The completed third draft of the 4,000-page, 10-book (1.3 million-word) teen epic.
Another Draft Bites the Dust
A month ago, I finished the third draft of what I’m calling my “teen epic.” Between December 2023 and the end of April 2024, I…
The Nuclear Submarine U.S.S. Bodacious Resurfaces After Six Months of “Deep and Silent”
About five months ago, I bought a countdown clock that sits directly below my computer monitor, and for 157 days it’s been ticking down. It’s…
Livin’ the Dream
A couple weeks ago, I finished the second draft of the third episode (or volume) of the epic-length novel I’ve been writing for seven years….
One Decision that Changed My Life for the Better
Last weekend, I attended a surprise party for my younger sister’s 50th birthday. The party, hosted by her husband and best friend, was a great…
Aloneness
Lately, more than ever, I’ve been thinking about a quote by the late, great playwright Sam Shepard: “Aloneness is a condition of writing. You look…
F-ck Fifty-one
This morning, to celebrate my birthday and the fact that I’m probably in the best shape of my life since I was 17, I went…
"Hard Times" by Hubert von Herkomer.
Hard(ish) Times
Back in March, I wrote a cheeky blog entry about how COVID-19 wouldn’t change my work as a writer a single bit. Turns out, I…
The Hat
During the COVID-19 crisis, in addition to writing and revising my magnum opus, I’ve been doing a lot of hiking and mountain climbing. The other…
Come What May, the Writing Life Rolls Along
This morning I overheard my wife on a conference call with her coworkers at the college where she works. They were discussing how the college…
The Inspiration of New Places and New Spaces for a Novelist
For a novelist, sometimes a minuscule change in routine, place or living situation can produce a massive shift in perspective that opens the floodgates of…
The Post-Social Media Novelist
It’s only been a week since I “deactivated” my personal Facebook account and already I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my…
Spark Joy: In Which a Novelist Applies the Ideas of KonMari to His Entire Life
Inspired by my organizing genius wife, I recently watched the program Tidying Up with Japanese organization guru Marie Kondo. In the program and in her…
Backstory: The Story Behind The Perfect Triple Threat
The idea for The Perfect Triple Threat, a collection of three Dakota Stevens mystery novellas, didn’t come to me all at once. Rather, the book…
Backstory: The Story Behind Chris Orcutt’s The Man, The Myth, The Legend
Between 2010 and 2011, I wrote over thirty short stories, many of which appeared in The Man, The Myth, The Legend or as chapters of…
On the Virtues of Being Able to Write Anywhere
Compared to other novelists I know or have read about, I’m something of an anomaly: I’m a novelist who can write just about anywhere. While…
Backstory: The Story Behind the Second Dakota Stevens mystery, The Rich Are Different — Part 2
Last week, in Part 1 of the story behind The Rich Are Different, I described my experiences during 9/11 in Manhattan and the months following, and…
Backstory: The Story Behind the Second Dakota Stevens mystery, The Rich Are Different — Part 1
The novel that became The Rich Are Different was written during the winter of 2001–02, over a year before I even conceived of the Dakota…
Writing in Asian Restaurants
I’m writing this blog entry in one of my favorite Asian restaurants: Momiji in Rhinebeck, NY. I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve been writing…
Backstory: The Story Behind the First Dakota Stevens Mystery, A Real Piece of Work
A Real Piece of Work and the entire Dakota Stevens Mystery Series might never have happened were it not for a bad office chair. During…
My Prodigiously Convoluted Yet Miraculously Productive Low-Tech Writing Process — Part 2 — With a Few Modest Writing Secrets
In the first installment of this piece, I described the first half of my writing process: Writing the first draft in longhand or on a…
My Prodigiously Convoluted Yet Miraculously Productive Low-Tech Writing Process — Part 1
I’m writing this blog entry on my latest piece of low-tech equipment, an Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter. All told, I now have six typewriters: •…
Backstory: The Story Behind Perpetuating Trouble
The opening sentence of Perpetuating Trouble is absolutely true: “I was told to write this book by a pair of alien girls.” That incident with…
Do Less, Achieve More
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of positive activity regarding my latest book, my memoir of the writing life, Perpetuating Trouble. But what…
Being a Novelist Isn’t a Job, It’s a Lifestyle
Back in December, after having completed the first draft of a 550,000-word, 1,600-page novel, I took a nearly month-long vacation (my first in years). For…
Perpetuating Trouble: I’m Livin’ the Dream! Or Am I?
I’m pleased to announce the release of my personal memoir about the writing life, Perpetuating Trouble. I’ve been working on this book on and off since…
Procrastination as a Rarefied Art Form
A brief excerpt from my new humorous memoir, coming out this fall: I can’t speak for all blocked writers, but when I’m blocked, I seek…
The Writer with the Master Number Clears the Deck
Two years ago, when I released the 3rd Dakota Stevens installment, I read one of those rare books that gave me a much-needed kick in…
Only Have Time for Essentials
“At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials.” — Virginia Woolf, diary, 3/22/1928 I stumbled upon this quotation earlier this week….
Why This 2016 Writer is Going to the Woods
When Henry David Thoreau went to the woods by Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. in 1845, he had his own, somewhat convoluted, reasons for doing…
Out with the Old, In with the New
A New Year demands new writing projects and a new workspace. And since I’m a writer who is deeply inspired or discouraged by his environment,…
Entering the movie, a movie I've waited two years to see.
The Awesomeness that is Bond Day
For about the past 30 years—or ever since I got my driver’s license—my best friend Jason Scott and I have attended the opening of the…
The Novelist Heals
Forget any romantic images you might have of novel-writing: that it’s nothing but staring out big picture windows at the sea and autographing copies of…
Farewell, Facebook. Ta-Ta, Twitter. I’ve Got Writing to Do.
I’ve been tired of social media for a long time. However, like a drug addict, I’ve continued to take hits off it, hoping to get a…
Why I’m Selling My Books Everywhere Now, Instead of Just on Amazon
Between January 2012 and this month (over 3 years), I sold my novels on Amazon exclusively. I did this under their KDP “Select” (Kindle Direct…
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
’Twas the night before the night before Christmas, And all through this writer’s head, Not a bad thought was stirring, not even dread. The writer…
“Parisian Women on Bicycles” & “The Young Woman in the Café”
Two years ago today, I was in Paris. I was there for two weeks, and I loved it. Loved it so much that when I…
Me and My Montblanc
This is the very short story of a man and his pen. Around 1988, when I went to college to study philosophy, my forward-thinking uncle,…
Thank You, Anne Bernay, Wherever You Are—A Writing Romance
“Chris, whatever you do, just keep writing.” —Anne Bernay, 5/1994 Twenty years ago this month, I had no idea what I was doing with my life. I…
One Writer’s “Vacation” in a Psychiatric Hospital
Last Monday, March 17, I said that I was going on a little “vacation” because I had exhausted myself while finishing the novel. The novel…
Long Walk Brings Writing Epiphany
Today, for the first time in weeks, I took a walk. A long walk. I put on my coat and my Boston Red Sox cap,…
"Rejection": A collage by Chris Blanc.
Crossing the Rubicon: Replying to a Rejection from a Literary Journal
Today I did the unthinkable. In the literary world, what I did is tantamount to crossing the Rubicon. It’s something that, in 20 years of…
The Adventure of the Sherlock Holmes Aficionado
Thanks to the thousands of readers of my Dakota Stevens mysteries, in the past 18 months I’ve been able to fulfill two lifelong dreams. The…
My Second Office
Writing full-time is a lonely enterprise. Especially in the winter, and especially if you live in the boondocks, have only one car, and the closest semblance…
Driving in the UK: A Survival Guide for Americans
In June 2013, Alexas and I decided to use the earnings from my books to take another Big Trip. I say another Big Trip because…
How I Miss Paris
I miss sitting in a cafe, sipping my cafe creme and writing, with no one looking at me strangely for it. I miss walking the…
Gratitude
As a writer, it’s easy to fall into the habit of focusing on what’s missing, on the goals you fail to accomplish, and to take…
Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough
If I were merely interested in selling copies of the second Dakota & Svetlana adventure, The Rich Are Different, I would probably release the novel…
Please Bear With Me During Remodeling
Because of a recent pharmaceutical spam attack on some of my websites, I am in the midst of moving this blog and DakotaStevens.com to another…
Hemingway Had the Pilar, I Have Golf
Every morning while living in Key West and Cuba, Ernest Hemingway rose early to write, and every afternoon he went out cruising and fishing on…
A Shattered Paradigm
I have read hundreds of books on writing. Conservatively figuring an average of 15 per year, over 24 years that makes 360 books on the…
An Open Thank You Letter to Readers
This one is for you readers. For those of you who took a risk on a relatively unknown quantity (me) by plunking down cash for…
Chris Orcutt's Barbaric Yawp
“I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass THE OTHER DAY, I wrote that I was going to “take it…
1,000 Mysteries and the Ideal Reader
A common piece of advice given to writers is to envision your ideal reader and write your book to that person. And although I didn’t…
Why I’m Publishing My P.I. Series on Kindle
The short answer is this: A writer writes to be read, and the two P.I. novels I wrote that were sitting on my hard drive…
Love Story to Sweetie
Farewell, my beloved feline Muse. Writer Chris Orcutt’s eulogy to his faithful, beautiful cat of 9 years, Sweetie.
Former home of The Millbrook Round Table, on the corner of Merritt Avenue and Front Street in Millbrook, NY.
Farewell, Millbrook Round Table
Walking into the diner yesterday, I glanced at the honor box containing our village newspaper, The Millbrook Round Table, and was shocked to read the…
Burning Your Ships
A while back, I got in an online argument with another writer. He was proffering financial advice to writers, in effect saying this: “I made…
Preparing for Success: An Addendum
Today I opened my email and found a lovely note from a fellow writer, La Belette Rouge. She wrote to tell me that a blog…
The Creative Tension Imperative (NOT Kant’s Categorical Imperative, thank God)
Back in 2000-01, when this blog phenomenon began to take off, my dear friend Jason Scott Sadofsky encouraged me to start one of my own….
My Granite Reminder
Like a lot of writers, I keep a stone on my desk to use as a paperweight. But mine has a special meaning to me…
Love Makes Me Write, Not Self-Discipline
I never get sick. I mean never. The last time I was sick was three years ago with a cold, and just before that, a…
The Only Thing You Can Control
Toiling away on index cards has a way of putting things in perspective. Whether you’re hunched over a cubicle deep in your local library, or…
Preparing for Success
On a snowy day in January, I wandered into a Borders bookstore and did something I always do when I’m seeking answers—I let synchronicity guide…