In today’s Journal * Flash Contest Clarification * Book Sale * Ideas * Of Interest * The Numbers Just a friendly reminder— Writing Better Fiction is still on sale for only $9 for all eformats, including printable PDF. On May 1, the price will increase to $14. You can also still order a binder-ready paper copy from me for $25 (includes shipping). Simply email memailto:harveystanbrough@gmail.com with your request. Flash Contest Clarification Please read the Flash Contest! post carefully. Then, if you still have any questions, please email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. The contest is open to all genres across the board. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Flash Contest! * Of Interest * The Numbers Flash Contest! It’s been a long time since StoneThread Publishing held a contest and published an anthology. But a timely comment from a writer and Journal reader made me realize it’s time. If this contest works out well, I probably will host similar contests in the future. Maybe for more short stories or for openings of novels or whatever. I’m actually excited about this. In her comment, Emilia wrote (excerpted) “I used to read other peoples stories and give feedback, but I stopped because it made my critical … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A Story About a Trunk Novelist Turned Editor * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Like an exciting roller coaster ride, the need to know what’s coming next in a story creates anxiety and a certain amount of fear. Or, you know, exhiliration. Exactly the same thing. I guess it all depends on how you look at it.” Harvey Stanbrough A Story About a Trunk Novelist Turned Editor Once upon a time in a comment on an article titled “Read, Write, Suffer” (certainly not my article but one … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Live from the Hovel: Inspiration from Artwork * A Note to a Writer * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “In our modern world, we call writers who spend a lot of time producing new words ‘fast’ writers. But fast has nothing to do with it. Just a work ethic and a love of stories.” Dean Wesley Smith (See Of Interest) Live from the Hovel: Inspiration from Artwork I went live yesterday on YouTube for about 20 minutes. If you want to, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Bradbury Challenge Reminder * I Was Reminded Yesterday * A Trick Question * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Not at all sure why this idea of writing at Pulp Speed sort of hits me right. I think because it flies in the face of all the myths.” Dean Wesley Smith (see Of Interest) “Talking about snowflake method (you mentioned it about 2 years ago) I would say that it doesn’t work even for the author of it. Looks like the last fiction from this author was published … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Short Story * A Brand New Question * A Weird (Wonderful) Novel * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[Taylor Swift’s] Arizona concert stimulated the local economy more than the 2023 Super Bowl.” (see Of Interest) “A [person] who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” Charles Darwin A New Short Story “We Feed Them” went live yesterday on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go! Read! It’s free! Ugh. I spotted a few typos. If you see them, please forgive. … Read more

In today’s Journal * The Problems that Result from Outlining Novels * Of Interest * The Numbers The Problems that Result from Outlining Novels in which we explore, through a pair of digressions, a statement of fact, and a summary, the problems that result from outlining novels. Literally millions of writers out there outline novels before they write them. Why? Let’s explore that. An Initial Digression— They outline because they were taught Fear and Insecurity: that they needed the safety net of an outline, and that they’re incapable of writing a novel without one. Of course, in reality there is … Read more

In today’s Journal * Some Old New Posts * What I’ve Learned & What I Teach * Of Interest * The Numbers Some Old New Posts I have a folder on my desktop labeled “Journal Topics.” When I have an idea for a topic but don’t have time to put it into the Journal right then, I make a note of it. Then, from time to time, I browse that folder and delete or add-to those topics. But I need to clear out that folder, so in coming days I’ll be posting some old new topics. Here’s the first one: … Read more

In today’s Journal * How to Proofread Your Own Work * Of Interest * The Numbers How to Proofread Your Own Work Much of this first appeared in Self-Editing for Writers (in slightly different form), which I offer free at StoneThread Publishing. (Scroll down when you get there. I will always recommend a good first reader to catch those little glitches that pop-out at any reader as s/he reads. Even though I’d cycled over my previous book several times (individual chapters and later the whole thing), my first reader still found three errors in the book when he read it. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Info on Facebook and Twitter * About First Readers * Of Interest * The Numbers As you will see from the content below, it is a slow news day. Also, I got a good start on the next novel yesterday. Info on Facebook and Twitter Those of you who sent me “friend” requests on my new Facebook personal page, thanks. Unfortunately, over two weeks in, I’m still not “allowed” to originate friend requests or even create a username for that page. Fortunately, my wife was able to make me Admin on an author page she’s been … Read more