Dr. Shaun Duke, Professional Nerd

Editor. Writer. Professor. Host.

Writing The Histories (or, Crafting Totally Real Histories is Hard)

Some of you may know that I have been working on this silly project called The Histories on and off for a while now. For those not familiar with it, I’ll just point you to the very accurate description on the wiki. This project is now closing in on 30,000 words, and it features content […]

On Impostor Syndrome

Pretty much every writer I know has had or continues to suffer from the infamous “impostor syndrome.” Authors, academics, bloggers, etc. If they do some kind of writing, they’ve likely had a moment of pure doubt about their abilities, their place in the “field,” their right to success, and so on. Part of what makes it […]

On Writing Projects: Decisions Decisions

In less than a week, I’m meeting with my friend, Jen, for a discussion about writing as part of a new podcast she plans to release on her Patreon page. Essentially, we’re trying to take a stab at actually writing something. For me, it’s a return. For Jen, it’s brand spankin’ new. In an effort […]

On NaNoWriMo and the “Work” of Writing

It figures that in the middle of my “writing brain reboot” session, the infamous NaNoWriMo would waltz into my life to taunt me. That’s an exaggeration. In reality, I haven’t paid much attention to it in years. I’ve only tried NaNoWriMo and NaPoWriMo (the poetry one) once. Both times, I failed. Both times were in […]

On the “Right” Kind of Reviews

One of the things that often bothers me about the reviewing process is the idea that some reviews are inherently more valuable than others. By this, I don’t mean in the sense of the quality of the writing itself; after all, some reviews really are nothing more than a quick “I liked it” or are […]

Why I’m Blogging…Again…At Last

You may have noticed I’ve started blogging again. Since Monday (10/20), I have released one blog every weekday on everything from favorite 80s scifi movies to neo-Nazis in my city to terrible movies to my thoughts on spending years reading mostly women. All of this is part of my effort to jumpstart my writing brain. […]