In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * The Opening Hook Is Not the Opening Proper * Please Read This * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “For goodness’ sake, do your best to stop worrying what the reader thinks of you, the writer. If you do your job and just tell the story, they’ll be so engaged with the story that they won’t even be aware a ‘writer’ exists on the other side.” The Opening Hook Is Not the Opening Proper I recently realized another topic I’ve never covered: The opening hook of a story or … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Hemingway, Part 4: Revision-Rewriting * Of Interest Quote of the Day “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know. And then continue from there.” Ernest Hemingway Hemingway, Part 4: Revision-Rewriting Wow, this Hemingway thing just keeps going. I think this will be the last post in what became a series, but I guess we’ll see. Introduction I’ve heard many assertions about writing advice from Hemingway. Some of them are true (for example, the Quote of the Day) and some are not. I recently … Read more

In Today’s Journal * About ​Hemingway, Part 3 * Of Interest About ​Hemingway, Part 3 My writer friend Andrew asked a few more questions, and those led to this post. My thanks to him. And while I’m thinking about it, here’s a link to subscribe to his Substack for new stories and updates on his books. As I said in my response (much of which appears below) I only wish he’d asked these specific questions before I published the Author Intrusion book. As it stands, I’m considering adding “A Pre-Introduction” to the beginning of the book to include some of what’s … Read more

In Today’s Journal * About Hemingway, Part 2 * Of Interest About Hemingway, Part 2 You can find the first post here. If I can switch over to being a critic  for a moment, maybe Hemingway used the dual meaning of guano to subliminally invoke the sense of smell, which he already also invoked with the “dust” (which he doesn’t specifically mention) with regard to the walls and the roof and the dirt floor. That’s all part of the iceberg that’s below the surface of the story. Now, so you don’t have to switch back and forth between posts, here’s … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Introduction * About Hemingway, Part 1 * Of Interest Introduction Occasionally I receive an email that offers me the gift of a truly great topic for a post in TNDJ. By “a great topic” I mean a topic I’ve always wanted to write about here, but one that didn’t occur to me without the catalyst of a writer asking a question. I received just such an email from writer Andrew Schrater recently. Andrew’s question had to do with Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory” and “minimalism vs. maximalism” and what that means for fiction writers today. What follows is … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * A Most Unusual Day * The Ugliness of “Winner’s Tilt” Part 2 * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “We don’t really create ideas, we catch them, like fish.” David Lynch (via Andrew Schrater) “Saw this quote in a video about ideas and creative blocks and why some people get it while others don’t. The quote above, from the legend himself, and Stephen King, and Ray Bradbury, and thousands of other writers, shows that writers are not truly creators. We are the recorders of the world … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * The Bland Ugliness of “Winner’s Tilt” Part 1 * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “Once a reader has selected his genre, the excuse of ‘reader taste’ is exhausted and becomes just another myth writers use to explain why the reader doesn’t like their work. It’s the writer’s responsibility to pull the reader into the story and keep him there.” The Bland Ugliness of “Winner’s Tilt” Part 1 Any practicing or even wannabe psychologists out there? You’re fiction writers, so there should be. Here’s a case study for you. … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * I’m Serializing Again * To Anyone Whose Work I’ve Critiqued * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Happiness is your current situation, uh, minus expectations.” Comedian Jimmy Carr I’m Serializing Again Awhile back I started a story about a highly competent young woman named Marie Dubois. Over the past few days I’ve refurbished, written, and finished that story at something over 7500 words. Best of all, this story’s trying to lead me into two other stories, both of which will be novels. Anyway, I decided since this story is kind of … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Bradbury * Of Interest The Bradbury Challenge Report Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer. The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories: Vanessa V. Kilmer “Play It Again” 3057 Adventure Christopher Ridge “The Hatchet Challenge” 1237 horror 1237 “Dr. Toepher’s House of Squealing Toes” absurd comedy horror 2186 KC Riggs “The Straw Hat” 1114 Paranormal Dave Taylor … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Remembering the 4th of July * Of Interest Remembering the 4th of July In the sunbaked heat on the late afternoon of July 4, 1964, I was a preteen standing with my mother Rosalie on the western side of the large Lea Lake at Bottomless Lakes State Park a few miles outside of Roswell, New Mexico. She was in a flowered dress and white leather flip-flops, her waist-length black hair pulled up into a roll on the back of her head and secured with a silver broach. I was in jeans and a t-shirt, western boots, … Read more