How I write

With my hand. Well it's true! I prefer the feeling of writing by hand. Yes, it does take longer, but that gives me time to really think about what I am writing. And there is something oddly satisfying about scratching out a word you didn't like, or something misspelled, or an ugly cliche. Slamming on the backspace just doesn't have the same effect. And it is convenient because you can write anywhere. For the past year and a half I have always made sure to have some type of notebook with me to write when I get ideas. Any of us who write know how frustrating it is to have this great idea, and then lose it when our mind suddenly wanders off. So anytime I am waiting anywhere (I got a solid 8 hours of writing done at the courthouse when I was waiting for Jury Duty) or bored, I just pull out the notebook and write. I can write anywhere, which can't be said for laptops. I've got nothing against laptops, I just don't have one.


The process in which I find myself concerning the Legend of Seven is typing it up. This is when I can really go over my work and see what I have written. I can add, delete, change and shuffle bits around. This is my personal editing process. I find that I very often forget the words at the end of a sentence or the letters at the end of words. Luckily, it is not hard to relocate the proper endings. Sometimes I really surprise myself when reading over my work; either at my own bone-headedness or my own ingenious...ness. This is my strategy, it may not be perfect, but I like it.

And so it was that the lieutenants granted their power to those who sought them. Men are interesting creatures, they thought, let us see what good they can do. But the lieutenants were most unfamiliar with men, and if it were wise describe them as naive, they would be. So men used their new powers, and it was not long before those powers, those gifts, betrayed them. The ones to whom the gods had entrusted their power had to watch as those same powers brought about the unimaginable destruction and death of many souls. The earth grew ravenous, unfilled by the cities it had devoured. Fire, too, hungered and consumed all that its maw could reach. Water turned to flood, turned to ice, turned to crushing death. Wind would not be outdone however: she blew through the lands, making a collection of homes and crops, families and flocks. The sun made little difference to light and day. Nor to the night and her darkness. Man had the power of the gods, but they lacked the age and the experience of them. The lieutenants, guardians of the foal planet, would intervene.

Chapter 1, The Legend of Seven.