2026: 10 Year Anniversary and Beyond

by benmweilertNo Comments
In 2016, I started my websites as a place to store my thoughts, ideas, and experiences for photography and writing. Since then, the writing is the only thing that has continued to stick. Sure, I still write reviews over on BMW the Critic (and will continue to do so this year)—but that's mostly to catalog my thoughts about books, movies, and video games. The true creative space that I keep coming back to is here with the stories I produce each year. I've occasionally gone back and looked at my long-term plans for my writing. Some predictions came true, while others were pushed out further in favor of ideas that came fully formed to the front of my mind that screamed to be let out. While 2026 will be lighter than some of my busier years, I'm also looking out into the future and making near-term plans that will influence what I work on this year. If anything, these aren't...
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Striving for 2025-ing

by benmweilert1 Comment
Now that 2024 is over, I'm glad to see my creative calendar lighten up significantly. Last year, I had something to work on for every single month. While many of the tasks were easy and only took a couple days to complete, others expanded and took more time than I expected. Having sat down and worked through what I want to accomplish this year, I'm glad to see it's slower than usual. Of course, there's a lot of moving parts in multiple projects, so here are the broad strokes of what I want to accomplish in 2025. The $1,300 Alphabet With last year's release of Bountiful Bunnies, I'm on a bit of a children's picture book kick as I continue to work with artist Nancy Anderson to illustrate this year's release, The $1,300 Alphabet. I am convinced that if kids can memorize the Latin names of dinosaurs, then they can also learn "$50 words" like "Akimbo" or "Defenestrate." This book has been...
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2024’s Checklist

by benmweilertNo Comments
I love the quote, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." This year, I had an ambitious goal to accomplish something every month. I was wrapping up a few years of 10th Anniversary projects and wanted to get a head start on the next few years of projects. Some of these tasks were easier than others and some took a lot more work than I had expected. Ultimately, I'm proud of what I accomplished this year, so here's how my initial January plan stacked up... JANUARY/FEBRUARY: Releasing the complete, definitive edition of The Fluxion Trilogy wasn't too difficult for the hardcover, paperback, and eBook versions. However, all the experience I gained from producing the first three audiobooks came to a head when I realized I needed to re-record a lot of what I had previously done the last few years. This set me back a bit as I had originally only expected that I needed to record the Appendix...
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More in 2024

More in 2024

by benmweilert1 Comment
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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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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What video games can teach us about writing (1/3)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Art inspires art. Sometimes a beautiful painting can give you an idea for a short story. Perhaps a beloved song is a jumping-off point for a novella. Maybe a great movie can get your creative juices flowing for a book of your own. Art can come in many forms, but one form most people don’t readily recognize is that of video games. I’ve already written about how games like Not Tetris describe my idea-collecting process, but recently I’ve played a few games I would consider artistic enough to pull some lessons into my own writing. Art inspires art. But, are video games art? Video games have come a long way from the days of Pong and Pac-Man. While these games were kept simple due to technical limitations, today’s video games no longer have these restrictions. I think one of the reasons why video games aren’t considered art is that most art is one-directional. You go to a museum to view paintings. You listen to music on your...
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