J.D. Moyer

sci-fi author, beatmaker

Category: Fiction Writing Page 2 of 7

Three Spreadsheets I Use While Writing a Novel

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On July 5

In Fiction Writing, Writing

I unabashedly love spreadsheets. I view spreadsheets as intelligent pieces of paper: totally freeform, but capable of calculations, lookups, list organization, and even database formats. Spreadsheets are a powerful technology that can externalize mental processes, organization, and memory.

I use spreadsheets for tracking my goals, health, personal finance, RPG games, and all sorts of other things. When I’m writing a novel, I primarily rely on spreadsheets to keep track of characters, scenes, and timelines. Here are a few examples:

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Writing Process Update

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On May 11

In Creative Work/Career, Fiction Writing, Writing

Reclaimed Earth series author copies, various editions (and some D&D stuff)

I started this blog over ten years ago. One of my goals in starting to blog was simply to practice writing. At that point in my life I’d dabbled in writing and dreamed about being a writer, but I hadn’t committed seriously to a regular writing practice. Here’s a post I wrote about my writing process and the challenges I was facing at that time.

It took another six years after writing that post before I published my first short story, though by that time I had already established a daily writing habit and completed several novels. As of today I’ve published one novelette, two novels, and eight short stories, with several more pieces sold and in the pipeline (including The Last Crucible, Book 3 of the Reclaimed Earth series).

So what has changed in the eleven-plus years I’ve been writing regularly? And what has remained the same?

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Don’t Pursue Your Career in a Way That Makes You Hate It

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On January 8

In Creative Work/Career, Fiction Writing, Writing

Today I saw a thread on Twitter, authors half-jokingly griping about the doubt and despair that often accompanies “marketing efforts.”

I get it — I’ve been there. There are an infinite number of things you could do to promote your book, but every approach requires time, money, and/or social capital, and it’s easy to get frustrated and discouraged and to wonder if your efforts are producing zilch.

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Long-Term Thinking as a Coping Mechanism for Political Insanity (or Why I Write Science Fiction)

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On December 16

In Culture Rants/Shares, Fiction Writing, Writing

The Guardian in John Scalzi’s advance reading copy pile

I should say up front that this post is a book plug. But it’s also an honest account of what’s been going on in my head since the orange menace was elected and the stock market graph of human progress took a sharp dip.

Three years into the Trump administration, I’m learning how to manage my emotions around the fact that a narcissistic man-child is systematically dismantling everything good about our country (human rights, environmental protections, voting rights and fair elections, a relatively good standing in the international community, etc.), while simultaneously worsening our preexisting national issues (racism, gun violence, massive wealth inequality, expensive healthcare, etc.). It’s an awful situation that has negatively impacted my own well-being (and I’m a relatively wealthy, privileged white male, with plentiful resources; most have it much worse).

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How It Feels to be a Novelist

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On September 23

In Creative Work/Career, Fiction Writing, Writing

With the pending release of my second novel this week (The Guardian comes out Sep. 26th on Flame Tree Press), my emotions are in turmoil. I’ll just go through them, as a way of clearing my head, and maybe my emotional laundry list will offer insight to those of you also on the writing path, or entertain those of you who enjoy knowing how the sausage is made.

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