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Editing

The most difficult part of writing The Study is not the writing process itself, it is the editing process. I have people who are great editors for my other work, but it is far more difficult with this genre. I can see how dystopias are popular to write: the negative outlook on society seems to be an invisible canvas within which we all see the world most of the time. When trying to show how the world might be made better during transition, instead of worse, is far harder for other people to digest for two reasons. The first reason finding an editor is hard is that we are all used to sharing our own ideas, as opposed to listening to and developing the ideas of others. Whenever I explain the ideas behind the stories in this book, I invariably here a hedged positive piece of feedback followed immediately with an explanation of either why it wouldn't work or how that person would do it instead. I am far too polite to shout at them that if they think their ideas are so great, why aren...

Topics

Originally, this blog was going to be limited exclusively to those topics that will be featured in my upcoming novel, The Study. The bulk of the conversations in this blog, and those I want to have with real people, are still going to be the main focus. Since I began working on the entries, however, I have decided to broaden the scope of the conversation to anything interesting (to me), as long as it is not the more polarizing issues of today. As someone who wants to fix public education, and gave up on the current system this year, I will focus on many issues surrounding this fundamental institution of modern democracy. As a person who has lived with clinical depression for over 30 years, I feel this is a conversation that needs to be had. I have experienced the fact that a lack of awareness in those who do not regularly experience this condition can produce negative effects in those who survive with this extra weight in their minds. As someone who has struggled to have a healthy rel...

What Conversation?

I want to talk to people about issues that matter, without starting an argument. Members of the generations who have been here longer than I have say that society has lost the ability to have discourse where there is disagreement. I agree with this assessment. Through this conversation I want to work through the issues, or around them if they are too emotionally charged. The purpose of this blog is to open to discussion the issues that I am going to tackle through optimistic satire in my upcoming book The Study . I have chosen to ignore most of the topics that seem to polarize American society the most. However, there are some issues I feel are so important that they need to be addressed, and I will brave the storm with the hope of starting the conversation. Through this conversation, I hope to find agreement among different groups with the purpose of implementing solutions to the ills that need not plague an industrialized, modern society.