The Passive Voice

The Journal: Keep Coming Back

In today’s Journal * Two New Sources of Information for Writers * Topic: Keep Coming Back * When a Story Flows * Of Interest Two New Sources of Information for Writers I found a new source for reliable factual information and informed opinion: Interesting Engineering. One example of their articles is in today’s “Of Interest.” If you write SF, to my mind this is a must-have (free) subscription. If you don’t write SF, it’s still an extremely interesting source of information. You can find it at https://interestingengineering.com/. To sign up for the newsletter, scroll to the bottom and click Newsletter. … Read more

The Journal: Pure Writing Into the Dark

In today’s Journal * Welcome * I’m Back! * Topic: Pure Writing Into the Dark First, welcome to r2zajac and any other recent new subscribers. You picked a good time to drop in. (grin) I’m Back! I’m not bragging here folks. I’m celebrating. I just felt like sharing this good news with my friends. Starting Blackwell Ops 8, my current novel, has been nothing short of restarting my life as a fiction writer after a very long 10 months. I’ve written five or six different openings for this novel, and I struggled with all of them. It was like pulling … Read more

The Journal: The Squeaky Stair Technique

In today’s Journal * Topic: The Squeaky Stair Technique * Of Interest Topic: The Squeaky Stair Technique I’ve long wanted to write a topic about pulling the reader into the story quickly and more deeply by focusing down. That is, writing some small thing that causes the reader or viewer to focus his or her attention down on a fine detail. Doing so causes the reader to lean more closely (or deeply) into the story. In fact, I recommend you use this technique in literally every opening you ever write. The point of a good opening is to ground the … Read more

The Journal: Crawl Before You Walk

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Memorial Day * Topic: Crawl Before You Walk * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[W]e writers are great with imagination, yet we don’t know enough about licensing and copyright to imagine what products could come from our IP.” Dean Wesley Smith “He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.” P.G. Wodehouse “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of … Read more

The Journal: Memorial Day, and Just for Fun, Part 2

In today’s Journal * Memorial Day * Topic: Just for Fun, Part 2 * Oops * Of Interest Memorial Day I hope you will have a safe and happy but thoughtful Memorial Day. I hope you will consider all we still have in this once-great nation and on whose sacrifices we stand. Topic: Just for Fun, Part 2 Matt P. emailed this morning to ask how I would respond to writers “who claims that getting critiques helped them improve their writing and that if they hadn’t, they never would have gotten better.” Note: This topic, including this sentence, is delivered … Read more

The Journal: A Long Journey

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Faulkner * A Long Journey * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When [the writer] begins to temper what he writes to who will read it, then I think the writing itself suffers.” William Faulkner “Sometimes the characters in my books surprise me, yes. They don’t surprise me in doing something that I never heard of or never imagined human beings doing before, but I hadn’t expected them to do it at that moment.” William Faulkner “I think that if the writer is going to write simply to express his own … Read more

The Journal: How to Indicate Unspoken Thoughts

In today’s Journal * Topic: How to Indicate Unspoken Thoughts * Of Interest Topic: How to Indicate Unspoken Thoughts There are generally two major ways to indicate the direct, unspoken thoughts (or internal monologue) of the POV character. Either is acceptable, depending on whom you ask and your personal preference as a writer: 1. Put the POV character’s direct unspoken thoughts in italics to visually differentiate them from narration. (I used to recommend doing this.) 2. Leave the direct thoughts in regular font like the narration. (I now recommend doing this.) Consistency Is Key — whichever way you choose to … Read more

The Journal: A Lengthy Preface and a Reiteration

In today’s Journal * A Lengthy Preface and a Reiteration * Of Interest A Lengthy Preface and a Reiteration Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt is a writer who suffers from a rare disease, an affliction that precludes her from being able to access her creative subconscious or to write from it. (Alicia, my apologies, but I can’t remember the specific name of the disease.) In a comment on “Another Brief Note on Critiques,” Alicia mentioned a few points to which I will respond here. But first a pair of disclaimers — 1. If you are unable to either access your creative subconscious … Read more

The Journal: Another Brief Note on Critiques

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Another Brief Note on Critiques * And Then There’s This * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Here’s a revelation for some people: the age of the audience is not a genre.” R.S. Mellette “PG has never read a book because he wants to impress anyone either positively or negatively and doesn’t think he would enjoy associating with someone who does.” The Passive Guy Topic: Another Brief Note on Critiques K.C.’s comment on yesterday’s post drew my attention, especially when I received a similar response to a comment I posted … Read more

The Journal: Reviews and Critiques

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Reviews and Critiques * Speaking of Which * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “As we all know, a reader’s opinion of a book is enormously subjective. The way [readers] approach a story can vary at different points in their lives, or even their day. They read things into it that you might never have intended—and they’re all going to have vastly different opinions about what worked and what didn’t.” Joe Moore, whom I believe is a founding member of The KillZone blog, on why he recommends not reading reviews. … Read more