twcrone

T. W. Crone
T.W. Crone (he/him) is an Army Ranger combat veteran who works as a software developer in North Carolina. In Spring 2023, he was bitten by the writing bug while taking a course with the Redbud Writing Project. He found an affinity for creepy alien and supernatural stories. He spends his free time playing RPGs, reading everything, and working on his craft.

  • Okay, I missed June, Sue Me

    T. W. Crone

    I’d originally said weekly, then monthly, but I forgot. June was a great month for writing. I got in nearly 19k words for the month, which is the second-highest word count for the year. I also surpassed 100k words for the year thus far.

    I’ve finished 11 books, roughly more than I’ve read in the last 11 years. So blogging isn’t on my list of priorities, especially since my advice is, “Please Ignore This.”

    I am super excited to be signed up for the “Dark Fiction” writing class with Storyville from September to December with Richard Thomas, a bona fide published horror author. I read at “Noir at the Bar” this last weekend and feeling very good about my writing process.

    “Love the work, not the rewards.”

    In any event, I wrote a little. Now, I will read more and hopefully finish a short story by Sunday to turn in. Next week, I will start “SFF Worldbuilding!”

  • End of May

    T. W. Crone

    I started this blog about a month ago with the intent of writing weekly. Once again, this was a month ago. Despite failing my initial intent, again, I have been happy with the writing that has come forth from my fingertips since I said, “Please Ignore This.”

    So in the interest of claiming I will write here once a month, I am writing now. The journey to writing fiction has been wonderful and terrible in waves of joy followed by waves of “Why the fuck am I doing this again?” But fortunately they ebb back to “joy” for longer periods than that whole despair and doubt portion.

    This year, I’ve already revised and “finished” twice as many stories as I did last year. Now, to be honest, last year, I really only “finished” one short story, and I’ve now finished two. But I’m well on my way to finishing revising a third. This I think is key. Although I have projects that won’t likely finish and perhaps don’t even have that intent, it is good to have some that do simply for the pyschological boost finishing affords.

    I hope I find myself here again at the end of June, still possessing more optimism than pessimism.

  • Please Ignore

    T. W. Crone

    About one year ago, I took my first writing class, “Writing the Novel,” offered in Raleigh in the basement of So So Books, AKA Redbud Writing Project headquarters.

    It was a thrill. I didn’t actually share the first chapter of My Novel, mostly because I didn’t have anything I was working on. I’d spent 20+ years as a software engineer, noticed The Redbud Writing Project online, and said, “What the heck?” The only class that was either available or stuck out to me was one on writing a novel.

    Now, it’s a year later, and this year, I’ve begun down the same path. First, I retook “Writing the Novel” and actually retained some details and wrote a SUPER rough “novelette,” clocking in at 15k words, lots of fun, and a pile of hot garbage with a couple of scenes I really enjoyed. Second, I’ve been taking (one class remaining) “Fiction I.” This time, it is offered by a different instructor, and it’s like taking a different class. I definitely have learned from both instructors, and retaking has been additive in many ways. Also, the short story I submitted came much easier, and I revised it a bit before forcing it up my class.

    “Emotional Support Animal” was the second short story I wrote and revised to the point that I’m pretty happy with it. Looking back at most of my other class submissions, I can clearly see improvement. No one is going to publish my garbage yet, but at least it is revised garbage that makes some sense. Progress.

    Last year, my third course was during the Summer four-week session, and I drove to Chapel Hill four times for a shortened version of “Writing Horror” with Matthew Buckley Smith. It was fun. I wrote some very disturbing, unedited stuff, and it was probably the first time I sat down and did what Margaret Atwood suggested.

    “Sit down and write the whole thing in one sitting…”

    I did take bio breaks, however, and I might have had a snack or two. But it was quite liberating to sit down and bang out 3k words of story hot off the press. I did the same with “Emotional Support Animal,” but I did it early enough to let it sit a week or so before revising. I also submitted it for random critique on Scribophile.

    Well, I feel like I’ve already said too much, so in the interest of keeping a little “in the tank” so I can come back in a few weeks and ramble on, I’m going to stop there.