There is always a right way and a wrong way…

But what about writing? Same thing. Same same. If it works, you’re doing it right. If it doesn’t, you’re doing it wrong. It’s as simple as that.

But the fact of the matter is I could post a picture of me drinking at a bar, me riding a bike, and me chilling out on a beach, and if I told you that I was writing in all three activities, you might be inclined to say ‘you’re crazy, Alex, we can plainly see you don’t have a laptop or a tablet device with you.’ But the truth of the matter is, ninety percent of writing is coming up with the ideas, the stories, the plots, and the characters, and I generally do that when I am not engaged at a computer. The other ten percent is putting it in writing.

The opening scene in the Gatekeepers is Bruce Highland riding his bicycle in the Napa hills. Well guess what I was doing when I came up with that scene. And Bruce likes to frequent pubs. Sitting there on a barstool, blankly staring in to a mug of Tiger beer on a free afternoon is where I come up with some of my best stuff.

In Project Dark Chapter, one of my writer characters frequents coffee houses to pen his craft. Which, is stereotypical. I don’t actually physically write in a coffee house or a bar, or at the beach. I’m in a quiet place like an office by myself, away from distractions, where I can focus on my work, assembling all the scenes and images amassed from earlier into a written mosaic.