This is My 50th Post

I have written 50 entries on writing since 2022.

I started this website in February of 2022. It’s not my first website. It’s probably my third or fourth in my lifetime. I was more into creating personal and business websites when I was in my thirties and working as a freelance writer and graphic designer. I started teaching in my forties, and I lost interest in self-promotional websites for a good long while. 

When I was forty-five, I started writing novels in the summers between my academic years, and I wasn’t thinking about creating an online presence. I was thinking about writing and teaching.

In 2021, as an empty-nester, I took time off from teaching, left North Carolina for Michigan, and focused on writing new novels and editing past manuscripts.

I wrote the first drafts of two novels in quick succession in the fall of 2021, and in February of 2022, after fifteen years without a website, I finally created a new author’s website, this one, using SquareSpace.

I knew I wanted to post the first chapters of my unpublished novels, so I did that first. That has been my focus for this site. I want to get these novels published, so any visitor to this site can read the loglines and the initial chapters of my novels.

But I also thought I should update the site with new content. I’m a novelist. I’m a teacher. How about I teach people how to write novels? 

And so I created a blog, on this site, called “Writing Tips.” 

My thought was I could write each entry not as a disposable journal of daily musings but as a chapter in a book on writing. I could write entries/chapters on writing novels (ideas, loglines, structure, beats, theme, character, etc.), and someday in the future, after I gradually build up material, I’d have enough chapters to organize into a book. 

I could title that book Mr. B. on Writing Novels.

I have written 50 entries in the past three years, and I’m still not quite ready to organize them into a book (or two). I might need another couple years.

In the meantime, if you’re so inclined, you can return to the start of “Writing Tips” and read the entries in order. That might give you a sense of the book I will one day make out of this material. 

And feel free to send me a note if you want me to write about a particular aspect of writing novels. See the Contact page.

You could even ask about how in the past I have taught writing to students of almost all ages. 

Thank you for reading.

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