The Journal: When You Outline a Novel

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: When You Outline a Novel * Of Interest Quote of the Day One more note for Memorial Day: “… If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” from “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, a poet and British soldier who was … Read more

The Journal: Crawl Before You Walk

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Memorial Day * Topic: Crawl Before You Walk * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[W]e writers are great with imagination, yet we don’t know enough about licensing and copyright to imagine what products could come from our IP.” Dean Wesley Smith “He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.” P.G. Wodehouse “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of … Read more

The Journal: Memorial Day, and Just for Fun, Part 2

In today’s Journal * Memorial Day * Topic: Just for Fun, Part 2 * Oops * Of Interest Memorial Day I hope you will have a safe and happy but thoughtful Memorial Day. I hope you will consider all we still have in this once-great nation and on whose sacrifices we stand. Topic: Just for Fun, Part 2 Matt P. emailed this morning to ask how I would respond to writers “who claims that getting critiques helped them improve their writing and that if they hadn’t, they never would have gotten better.” Note: This topic, including this sentence, is delivered … Read more

The Journal: A Long Journey

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Faulkner * A Long Journey * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When [the writer] begins to temper what he writes to who will read it, then I think the writing itself suffers.” William Faulkner “Sometimes the characters in my books surprise me, yes. They don’t surprise me in doing something that I never heard of or never imagined human beings doing before, but I hadn’t expected them to do it at that moment.” William Faulkner “I think that if the writer is going to write simply to express his own … Read more

The Journal: William Faulkner

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * William Faulkner * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Once these people come to life … they take off and so the writer is going at a dead run behind them trying to put down what they say and do in time…. They have taken charge of the story. They tell it from then on in.” William Faulkner “These people I invent and after that I just run along and put down what they say and do.” William Faulkner “They are still in motion in my mind. I can laugh at … Read more

The Journal: Just for Fun

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Just for Fun * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I can find motivation in my sleep. I write for me, to handle the challenge or to tell a particular story. I would write if civilization vanished and I had to scrounge up the last few pens and notepads to do so.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “Faulkner or Hemingway … struggled like crazy to get recognition. But we, the young writers who studied their work, don’t know about those struggles. We only see how they’re treated after death.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “[W]riting … Read more

The Journal: How to Indicate Unspoken Thoughts

In today’s Journal * Topic: How to Indicate Unspoken Thoughts * Of Interest Topic: How to Indicate Unspoken Thoughts There are generally two major ways to indicate the direct, unspoken thoughts (or internal monologue) of the POV character. Either is acceptable, depending on whom you ask and your personal preference as a writer: 1. Put the POV character’s direct unspoken thoughts in italics to visually differentiate them from narration. (I used to recommend doing this.) 2. Leave the direct thoughts in regular font like the narration. (I now recommend doing this.) Consistency Is Key — whichever way you choose to … Read more

The Journal: A Lengthy Preface and a Reiteration

In today’s Journal * A Lengthy Preface and a Reiteration * Of Interest A Lengthy Preface and a Reiteration Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt is a writer who suffers from a rare disease, an affliction that precludes her from being able to access her creative subconscious or to write from it. (Alicia, my apologies, but I can’t remember the specific name of the disease.) In a comment on “Another Brief Note on Critiques,” Alicia mentioned a few points to which I will respond here. But first a pair of disclaimers — 1. If you are unable to either access your creative subconscious … Read more

The Journal: Another Brief Note on Critiques

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Another Brief Note on Critiques * And Then There’s This * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Here’s a revelation for some people: the age of the audience is not a genre.” R.S. Mellette “PG has never read a book because he wants to impress anyone either positively or negatively and doesn’t think he would enjoy associating with someone who does.” The Passive Guy Topic: Another Brief Note on Critiques K.C.’s comment on yesterday’s post drew my attention, especially when I received a similar response to a comment I posted … Read more

The Journal: Reviews and Critiques

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Reviews and Critiques * Speaking of Which * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “As we all know, a reader’s opinion of a book is enormously subjective. The way [readers] approach a story can vary at different points in their lives, or even their day. They read things into it that you might never have intended—and they’re all going to have vastly different opinions about what worked and what didn’t.” Joe Moore, whom I believe is a founding member of The KillZone blog, on why he recommends not reading reviews. … Read more