Month: April 2018

The Journal, Sunday, April 8

Hey Folks, Hmm. Somehow, I was thinking Friday’s post was Saturday’s post and hadn’t gone out yet. So I amended Friday’s post. Mark it up to a very good case of exhaustion. Anyway, we didn’t get back until yesterday (Saturday) morning and then I didn’t post a Journal. Not a lot going on today. Weird. The morning of the second day of the camping trip, I was jonesing for writing. From now on when I go, I’ll take my laptop along. Just in case. But now I’m back, and this morning I didn’t feel like writing. Since it’s Sunday, I … Read more

The Journal, Friday, April 6

Hey Folks, Well, I’m home from the camping trip to the Gila River in the Lower Gila Box Wilderness. It was fun. As promised, I’ve (pre-)posted the third topic below. I’m updating this edition of the Journal a bit since I’m back. Two days ago I talked in general about reading your work aloud, then discussed reading aloud during my writing process. Yesterday, I discussed reading aloud in my own after-writing process. So today…. Topic: Using a First Reader vs. Reading Aloud Of course, you can also do both: read aloud and send your work to a first reader, in … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, April 5

Hey Folks, As you read this, I should be lounging somewhere along (well, above) the Gila River in the Lower Gila Box Wilderness. But before I left, I drifted out to the Hovel and created a cover for the new novella. That’s it on the left. As promised, I’ve posted the second topic below. Yesterday I talked in general about reading your work aloud, then discussed reading aloud during my writing process. So today… Topic: Reading Aloud in My Own After-Writing Process If a work is shorter — say up to 45,000 words or so — I usually read it … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, April 4

Hey Folks, All right. Well, I finished the novella this morning. I’ll go over it one more time (reading aloud to myself) before I publish it, but the final word count will be very near what’s posted below. *** A few days ago, a subscriber asked in a comment about my after-writing process. Do I send my work to my first reader before I read it aloud? Do I print it before I read it aloud or read directly from the screen? Just as importantly, the commenter wrote “I’m working on getting better writing a clean [first] draft….” I was … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, April 3

Hey Folks, Well, the current WIP is going to be a novellette or a novella. I don’t usually write to a particular length, but I know this one won’t get into the short-novel range. Something occurred to me after I wrote yesterday’s post. Write This Down: The only real difference between a short story and a story of any other length is that a short story is about One Event. Not two, not a few and not several. One. This story is about two cases, a new one and a cold case that all but mimics the new one, and … Read more

The Journal, Monday, April 2

Hey Folks, I might as well let you in on a secret. In writing my current WIP, I’m doing something I’ve never done before. And actually, I’m doing something I don’t enjoy. At all. At less than 6,000 words in (as of yesterday) I already know most of the plot points and the satisfactory resolution of the novel. Ugh. How in the world does anyone write from an outline? Seriously, I don’t understand. If they already know the story beforehand, how are they not bored out of their mind as they put it on paper? It seems to me that … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, April 1

Hey Folks, Long post today. Hope you had or are having a happy and uneventful April Fools Day and Easter. I’m finding if I can avoid the Smashwords blog on this day, I come through pretty much unscathed. Mark Coker got me (and a great many others) two or three years ago when he used the Smashwords blog to announce that Amazon was doing something very harmful to writers. They would soon announce they’d come up with an intelligent program that churned out novels, thereby negating the need for writers. Something like that. And yeah, I bought it. I emailed … Read more