In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Writers Write * What’s Keeping You…? Part 2 * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “What’s keeping you from finishing—or starting—your story?” Opening sentence of a Writer’s Digest newsletter article titled “Five Steps to an Airtight Plot” (Tiffany Yates Martin, Feb 13, 2024) Writers Write From Bob B. Woodward’s site has some links to good Jim Butcher posts related to a craft book by Dwight V. Swain. Karen Woodward: Jim Butcher On Writing. What’s Keeping You…? Part 2 You can read Part 1 of this series on Substack … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Ludicrous Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Blackwell Ops 34: Solomon Payne * What’s Keeping You…? Part 1 * Of Interest * The Numbers Ludicrous Quote of the Day in which an unintentional fear-peddler asks seemingly innocently, “What’s keeping you from finishing—or starting—your story?” Opening sentence of a Writer’s Digest newsletter article titled “Five Steps to an Airtight Plot” (Tiffany Yates Martin, Feb 13, 2024) What’s Keeping Me I could pretty much chew wheels and spit nails. I didn’t get to start a new novel yesterday (not that important) because a … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Novel Wrapped * Thinking About Opening Mentorships Again * Writing and Thinking (Etc.) About Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “[I’m] going to like this new character. He’s got attitude and voice. Great fun.” Dean Wesley Smith, in his blog, about a new character I know exactly what he means. Few things are better than drawing back the curtain to find a new character who has a strong attitude and a unique voice. The Novel Wrapped As I thought it would, the novel wrapped yesterday. … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A New Short Story * Bradbury Reminder * The Novel Will Wrap Today * A Little Bit of What You Need * A Few Tips from James Lee Burke * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Look. I’m a writer. I don’t plot in advance, I just write.” Michael W. Lucas A New Short Story “Regrets: A Primer” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. This particular story is set in the Blackwell Ops world. It features a strong female … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Welcome * A Few Giveaways Are Ongoing * Help Others Find You * One More Personal Goal * Of Interest * The Numbers Welcome Welcome to all new TNDJ subscribers! Whether you found TNDJ via Substack or Facebook or Twitter or my buddy Vin Zandri or Dean Wesley Smith or wherever else, welcome. In TNDJ my goal is to pass along all I’ve learned as a prolific professional fiction writer. By prolific, I mean I’ve written and published over 100 novels, 10 novellas, 270 short stories, 16 or 18 nonfiction books, and thousands of blog posts … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Don’t Set Improbable Writing Goals * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Don’t Set Improbable Writing Goals I know. Negative advice. Ugh. I usually don’t post negative advice here in TNDJ, but this one feels right. I almost wrote “don’t set ‘impossible’ goals,” but short of delving into the realm of the obviously ridiculous, in my world nothing is impossible. By “obviously ridiculous” I mean don’t set a writing goal that you know is impossible to reach. For me, that would be setting a goal to write fifty-two 25,000-word-minimum novels on the year. Or … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Using the Challenges as a Challenge * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I’ve done well for the first week of January. Made over my weekly word count and only missed one day of hitting my daily count. “I’ve also stuck to my fiction first thing for 30 minutes goal. This keeps me coming back & I think reinforces that writing new fiction is most important. “I was almost ready to email that I wanted in on the Stephen King challenge, but I decided to … Read more

In Today’s Journal * A Sample “Annual Production” Spreadsheet * There’s Always a History * The Writing * The Numbers A Sample “Annual Production” Spreadsheet Yesterday a writer asked for a “blank” spreadsheet showing the formulas I use, etc. Problem is, if the spreadsheet is blank, there won’t be any formulas. (grin) So I did a quick mock-up example derived directly from the Annual Production spreadsheet I use every day. It shows not only the formulas but how they work for both monthly totals and cumulative totals, day by day and month by month. I also wrote a fairly detailed … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Top Ten Things Every Writer Should Know * The Numbers The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories: Vanessa V. Kilmer “A Stranger Storybook Ending” 3513 Fairytale Adam Kozak “North Side Racket” 3890 Noir Harvey Stanbrough “A New Threshold” 2390 Romance Dave … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day (and Commentary) * Correction * The Order of Narrative Bits and Dialogue * If You Don’t Follow Dean Wesley Smith * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It’s not the process of writing I love, it’s discovering something new and then telling others about it.” Dr. Mardy Grothe (see Of Interest) Commentary Dr. Grothe went on to write, “For me, reading and researching is like panning for gold and writing is like sharing the nuggets.” He was talking about discovering, compiling, and sharing with others quotations on various topics. … Read more