Writings on creativity, consciousness, and the mystical arts. Read essays on imagination, horror, experimental music, consciousness exploration, and some occult-sounding shit that might trick you into better beliefs (or even non-belief).
At fourteen, I asked my guitar teacher to give me a challenge he didn't think I was ready for. I pulled it off, and it taught me that overcoming a challenge is far more important in developing craft than efficiency. I'm afraid people are losing that now.
Creativity is dangerous, so I've spent my life taking notes on it. Eventually those notes found a name: my creative grimoire. By almost any definition of magic, art is magic, and none of it requires believing in the supernatural.
Last week, I lost a friend and coworker. I've spent the days since adjusting to a new, permanent branch of my life without him...and returning, as I always do, to the one thing that has carried me through every loss.
Will AI make people more lonely and less fulfilled? Are the benefits we'll gain from AI worth what humanity will lose?
Struggling with editing? This article provides an algorithm to help you kill your darlings, learn how to edit, and reduce overwhelm.
Learn any skill faster using strategies employed by top learners and performers across various fields. These are all principles that have served me well in my own practice.
The idea of alternate realities has always inspired me to think beyond what’s possible in our 3 dimensions of time plus space. Fantasy, by its very existence, brings to mind the possibility of a time and place where physical laws work differently from our own, or are more flexible, leading to very different lives for its inhabitants.
Decades of experimentation with productivity systems for creative work have revealed patterns. Here's the system that has worked best for me.
Magic is created every time we make art or live our lives creatively. How can we use magic to shift our experience and to create better, more creative art?
Why are people so driven to create—to leave behind something that did not exist before—an extension of the self, willed and manifested outward into the world where it can leave an imprint on the minds of others? How are people able to produce such complex and beautiful artistic creations? Why are some people considered creative geniuses while others believe themselves to be uncreative?
Frazetta inspired me to create and explore mythic worlds that invoke primal feelings. I visited his museum, and I explain why the experience was so powerful.
You can learn the basics of Markdown in 5 minutes. Learn a tiny bit of code to make your life easier. Trust me, this is easy.
Writers don’t often consider philosophical anachronisms in speculative fiction. But doing so offers insights and deepens our characters. I’ll explain why.
I’m going to make the case that the way you capture your ideas is just as integral to the creative process as what happens in the mind. It not only prevents forgetting great ideas, but it creates a feedback loop that leads to more great ideas.
The Worm Ouroboros was one of the early works of modern fantasy fiction, and remains one of the most interesting. I'll explain why.