SJ Stone SJ Stone

Why I Stopped Writing

In 2023, I wrote easily over 100k words. I cranked out tons of other stories and articles, drafting and planning a slew of serialized fiction tales and working on a complete rewrite of the first mystery novel in a series I have planned while also writing the fourth novel in the series. If that wasn’t bad enough, I started rebooting on my website a 150-episode serial I wrote with friends back in 2010–12.

I thought I could do it all, and I won’t say that I still can’t. The ideas are there, and I won’t deny them. All those words, stories, and characters are in my head, waiting for their turn, and I don’t want to deny them. But I did for a minute — well, for the last seven months. I hit a wall, but it wasn’t a wall of energy or a wall of ideas or a wall based on finding a new hobby. This unloved ukulele can attest to that. It was something different.

In the middle of all, I hit the wall of expectations.

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Writing Projects SJ Stone Writing Projects SJ Stone

In Case of Alice, Break Glass

The best and worst thing about Alice was that she was a bitch. She was a straight loner most of the time, more often than not the hottest thing I saw in any given day, and generally the most frustrating woman I’d ever met; but that’s what I loved about her, and that’s what made just about everyone else want to punch her in the face.

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SJ Stone SJ Stone

Yes, I Use AI as a Tool to Write

AI is a tool, like everything else. How you use it is what matters. I’m using it and having a blast! I can do so many things now that I couldn’t before, and it’s so exciting to have this 360-degree approach to my writing, from ideas to polishing the text to audio voiceover and images. It pushes all my creative buttons, and I like when those buttons are pushed a lot.

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SJ Stone SJ Stone

Just Right - A Tragic Tale of Lust & Betrayal

A tragic tale of lust and betrayal. After ten years, the story started in 2013 is finally done. Read about how four authors put together a dark fairy tale and it finally made its way to completion.

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Writing SJ Stone Writing SJ Stone

ChatGPT Playtime

Anyway, I still have to write the novel. I won’t let ChatGPT do that. But at least if I need an idea generator, then here’s something I can use.

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Writing, Novels SJ Stone Writing, Novels SJ Stone

Crabquake

In Crabquake, our heroes Jesse and Haze battle a new kind of insanity — giant crabs morphed by the chromium seeped into Baltimore’s historic Inner Harbor and unleashed by an earthquake on the unsuspecting neighborhood of Fells Point.

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Writing SJ Stone Writing SJ Stone

The Serial Novel

At least half of what I write now is considered “serial novel”. I have literally a half dozen in the works, either actively being written and published or being written to be published later or simply just a concept with some of the basics already worked out. I find it to be a fun way to tell a story, and I didn’t realize that serialized novels were such a thing now.

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Author, Writing, Blogging SJ Stone Author, Writing, Blogging SJ Stone

If you want more of something, reblog it

Do not underestimate what your reblogs and words mean, just because you’re not ‘big’ or whatever. Reblogs are the key to creating and maintaining a community of like-minded people, supporters and supportive folks who share interests, encourage each other’s creativity, and engender a feeling of community and togetherness. Reblogs matter.

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