as like honestly I hadn’t written in many years.
The fact is that something had changed. I hope that soon all those projects that had me shut in the mystical cabin began to show up, until then, it is time to return and continue writing in my mystical cabin.
Until next time.