Unless they're submitting a short story for possible publication requiring a specific word-count, I don't believe authors have a particular number of words or pages they're attempting to churn out in the end.

This month marks the start of the seventh year of my meager newsletter. I've kept at it this long because of you few readers who've shared your enjoyment of my monthly musings.

Thank you to everyone who submitted suggestions on developing character names for my screenplay, Rite.

Let's say you're creating a story within a seemingly utopian setting, a social structure where the citizens are passive, caring, and cared-for by the-powers-that-be. No guns, no violence. Everyone is equal. Partly because individuality has been stripped by removing any ethnicity or culture identity from personal names. 

Inspiration is a peculiar, sometimes annoying critter that scurries in and out of your peripheral vision, compelling you to pursue it further until, eventually, you end up down the proverbial rabbit hole.

I don't live in L.A., and I never will.

There was a time when being where the action is - Hollywood - was vital to the advancement of one's career in filmmaking. Not so much in these more technologically modern times, I think.

Screenwriting involves a very succinct, minimal style. Which suits my own approach to writing.

I'm not embarrassed to admit that my prose has never been the best; I've always struggled to fill my pages with words - be it setting, exposition, etc. - time and again missing my intended mark.

Once upon a time, stories were only shared orally - either spoken or sung. Then came tales as written words to be read, and centuries later, performed - with or without words. Eventually, there comes motion pictures. This last one was the first kind of storytelling I first became passionate about.

My biggest weakness as a writer is that I don't write very fast. I plod along, editing, revising, stressing over every sentence and word as I go.

Our story so far: I've got an idea revolving around a son witnessing his father commit an extreme act of violence. This incident occurs when a group of white supremacists invade their home because the boy's stepmother is Black.

To me, speculative fiction is all about "What if?" I venture to say, all writing begins with this postulation. But the speculations within a story premise are what lie at the heart of fantasy, science-fiction, or what have you.

Okay, now that I've decided to concoct my writing with a Speculative Fiction flavor, nuanced with all the sub-genres it encompasses, where do I start?

Well, naturally, I could just begin from square one: