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JWTroemner.com

The Blog

  • Standing at a fork in the road

    When you want to publish, there are generally two roads: self-publishing or going with a traditional publisher. A lot of people will tell you which way is best, but some things you have to decide for yourself. Read more

  • Writing Exercise: If I’d known then…

    For the December section of his “A Calendar of Tales” project, Neil Gaiman wrote a short story in which a runaway briefly meets her future self. (The collection of short stories is posted publicly, so you don’t have to feel guilty about reading them. Seriously, I’m in love with this collection.) So let’s turn this… Read more

  • DIY Editing: Seems? I know not ‘seems’!

    I’ve got a weird favorite Shakespeare quote. While other people are off getting lovey dovey with Romeo and Juliet, or sniggering along with Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I’ve got a thing for Act 1, Scene 2 of Hamlet: Shortly after the death of his father, Hamlet’s mother remarks that he seems sad. To which… Read more

  • Writing Exercise: If things had been different…

    You already know I’m into Bioshock Infinite, as well as Fringe and the Star Trek reboot. Apart from all being some pretty fun Sci-Fi, all three deal with different timelines and realities. (You’ll also find Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven, Ray Bradbury’s A Sound of Thunder,  and Terry Pratchett’s Jingo on that list). It’s… Read more

  • Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy…

    People talk about character motivation all the time– what’s the character’s inner yearning, the secret desire of their heart, the thing that makes them get out of bed in the morning? I’m not here to talk about that. Instead I want to talk about something much more basic– which means that it often gets overlooked… Read more

  • Beating depression over the head with a monkey wrench

    If you haven’t read it yet, I implore you to head to Hyperbole and a Half for her take on the subject of depression. I dealt with that same brand of depression a while back. Though therapy and pills didn’t work, I finally found my corn (and I swear to all that is holy, we… Read more