Michael Davis' site dedicated to writing, travel, and commentary.
Today, I think I overcame my hitherto impassable mental block, the one I always get between pages 50 and 70, that indicates I've hit the "swampy middle." The term "great swampy middle" wasn't invented by me. In fact, I have no desire to discover who first coined the term because I have no desire to... Continue Reading →
If I could tell you the number of stories and novels I’ve begun writing and not finished, we’d be here too long. But “not finished” doesn’t mean “discarded.” It means what it says. The difficulty comes when I’ve convinced myself that I’m one sort of writer (the consistent, cheerfully productive kind) as opposed the other,... Continue Reading →
I'm currently going back through the first 75 ms pages of the novel, making notes and essential line edits, and putting in reminders of the edits people have suggested to me here and on Wattpad. This has been a great experience so far and I'm excited that Chapter 10 will be done before long. Since... Continue Reading →
[8 July 17, did some essential line edits and added some material. Currently working on Ch.10.- M] 9 Luck, fate, delusion, coincidence. They might have all been the same as far as Donny was concerned. The code made it all relative. That which he couldn’t control he named—for lack of any other way to... Continue Reading →
8 “Certain moments in life stay with you forever—even if they didn’t happen.” Friendly smiled behind a clump of kitsune udon. He held the noodles in front of his mouth with black chopsticks, making Donny think of worms in the beak of a crane. “Anyone can have an anomalous experience. The unenhanced hallucinate just as... Continue Reading →
7 “You know my name?” “Indeed, I do.” “But I don’t know yours.” She had light brown hair done up beneath her cap and green eyes. Her face was pale like the patch of moonflowers he’d seen beneath the sycamore trees. “Do you want to know my name?” The girl extended her hand and they... Continue Reading →
6 Simple presets. You said, “Take me to the park” or “I want to go to an aquarium” or “I want to buy some shoes” and the taxi AI knew just where to go. But it only seemed to be following a stochastic process, using random sampling for all potential outcomes in its flight range... Continue Reading →
5 Maybe he didn’t want to go home. The anonymous author of The Book advocated a daily routine as the test for sanity. Code might turn you into a werewolf every full moon, but if you got up in the morning, went to work, cooked dinner, and kept a tidy living space, you were at... Continue Reading →
4 He’d broken the little ceramic duck by the sink. He’d been so out of it, so determined to pick up every last pill, that he must have missed the duck. But Graciela hadn’t. “You came. You left. I guess I slept through our whole night together.” Donny watched her lean towards the camera. He... Continue Reading →
2 Donny clicked open the door to his apartment. Graciela was asleep in his bed. One of many good things about the apartment: you could look straight from the bedroom, through the kitchen area, through the living room, to the door. You could sit up in bed and put a bullet through an intruder—if you... Continue Reading →
The Writing Expedition 