“Write and write well.”

— John Harding and Dr. William Connolly

People say writing is a lonely profession. For many, that isn’t truth.

I’ve struggled with the purpose and content of my blog, and I’ve come to realize that I want it to be in defiance of the lonely writer myth. I value what others have done for my writing and my life as a writer, and I want others to benefit from what I have been taught and have taught throughout the years.

On December 1st, I finished my first novel, DEAD GODS. That manuscript took two years to write. During that time, I was working full-time as a high school English teacher, getting my MFA, and attempting to remain what I hope is a good dad and husband.

I wrote 40,000 words of DEAD GODS during the first twenty-two months of my MFA. During that time, chapters were workshopped and revised. It took me an additional four months during and after my thesis quarter to finish the final 48,000 words.

I was fortunate to have professors and fellow students during my time at Lindenwood who clearly noted my strengths and weaknesses and how to go about the process of finding those same things in my writing. I miss this academic dialogue.

Writing is not lonely. Writing is a collaboration with everyone in your past and in your present—or the now as C. J. so aptly put in her short story, The Threads of Time. I would not be the writer I am today without others because writing is not a lonely profession.