Jeff Haws

Independent author

Main navigation

You are here: Home / Archives for Jeff Haws

Jeff Haws

The Worst Thing You Could Say About My Story

by Leave a Comment

Thumb

I’m used to getting bad reviews and hate mail. Close to 20 years in journalism will do that for you. It won’t make you rich, but it’ll certainly help harden you to criticism of your writing. I’ve had my byline published thousands of times, above stories both long and short, dull and exciting, fact and opinion. I’ve written stories I was very proud of (See my Writing section for a few examples), and ones I never wanted to see again after hitting the “Send” button. And, regardless of how I felt about them, there was always a chance I’d receive email or comment from a reader, telling me why whatever I wrote was garbage, and I should crawl into a hole and die. [Read more…] about The Worst Thing You Could Say About My Story

The First Story I Ever Wrote: Phobia

by Leave a Comment

Phobia

Last week, I mentioned that the first story I ever wrote was called “Phobia,” from around 19 years ago. I initially thought it was probably lost to the sands of time, since there was no way for me to save it back then. But I remembered I printed it, and I left open the possibility my mom may have tucked it away somewhere at the house.

Well, somewhat predictably, she did … or, at least, part of it. It’s printed on perforated, holed printer paper in some sort of odd Serif font. I’d say it’s clearly influenced by Stephen King, but that seems like far too high praise for it. Let’s just say that I’m quite sure it’s influenced by Stephen King, and I won’t be bothered if no one else picks up on that.

Anyway, for the sake of mildly entertaining you, and embarrassing myself, here’s an excerpt from Chapter 2 (small background for the reading: Shawn is deathly afraid of sharp blades): [Read more…] about The First Story I Ever Wrote: Phobia

Evolution/Devolution from Writer to Author

by Leave a Comment

Writer

I’ve been a “writer” — minus the “author” evolution — for quite awhile now. Going on 20 years, in fact. Well, “writer” in some respects, anyway. Not necessarily, ya know, a paid writer for all that time, as a few of those years I was in high school and a few more I was almost getting paid to write for the student paper at the University of Tennessee, so “writer” may be a relative term. Let’s say I’ve been writing very regularly since 1996, in a variety of formats from newspapers to magazines to blog posts. I’ve written about sports — lots of it — politics, music, movies, straight news, science, human interest, etc. I’ve interviewed Hillary Clinton — name drop! — and John McCain, Tiger Woods and LeBron James. I’ve spent days at the U.S. Capitol and White House, and I’ve spent them in press boxes in stadiums across several different states. [Read more…] about Evolution/Devolution from Writer to Author

And So the Writing Begins …

by Leave a Comment

Start

Writing begins on my first book this week, and I’m excited about getting it going. This is sort of Stage 3 of the process of getting this thing done.

Stage 1 was just reading. That’s it. Admittedly, I hadn’t read much of any fiction in several years, concentrating my energy largely on news writing since, well, that’s what I was writing. I felt like I needed to keep reading different writers in that style, continuing to pick up style notes, new ideas and influences that could help me improve. That’s what you do, right? But, about six months ago, I decided this was a shift in focus I wanted to make, from non-fiction to fiction. And I’ve got a good friend, Stan Mitchell — a terrific and successful author already — who encouraged me to make it, probably because he thinks I’m better at this writing thing than I am. Whether I’ll be any damn good at fiction is yet to be seen. [Read more…] about And So the Writing Begins …

The Book I’m Writing is Not Mine

by Leave a Comment

Writing

This recent blog post from Mark Malatesta at Literary-agents.com was pretty striking for me to think about, the notion that the book I’m writing, this one I’m putting all this time and effort and energy into eventually producing for people to insult me over, isn’t really mine at all. It actually belongs to you, the reader. Maybe these blog posts do too. Or is that taking this whole idea a bit too far? Let’s look at this for a second.

With the book, I am, believe it or not, hoping to actually sell a few copies. It’s true. As such, once I pour out my blood and sweat for months, then do it again for a second draft, then let people read it and tell me how much it sucks, then finish a final draft, then answer a million questions about how to go about publishing, perhaps querying agents/publishers, the title, cover design, genre categorization, printing, price, and where I last saw my phone (pretty sure it was on the side table by the bed … hmmmmm), I’ll set out to sell the book to people. People who read. People who can’t read will be of little use to me, but I wish them well in their journey of life. [Read more…] about The Book I’m Writing is Not Mine