More in 2024

More in 2024

by benmweilertNo Comments
For the last few years, I've been more productive than I had to be. Since 2018, my singular goal has been to publish a single new book wholly written by myself each year. This means that being in an anthology doesn't count, as the entire project must be something I wrote. However, it also means that compilations of things I've written (like blog posts or short stories) can count as my annual release. There also isn't a length requirement, which is why I count children's picture books and cookbooks as meeting the intent of my goal. Having published not only a 10th Anniversary edition of The Fluxion Trilogy for the last few years (including audiobook versions of these books), but a new book as well, I decided it was time to refocus my efforts for the next few years before I have to put out a 10th Anniversary edition of Fourteener Father in 2028. The plan for 2024 still has some...
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Getting Past Originality

by benmweilertNo Comments
There's usually a point in a writer's career when they have an amazing idea and flesh it out—only to find that it's been done before. Now, I'm not talking about a word-for-word "they stole my idea before I even wrote it" kind of plagiarism here. I'm talking about the raw concept being similar enough as to draw easy comparisons. These are the ideas that authors tell their friends about and receive the feedback, "Oh, it's like [FILL IN THE BLANK]." This devastates inexperienced writers. However, those who have been writing for a while welcome the comparison. Why? Contextual originality. If you gave two writers the same prompt (like for an anthology), they'd likely come up with two completely different ways of handling it. Similarly, even if someone already wrote your idea, that doesn't mean they wrote it how you'd write it. We all have different inspirations and worldviews that make what we write contextually original. It's been said that all stories have...
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Write what you like

by benmweilertNo Comments
There are tons of pithy sayings writers usually hear when they're starting out. "Kill your darlings." "Show, don't tell." "Write what you know." Most who are starting out don't really know what these idiomatic pieces of advice actually mean. Even experienced writers have trouble cracking the code on some of these sayings. Ultimately, you can't really distill sound advice down to a 3-word phrase. Sometimes, it's better to rephrase this advice. For instance, when I tell people to write what they know, what I'm really saying is to "write what you like." Passion makes it easy. "If you could speak on something for an hour without prepared notes, what would it be?" is an icebreaker question that uncovers your interests and hobbies. It also answers my "write what you like" motto. Have you ever picked up an interest that suddenly sucked an entire weekend away as you dove down the rabbit holes that uncovered the depth of this hobby? Did you spend...
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Be a Voracious Consumer of Stories

by benmweilertNo Comments
Being an author takes a lot of time and commitment. Depending on how fast an author can craft clean copy determines how much time they must dedicate to the various steps of finishing a manuscript. Perhaps an author is a fast writer, which might require them to spend more time editing. On the flip side, maybe an author agonizes over each word as they write, which might take longer to get through a draft but requires less time editing. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of writing and editing, there is one activity you should also dedicate some of your time to. What's nice about this activity is that it can often be relaxing. I refer, of course, to consuming stories. Read universal stories with wide appeal. While we encourage writers to pursue the stories they want to tell, if these stories only focus on wish fulfillment or other narcissistic tales, their audiences are likely to be limited to themselves. Reading other...
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Expand Your Writing with Different Genres

by benmweilertNo Comments
Writers are inherently drawn to write the stories they like to read. There are significant benefits to knowing a genre well and building a fanbase who come to expect a certain genre from a particular writer. If you want horror, you’ll read Stephen King. If you want hard sci-fi, you’ll read Andy Weir. If you want fantasy, you’ll read Brandon Sanderson. But what if these well-known authors branched out into a new genre? Would you still read this new genre based on their reputation? Many successful authors will branch out from their core genre. Take Stephen King, for instance. We know most of the books he writes are one-shot horror stories, but the Dark Tower series blends elements of traditional fantasy and western genres with just a dash of horror (since old habits die hard). It’s important to note that people who don’t enjoy reading horror might like to read the Dark Tower series, even if Stephen King is mainly known...
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You Should Write Short Stories

You Should Write Short Stories

by benmweilertNo Comments
It’s strange to me how people are increasingly consuming short-form content like TikTok videos or Instagram Reels, but won’t read short stories. Some flash fiction is short enough to read in a few minutes, but the desire for novels and series of books instead of short stories is probably an effect of the decline of the magazine. This doesn’t mean authors shouldn’t write short stories. Some incredibly famous authors like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Kurt Vonnegut used to have their short stories published in magazines like Galaxy Science Fiction, Playboy, or Collier’s. Even modern authors like Ted Chiang have found success with their short stories despite the limited audience. I started out my journey as an author by writing short stories just to get the ideas out of my head. These stories focused on a singular concept and explored it in a few thousand words. A lot of speculative fiction revolves around a dense exploration of “what if” scenarios...
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The Benefits of Fanfiction

by benmweilertNo Comments
Anyone who has consumed a significant amount of media can tell you that there are no original ideas. Most stories merely borrow ideas from their predecessors. The fact that most stories can be categorized into a handful of core concepts proves that everything has already been done before. And yet, people keep writing stories. Part of what makes a story original is how it mixes its influences to create something new, even if the foundation is recycled. Then, there's fanfiction. Some stories are told so well that the characters and settings are adopted wholesale into a different author's new work. While this form of creative writing could be considered intellectual property theft (especially if the stories are sold without consent from the original creator), it can be used as a stepping stone for writers who want to improve their craft. Alternatively, experienced writers can find the weak spots in famous stories and re-write them to fix plot holes and character inconsistencies....
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How to pivot as a writer

by benmweilertNo Comments
If 2020 has taught me anything, it's how to be flexible. It's quite difficult to predict what will happen in a year, let alone one with such a massive global event like COVID-19. Fortunately, writing is a solitary activity, so writing new stories isn't terribly difficult when I'm forced to stay home. Unfortunately, this pandemic has been such a historical moment that it's difficult to ignore it in anything written in the present day. While I had plans to write a rather dramatic story set in the real world and in present times, I'm now considering moving it out a few years to gain some distance from COVID. Hopefully, this whole mess will be done by the time I start writing this book, and I'll have a bit of hindsight to help mold the characters and plot. So far, I've already gained a few key points that I want to integrate into the story that will certainly be familiar to anyone...
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Pretend Politics

by benmweilert Comment Closed
I just turned 35 a few weeks ago. According to the Constitution, since I am a natural-born citizen of the United States, I am now eligible to run for President. With the latest Presidential election upon us, I thought I’d take some time to figure out what I would change if I were running this country. There’s clearly a lot that could use some improvement. One of the challenges of identifying what’s wrong with any situation is how easy it is to focus only on the symptoms instead of the root cause. One of the most memorable television shows I watched growing up was Connections. This PBS show that aired in the mid-1990s would take random objects/themes and show how they are all interrelated. I loved how these elements of “cause and effect” revealed how interconnected our world is. Nothing is truly isolated. As a scientist and writer, I can explore hypothetical situations. Granted, many of these scenarios rely on my knowledge...
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