Hello World

Welcome to my blog.

Why the Contrarian Novelist? The quick answer is that Aspiring Novelist and Novelist in Training were already taken :) But "contrarian" was already going to be an important part of the blog description.

When I decided to write seriously, I soon came across all the great and some of the not-so-great free resources for writers on the Internet. And, as I worked my way through the endless articles and posts of advice for new writers, one thing that kept appearing repeatedly was the advice to establish a presence online. A blog seemed possible.

But it's hard to find time to do a blog well. I already spend so much time reading other people's blogs that it's cutting into my writing time and my day job. Besides, what could I write about that would draw and keep an audience?

Duh???!!!

I suddenly realized that the problem was the solution. If I'm spending mega-amounts of time following writing advice blogs and similar resources, I must be accumulating a lot of knowledge about those resources. That's got to be of some use to people who might be too busy actually writing to go all those places themselves. So I figured that a blog of resource reviews and writing advice comments would be doable, fun, and useful to others.

But why contrarian? I did say contrarian, didn't I?

Well, the blog is going to be contrarian because I'm contrarian. For me, it's always more fun to look for something that all kinds of people believe that's wrong, misleading, or just plain dumb and poke holes in it. Or maybe fill in some of the holes that are already there, depending. Demolish or rebuild. Or maybe more than one of the above.

Not to say that I disagree with everything. There's a lot of really good advice out there, and a lot of great resources. I've learned a lot. And if I pick a blog or website to review, it will usually be because I really like it and want to share the good stuff I've found there. I already know that my first review will be Nathan Bransford's blog. Nathan is a San Francisco based literary agent with the Curtis Brown agency, and a heck of a nice guy. He's got the best agent blog I've seen so far, and surely one of the best on the Internet. If a you're looking to be published in the traditional way, and get on bookshelves, and only have time to read one publishing-related blog regularly, that would be the one.

They say it's best to blog on a regular schedule. I have a TERRIBLE time keeping to a schedule, but I figure one review per week is doable. My target will be late Sunday night, so anybody that takes in interest should find a blog or resource review waiting Monday morning.

Between reviews, I'll post as the spirit moves me. Usually I get inspired to write when I see a post on somebody else's blog that strikes a chord, or discord, as the case may be. And some of the rants I inflict on these good folks' comments pages are probably worth posting here. We'll see.

I'll also talk about my own novel-to-be, Dandelion Lawn, and all the interesting stuff I've learned trying to write it.

Okay, first post is done. I have a blog (yay!) . Now, you guys can come find it. Read, leave comments, tell your friends. Let's party! (or whatever)

-Steve