In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Quick Note to Say Thank You * Stage 4 Breast Cancer * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When you can make your reader forget they’re reading a made-up story, you’ve struck gold. … Believability is all in the details.” Janice Hardy (First item, Of Interest) “I found myself deleting paragraphs I had spent a long time writing, not because I had written them poorly, but because they had become unnecessary. Once I started paying attention to what my characters noticed, those details began carrying the emotional weight on their … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Stage 4 Breast Cancer * The Bradbury Challenge Report * Of Interest Quote of the Day “It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Ernest Hemingway Since I accidentally omitted the attribution yesterday, I repeated the same Quote of the Day again today. I can’t hear any advice from Hemingway too many times. Stage 4 Breast Cancer Sorry, folks, this takes priority today. My son has a friend who is almost like another son to me. Now his … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Humility? Nah * One Other Note * Of Interest Quote of the Day “It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Humility? Nah Yesterday or the day before I mentioned that A Most Unusual Day is “the best novel I’ve ever written.” A reader emailed to ask “Why do you think it is the best of so many? Of so many kinds? Just curious?” I thought my response might touch a chord with some of you: “Honestly? Because … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Novel Wrapped * Of Interest The Novel Wrapped Well, the novel wrapped yesterday with a little over 43,000 words. I didn’t keep track of the specific writing days like I used to, but I started writing it on July 8 and it wrapped on August 6. So a couple of days under a month. So an average of something around 1500 words per day. Maybe I’ll take the time to update my Annual Production spreadsheet, but probably not. Writing the next story is the priority. That and I have a few things to do around … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * On Authorial Integrity Quote of the Day “Never share your work in progress with anyone until it’s finished.” Not attributed to anyone in particular, but passed along by pretty much every creative writing instructor ever. On Authorial Integrity or Tricks of the Creative Subconscious This is for those of you who implicitly trust your characters and yourself and who write into the dark (and those who aspire to WITD). A couple of days ago my friend Authorial Integrity slapped me hard across the face and told me to wake the hell … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A Presentation-Process Post * Don’t Get Wrapped Around the Wheel * Of Interest Quote of the Day “When you write from truth, criticism lands differently. Sure, it might sting…but it doesn’t shatter you, because you know what you made is real. You were there. You put something honest into the world.” Jaime Buckley I excerpted the above quote from a must-read post Jaime wrote recently for Writers in the Storm. For the link, see Of Interest. A Presentation-Process Post Interesting how my writing process—or rather, my presentation process—has changed since I … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Bradbury Challenge Report * On Writing TNDJ and Literary Criticism * 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 “Wired To Burn” 3029 Mystery Christopher Ridge “Christopher Ridge vs. Corporate Zombie Bastards” 1899 comic horror Dave Taylor “Generation’s Day” 2,281 Paranormal … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Convey Everything * Come Sundown * A Most Unusual Day (Update) * Of Interest Quote of the Day “After you learn to write your whole object is to convey everything, every sensation, sight, feeling, place and emotion to the reader. To do this you have to work over what you write.” Ernest Hemingway Convey Everything every sensation, sight, feeling, place and emotion—to the reader. Sound familiar? That’s how you invite the reader in, pull him in, and let him be present in your story. It’s also how you make it impossible … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Dean Wesley Smith * July 31st Already * Hemingway Again * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Nobody really knows or understands and nobody has ever said the secret. The secret is that it is poetry written into prose and it is the hardest of all things to do….” Ernest Hemingway, from Mary Hemingway, How It Was, p.352 Dean Wesley Smith was kind enough to leave a comment on yesterday’s post. If you haven’t read the post yet, you can scroll up from the comments to read it or find it … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A Most Unusual Day * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I have ever done—so I do it. And it makes me happy when I do it well.” Ernest Hemingway A Most Unusual Day That’s the title of the novel I’m currently serializing free over on Stanbrough Writes. A new serial installment pops up every other day. Chapter 11 went live yesterday, … Read more