the writing life

The Journal: Big Book Giveaway

In today’s Journal * Big Book Giveaway * Of Interest Big Book Giveaway Note: Hey folks, if you’re subscribed to my Substack reader blog as well, you’ll see this post again later today in a slightly different format.Basically the same post, though, same offer. I realize about the dumbest thing an author can do is try to get other writers to read his fiction. (grin) That even holds true when the writers in question consider the author an instructor and something of an authority. Go figure. But that’s fine. Despite all that, now and then I like to give away … Read more

The Journal: Bundles!

In today’s Journal * Bundles! * I Get Emails… * Of Interest Bundles! While I was in the middle of breaking in a new computer yesterday, I lost half the bundles I was in through PubShare (formerly BundleRabbit). No need to go into detail. But that cut the number of bundles that contain my work in half. So if any of you would like to get multiple books from several authors (including yours truly) for one low price, here’s a deal for you. You can read the descriptions below, and I even added a buy-link, albeit ony for Amazon. If … Read more

The Journal: Welcome, About The Journal, and Archives

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Welcome and About The Journal * Of Interest Quote of the Day “[R]rewriting a story because you want to make it ‘perfect’ before you sell it? That’s a fool’s errand. You’ll end up hating the thing most likely and you’ll waste all the time you could’ve been writing new material.” Screenwriter Matt Pettipas Topic: Welcome, About The Journal, and Archives Welcome to Diana and any other new subscribers I might have missed. I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been posting articles to the Journal since 2014. As a fiction writer, I … Read more

The Journal: AI Audiobooks?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * AI Audiobooks? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Try to catch up if doing so is possible and will be challenging. If impossible to catch up, then simply reset the challenge and start fresh.” Dean Wesley Smith on whether to try catching up when you fall behind on a challenge “Ahh, the problems of being prolific.” Dean Wesley Smith AI Audiobooks? I currently have in my inbox (as probably do many of you) an email from Google Play Books. The subject reads “Create an auto-narrated audiobook.” As of this writing … Read more

The Journal: How to Write Into the Dark

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: How to Write Into the Dark * A Recommendation * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “My students and I are currently working on finding a concrete theory of time travel with multiple histories that is fully compatible with general relativity.” Barak Shoshany, Assistant Professor, Physics, Brock University “Courses in prosody, rhetoric and comparative philology would be required of all students, and every student would have to select three courses out of courses in mathematics, natural history, geology, meteorology, archaeology, mythology, liturgics, cooking.” W. H. Auden via The Passive Voice … Read more

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: I Had to Laugh

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I had to laugh * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “If I’ve done my job in the first two hours, the audience will believe anything I tell them at the end.” Director Steven Spielberg on making up stuff in fiction “Tip: Non-outliners — write the story then add the foreshadowing.” Steve Hooley, TKZ, on foreshadowing (grin) I Had to Laugh I had to laugh, albeit in a good-natured way, when I first read that second quote. Yeah, I’m gonna take advice on how to write into the dark from an … Read more

The Journal: Critiques? Um, No.

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Critiques? Um, No. * Of Interest Quote of the Day “[U]sing someone else’s idea without using their expression of that idea is not copyright infringement. Copyright protects the expression of ideas, not ideas themselves.” The Passive Guy Topic: Critiques? Um, No. Disclaimer 1 — I’ll say up front that if you are one who actively seeks out criticism of your work from readers or from other writers, that’s fine. None of my business. To each your own. Disclaimer 2 — I’ll also say I’m not talking here about copyeditors or … 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: 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