In Today’s Journal * A Lovely Day * Transition * Of Interest A Lovely Day Today is a lovely day in southeast Arizona, the skies filled with rainclouds from a topical storm that hit along the coast of Mexico. The air is cool and damp. In days gone by this is the sort of day when I would’ve slipped into my running togs and gone for a long run. Those days are long since past, but I still love this kind of morning. This is the payoff we get for living where we do. It’s the time of year when … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * Adios to Chopped Livah * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “The story—any story—isn’t about an event. The story is about how the characters react to an event.” Adios to Chopped Livah Just a heads-up: Be sure to catch the final issue of Chopped Livah on Sunday, October 11, at 8 a.m. The topic is a 4,000 word deep dive on “How to Show (Enable the Reader to Experience) the POV Character’s Anxiety,” complete with a detailed example. I opened the post up so everyone could read it. Chopped … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Stephen King * Quotes of the Day * A WITD Experience * Of Interest Stephen King In my previous post, I kind of featured crime writer Michael Connelly and got some great writing advice from him. Today, I’m doing the same thing on steroids with Stephen King from the Quotes of the Day to Of Interest. I’ll also outline “A WITD Experience,” especially for those who haven’t yet been able to pull the trigger on trying it yet. Quotes of the Day “I’m a total child about this. The only thing I really want is for … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A Bit More from Michael Connelly * A Great Tongue-in-Cheek Comment * Poetry? * Of Interest Quote of the Day “In writing, maybe the key thing is momentum, and a lot of details create speed bumps. … Instead of five details you pick the one that says something about the situation [and the] character.” Michael Connelly, crime writer (see Of Interest) A Bit More from Michael Connelly “The more you do something the better you get at it, so I’m definitely an always-be-writing type of guy.” His professor in college said, … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * A Note re Of Interest * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “After you make a fool of yourself a few hundred times, you learn what works.” Gwen Stefani “Maybe the goal isn’t to describe what a character looks like. Maybe the goal is to describe what it’s like to live inside that particular body. That sounds like the same thing, but I don’t think it is at all.” Sarah (Sally) Hamer (see “The Mirror Is Not Your Friend” in Of Interest) The Bradbury Challenge Report … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Note * Of Interest Quotes of the Day Hemingway “What you ought to do is write you big lazy bastard. My god it is hard for anybody to write. I never start a damn thing without knowing 200 times I can’t write—never will be able to write a line—can’t go on—can’t get started—stuff is rotten—can’t say what I mean—know there is a whole fine complete thing and all I get of it is the bacon rinds. You would write better than anybody but the minute it becomes impossible you stop. That … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Your Characters Do It All * Free Archives Still Available * Of Interest Your Characters Do It All I had an interesting comment or two from a writer the other day. I thought I’d share part of that with you because the writer struck a universal truth. The first comment that struck me was that the writer had a question but that “you might not be able to answer it because it’s about something far from your genres.” This doesn’t matter. All the concepts I teach are the same through all the genres. Your creative subconscious … Read more

In Today’s Journal * On Cormac McCarthy… On Cormac McCarthy, the Creative Subconscious, and Believing in Yourself I hadn’t expected to write another issue of TNDJ so soon, but here I am. My friend Gary V. sent a me a link to a short video at Christian Chacon’s Substack. I read the transcript and listened to the 4+ minute video (both were essentially the same). But it seemed to me the video was an excerpt of a longer interview. I didn’t go looking for the longer version, but I keyed into a search engine Cormac McCarthy on writing fiction with … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * A Few Updates on Chopped Livah * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Even if you’re doing detours, they have to somehow matter to … what’s going on. If you don’t have heart, if you don’t have characters you care about, if you don’t have the larger themes, if you don’t have the cool descriptions, it’s not a novel and people won’t want to read it.” Harlan Coben on writing fiction “Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Chopped Livah 1 * About Commas * I Get Scam Emails Chopped Livah 1 Chopped Livah 1, a deep dive on “Six Senses, the POV Character, and Setting Description” is ready to go, and I’m tickled pink. It’ll post at 8 a.m. (Arizona time) on Sunday, September 27. That issue came in at a little over 4000 words, and I think I gave free subscribers almost half of it as an excerpt. (I tried to, at least, and I believe I did.) They should be able to read from the top all the way down through … Read more