Dean Wesley Smith

The Journal: I’m a Fortunate Guy

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: I’m a Fortunate Guy * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “The book trade invented literary prizes to stimulate sales, not to reward merit.” Michael Moorcock “What does figuring out the schedule mean? It means I had to figure out what I was writing when. Then I had to figure out a realistic word count for the week/day. Then I had to do math to figure out when I would finish Project #1 and so on and so forth.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “Spend thirty minutes on Writer Bewarehttps://writerbeware.blog/ to see … Read more

The Journal: Conveying the Senses

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Conveying the Senses * By the Way * By the Way 2 * Of Interest (An Inane) Quote of the Day “On the use of senses. Morrell suggests taking sight for granted, then including two others, but ‘sneak them in’ so it isn’t obvious. The object is to make the reader feel, not see. … I liked this better than the ‘use all 5 senses in every scene’ approach, which to me, often feels forced.” Terry Odell, a writer Any aspect of a story that is forced on the characters … Read more

The Journal: Marketing vs. Writing

In today’s Journal * Marketing vs. Writing * Novella vs. Novel * Of Interest Marketing vs. Writing I received an email that read, in part, “I don’t trust people who teach ebook marketing but have zero ebooks under their belt.” I mention this just in case anyone else out there is thinking this way. Possibly the writer was referring to some of the marketing experts I recommended in the Journal recently. Regardless, this is a category mistake, and it isn’t even comparing apples and oranges. It’s comparing apples and fruit stands. Marketing and writing are vastly different skills. A person … Read more

The Journal: Quotes and Items of Interest

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit or escape. I suppose if that definition is strictly held to, then a writer of stories is a liar — if he is financially fortunate.” John Steinbeck in East of Eden “It would be absurd … Read more

The Journal: Direct Interaction with Readers

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Direct Interaction with Readers * Of Interest Quote of the Day “If you’re in a spiritual group and ask what essential oils will help you get rid of a person, don’t block me when I answer ‘formaldehyde’. Sheesh.” Anonymous, forwarded from Facebook Topic: Direct Interaction with Readers A few days ago in a post on promoting your work, I recommended https://killzoneblog.com/2021/05/tkz-marketing-survey-part-2.html. In that post, one author suggested you should “Pick one [social media] platform to specialize in.” Yesterday, I received an interesting note and suggestion from Alexander Teut, a friend … Read more

The Journal: Welcome and the Archives

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Welcome and the Archives * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.” ― Stuart Chase The above works just as well for writing into the dark as it does for religion of any other stripe. “Her head was small and round and it held small round convictions.” John Steinbeck in East of Eden Topic: Welcome and the Archives Welcome to new subscribers. There have been a few over the past week or so, and … Read more

The Journal: Talking Kickstarter Again

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Talking Kickstarter Again * * * * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “There is money in publishing. A lot of it. It just doesn’t flow to the writers. Because, frankly, writers are stupid.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “Dean and Loren offer a free class on crowdfunding on Teachable.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol Topic: Talking Kickstarter Again This will be brief. See “Brandon’s Kickstarter” at https://kriswrites.com/2022/03/09/business-musings-brandons-kickstarter/. Amusing excerpts “[From] the company town newspaper (The New York … Read more

The Journal: A 20-Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaign

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A 20-Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaign—in Fiction * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Kickstarter for all sizes has now officially become a great place to start the sales of your new book. Even if you get just a few hundred, or five hundred, or a thousand, it is still money and readers you didn’t have before.” Dean Wesley Smith A 20-Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaign—in Fiction A very short post today to pass along what is, to me, very exciting news. According to DWS, Brandon Sanderson’s second kickstarter is about to surpass … Read more

The Journal: Aliens Among Us

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Aliens Among Us * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Lessons here? Sure. Show up every day, every minute. When you make a promise to write and you don’t do it you are letting yourself down, not to mention whoever would have benefited in however many ways by reading your efforts. You’re never too old to start until it’s too late. It’s not too late today.” Joe Hartlaub (see the second item in “Of Interest”) Aliens Among Us Outside of a workshop, I’ve never seen Dean Wesley Smith put out a … Read more

The Journal: The Inappropriate Use of “Gave”

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: The Inappropriate Use of “Gave” * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[T]he old Hollywood wisdom still applies: Just tell the story. If you want to send a message, go to Western Union.” James Scott Bell on writers who inject their political opinion into their fiction “‘Said’ is not a dirty word: But ‘argued,’ ‘whined,’ and other dialogue descriptives usually are. A typical rookie mistake.” Marilynn Byerly Topic: The Inappropriate Use of “Gave” A few days ago, the topic here was “Glitches in Writing.” That was based on James Scott … Read more