To be clear, as I've said before, I'm a better reader than a writer. Although I try.

As a reader, give me something I can chew on. I enjoy Hemmingway, but, honesty, his prose sucks. Season your prose with words I have to look up. That's what the dictionary on the desk is for. A new word is a gift.

Neal Stephenson, one of my favorite authors, once discussed re-writing. He said his first few novels were heavily rewritten and edited. And while they are good, he no longer likes them, because they are no longer his voice. Now, he doesn't rewrite. I've seen the pages he wrote for one of his novels on display in the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. A meter tall stack of paper embossed with the ink from a fountain pen. And the empty ink cartridges.

Back in college, I took a bunch of writing classes, mostly poetry. We'd spend a lot of time critiquing and rewriting. But honestly, after doing that, I didn't like my poems. They were not my voice anymore; they were a group's poem.

Now that is not to say I couldn't use an editor. Lord, I need an editor. But I do think about my words, the cadence, the flow. I just can't spell worth shit. And my punctuation constantly triggers the software with blue lines. Fuck the software. I'm going to put a comma in where I want to.

But thanks for your insight. I admire your words.