In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * Chapter One: Using the Physical and Emotional Sense Verbs * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “In the short story or novel, dialogue equals action. It forces the reader to lean into the story and to participate as an eavesdropper.” Chapter One: Using the Physical and Emotional Sense Verbs The Goal: Never use the physical and emotional sense verbs when writing fiction. For now: Try never to use the physical and emotional sense verbs when writing fiction. After you’ve read this chapter, if you put that “For now” thought … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Fiverr Book Promo Pre-Results * I Might Have an Audio-Book Guy * Update on the Author Intrusion Book * Of Interest Fiverr Book Promo Pre-Results A few days ago I mentioned I’d be working with a guy from Fiverr to promote Writing Better Fiction. The initial cost (Standard Package) was $55. The last two items in the list below were add-ons that raised my total to $115. He’d promised to get the week-long promo up by May 8, fourteen days from the date of my request. Not only did he get the promo up early—it started … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Author Intrusion: A Dual Introduction * Of Interest Author Intrusion: A Dual Introduction About Me—Credentials If you seriously want to learn to write fiction—or if you’re already a fiction writer and you want to improve your craft—it only makes sense to learn from those who’ve actually written a lot of fiction and who have the ability to teach. Fortunately, I possess both of those attributes. As I’ve said to many copyediting clients, mentoring students, and attendees while teaching in college classes and in private seminars and writers conferences over the past few decades, my own number … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * Another Quote of the Day * Update on the Mistakes Book * Craig Martelle * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “The fiction writer’s only role is to convey the story, not to comment on it.” Another Quote of the Day “Set your goal, write your words, and encourage each other. A rising tide lifts all boats.” Craig Martelle Update on the Mistakes Book I’ve pretty well decided to call my nonfiction work in progress “Author Intrusion: A Writerly Sin.” The logline will be “How Fiction Writers Kill Their … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * Another Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * A New Challenge * A New Short Story * My “Top Mistakes” Book is a Go * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “I never consider the opinions of writers who rigidly stick to any set of rules about writing. I suspect they would die of suffocation if breathing weren’t an automatic reflex.” Another Quote of the Day “I figured I might not have an input this week, until I saw the title of a YouTube video: Carnival … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Welp, I’ve Hired a Publicist * Of Interest Welp, I’ve Hired a Book Publicist As I mentioned recently, I’ve been getting a lot of scam emails. By “a lot” I mean at least one a day every day and often three or four. Most of them mention “your book” or other phrases that prove they know absolutely nothing about me. I quickly mark those as spam and block the email of the sender. But every now and then I get a good one. Recently I received one that was so convincing that over a period of … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Freebies * A Musing * Of Interest Freebies We’ve had a few new subscribers recently to TNDJ, so I thought I’d put out this reminder of all the freebies that are available to you. First, you know I’m working on a new nonfiction book. A couple of days ago I put four links in Of Interest to the articles that will serve as the TOC for that book. But I’d forgotten about another nonfiction book I’d written long ago and am now offering free. It’s titled The Seven Writerly Sins and you can get it free … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Website vs. Substack * A Note re Draft2Digital * A Note re Become A Successful Indie Author * A New Nonfiction Project * Of Interest Website vs. Substack Can I just ask? If you view TNDJ at the Journal website vs. Substack, please take a moment to let me know that. Leave a comment or email me. Yesterday the servers at my ISP went down for a while. As a consequence, I initially posted TNDJ only to Substack. That was a learning curve since I usually copy/paste it from the .txt boilerplate to the Journal website, … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * A New Short Story (Reminder) * Two Big Things * Mentorship Slots Available * Up Next * Of Interest My Quote of the Day “In fiction writing, if you master the technique, the content will take care of itself.” 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. … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Taking Your Time Redux * Of Interest Taking Your Time Redux Just an additional note about taking your time. If you, like most successful fiction writers, seek to learn by reading other, more-advanced writers’ work, consider reading Stephen King’s Duma Key. On advice of another writer, I bought Duma Key and started reading it a couple of days ago. I’m glad I did for a variety of reasons. The main reason (as it should be) is that the story is extremely entertaining. But the main secondary reason is that King’s storytelling is a master class on … Read more