Danse Macabre
The author whose boundless imagination & storytelling powers have redefined the horror genre, from 1974's Carrie to his newest epic, reflects on the very nature of terror--what scares us & why--in films (both cheesy & choice), tv & radio, &, of course, the horror novel, past & present. Informal, engaging, tremendous fun & tremendously informative, Danse Macabre is an essential tour with the master of horror as your guide; much like his spellbinding works of fiction, you won't be able to put it down.
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2022–2025years
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What Hacker News says
- There was a long period of time where he _was_ ignored and underrated, up until 1981, when Stephen King gave him a shoutout in his book about horror writing (Danse Macabre) and the Call of Cthulhu RPG was published. Until then, his books were entirely an underground phenomenon, and even then it wasn't until the early 2000s or late 1990s that Cthulhu was anything but a shibboleth for ultra-nerds.
He was sort of a perfect fit for the generation of kids raised on computer games and RPGs that had voracious appetites for new mythologies.
It is funny how once you get tagged with "underrated" it just stays with you forever, though.
- >> You aren't built different.
> Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful.
GP probably worded it poorly; yes, we're all built different, but all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles.
Terry Pratchett said once (can't be bothered to look for the exact quote) that he literally had to force himself to sit in front of the keyboard for a minimum time each night and type anything, just to get the groove started.
Stephen King said a similar thing in Danse Macabre.
When it comes to software, Joel Spolsky in his JoelOnSoftware blog said the same thing - Fire and Motion is your friend (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/).
When it comes to achieving something[1], you need to "not break the chain". You need to force yourself to start on it each day. After maybe 30m of doing it you'll get into the groove and continue with less effort for the day.
[1] The actual "Something" is not important.
Spend 30m each day practising guitar and eventually you'll be good enough to be in a band.
Mark off a time slot on your calendar every day to spend working on your side-project, and ensure that you have nothing booked after that time-slot, and eventually you'll release your product.
Force yourself to start typing into your book-in-progress for not less than[2] 30m after dinner every single day and I assure you, you will have a completed book in two years.
[2] My experience is that if I force myself to spend not less than 30m on something, by the time the 30m expires, I get into the groove and can run in that rut all day if necessary.
Getting into that groove is the hard part, and is probably why work productivity for most devs is about 10% less than side-project productivity - at work you are constantly yanked out of the rut.
