In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Touching Base * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then you practice, practice, practice. And then when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.” Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker Touching Base I have to admit, not publishing TNDJ every day seems weird. On the other hand, I’m getting a lot of other things done. I’ve often said I sometimes wish I could go back to the beginning, when I was just learning (finally, in my early … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * The Collector * I’m Not Completely Gone * A New Short Story * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about.” Jenn Windrow The Bradbury Challenge Report Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer. The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * I’m Taking a Step Back * A Few Housekeeping Notes * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Life Needs No Red Lights” a sign hanging in my office in the Hovel I’m Taking a Step Back I love sharing knowledge and maybe cutting others’ learning curves a little. But over the past several months the desire to continue TNDJ has waned. The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote “by teaching, we learn.” I agree. But I’ve found the best way to learn is to practice and teach at the same … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Don’t Intrude on the Story * Of Interest * The Numbers Note: This is a very long blog post, but due to the subject matter I didn’t want to break it into two separate posts. Quote of the Day “Any time a reader can see the writer—word choice, preaching or teaching, a character who doesn’t speak or act as he should—then the author has stuck a toe, a finger, a fist, or even his mind into the fiction.” The Editor’s Blog (see Of Interest) Don’t Intrude on the Story In yesterday’s … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Dean Koontz Revisited * Of Interest * The Numbers Dean Koontz Revisited I’ve long believed Dean Koontz probably writes into the dark. From his interview on “How I Write,” I learned that he does. But he does so in very much the way Hemingway wrote: one ‘perfected’ (to his standards) page at a time. For various reasons that I’ll discuss tomorrow, I also suspect he probably reviews his pages from a conscious, critical standpoint at times. Koontz is very aware of readers and clearly understands that what’s ‘perfect’ to him might not be perfect to every … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Lee Child Revisited * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “That kind of self-confidence is the way to do it. The less you worry about ‘are they going to like [the story],’ the more they do like [it].” Lee Child, in his interview on “How I Write” Lee Child Revisited As I wrote a couple of days ago, my original intention was to post a series on the interviews I mentioned in Sunday’s TNDJ. I’m not going to do that because I don’t want to cherry pick among … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Write Your Book’s News Release Upside Down * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” DH Lawrence Write Your Book’s News Release Upside Down This is yet another guest post by the particularly lovely but sometimes cranky Dan Baldwin (grin) The fastest and most effective format for releasing news about your book, your award, your public appearance, yourself, or whatever is by writing … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * How Other Pro Writers Write * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “You can’t leave [a situation] too unexplained. Readers want your version. They don’t want a prompt. They want you to do the work and tell them the story.” Lee Child in his “How I Write” interview “If you give the characters free will, the characters go places you don’t anticipate. The characters start having their own thoughts that surprise you. What I learned over the years is ‘trust the character’.” Dean Koontz in his … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * My Own Reading ‘Process’ * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Life is a precious coin, and you can only spend it once.” Martha Woods, as attributed by her son, actor James Woods My Own Reading ‘Process’ I could have also called this My (Extended) Quote of the Day. A young very good writer emailed me a couple of days ago with some questions. She and I enjoy talking with each other about writing fiction. I won’t include her specific questions, but here’s my much expanded response, which … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Structure of Literary Genres… * Of Interest * The Numbers The Structure of Literary Genres and the Modes of Delivery of the English Language The Premise As I mentioned in the bit on the history of poetry in America, that poetry must be “interpreted” to be understood is a modern phenomenon in which some English Literature professors were (and maybe still are) complicit. But those poets and the aforementioned tenure-seeking crowd of the 1970s also were complicit in breaking the structure of the poetry genre in the English language itself. They somehow managed to convince themselves … Read more