…but they do not put the words on the page.  It is up to me to do the heavy lifting.

I am a storyteller just like storytellers have been for thousands of years.  Because I do not have the benefit of physical performance like the bards of old, however, I have to deliver my tale in a different medium.  That is where the crafting comes in.  The nuances of word choice, the balance between too little description and too much, creating dialogue that is not too formal or too casual–these are the tools of my art.  Wielding those tools is as delicate a process as any sculptor with a solid piece of marble or painter with a blank canvas.  I can see it in my head but to get it on the page–“aye, there’s the rub.”

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne