Summary: If you haven't sampled the outstanding blog Starting Write Now, I suggest you skedaddle on over there and check it out. The project chronicles the efforts of five writers in various stages of their careers as they struggle with the same issues so many of us face: finding time to write, planning their work, building great characters, writing believable dialog, getting published, and more. Today we have the pleasure of their company. Join us as we discuss the writer's life, including: * Why Sean started the Starting Write Now blog and what its mission is * What types of writing the guys do, and what their goals are * What challenges and issues they're facing at this point in their writing * How they're approaching NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), in which they're all participating this year * Why Rich shut down his freelance writing business * Why Yves and Aaron are working on their outlining skills * What surprising effect on Mike's writing came from mailing his manuscript to a publisher * How a short attention span seems to be plaguing (some of) them * How some of the guys see mostly the trees and some of them see mostly the forest when writing * How they feel about the challenge of writing material that's both fun to write and to read * Why Rich feels that his English degree has been an impediment to his writing * How they feel about using "he said" and "she said" in their dialog * What they think makes for good dialog * How Mike, Sean, and Yves feel about telling people they're writing * How the guys define success * How Aaron feels about hooking readers and pacing his stories * How their supporting each other has affected their writing * Why they write.
