Month: November 2022

Another Myth

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Another Myth * The Novel * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” Ray Bradbury “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.” Lorrie Moore “The short story is about One Event; longer fiction is about a series of interrelated or connected events.” Harvey Stanbrough “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” … Read more

New Short Story of the Week

In today’s Journal * New Short Story of the Week * The Novel * Of Interest New Short Story of the Week Since I was a little late posting the most recent installment of my Short Story of the Week offering for readers, I thought I’d post a novella instead. This one’s a little over 15,000 words and it’s never been posted free before. To see the story, visit https://harveystanbroughwrites.com/category/short-story-of-the-week/. If you’re learning anything from me, this might be a golden opportunity for you. Maybe study this one for description, pacing, and detailed action. The Novel As you can see … Read more

Goals and Goal Setting

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Goals and Goal Setting * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.” Isaac Asimov “As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” Ray Bradbury Goals and Goal Setting … Read more

An Excellent Question, and an Epiphany

In today’s Journal * An Excellent Question * Update, and an Epiphany * Of Interest An Excellent Question In response to my post “Mostly Dean Koontz,” Peggy K. asked an absolutely excellent question. It felt so important and maybe necessary that I was going to reprint her question and my response as today’s Journal post. However, I also experienced an epiphany yesterday shortly after I replied to Peggy. So today’s post is about that eiphany. I feel as if it’s one I’ve been straining to find ever since I started writing again. So please read Peggy’s comment and my response … Read more

Nothing

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Nothing * Of Interest Quote of the Day “I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.” Margaret Mead Nothing Nothing, really, to talk about today. But some of the stuff in “Of Interest” was too much fun to keep to myself. The novel is inching along. That’s all I can say about that at the moment without yelling a lot. Writing it brings up a less than fond memory of climbing Mount MF in full gear and drenched plastic ponchos at Camp Pendleton, … Read more

Mostly Dean Koontz

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Mostly Dean Koontz * Cuts Are Ugly * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I used to write from outlines. But when I wrote Strangers, which ended up having an enormous cast and being about a quarter of a million words, I decided not to do an outline and just start with the premise and a couple of interesting characters. I decided to wing it, and it was the best decision. I’ve never used an outline since.” Dean Koontz “If the character doesn’t work in the first 20 pages, you might … Read more

Emphasis, Critique Groups, the Novel

In today’s Journal * How Not to Indicate Emphasis * Offering Critiques * The Novel * Of Interest How Not to Indicate Emphasis Re Sue Colletta’s post (linked in “Of Interest”) on how not to emphasize words and phrases in fiction, I left a comment and thought I would share it here just in case any of you might find it useful. I learned in an Aldus PageMaker design class about a jillion years ago, if you HAVE  TO  USE  ALL  CAPS (headlines, etc.) it’s a good idea to hit the spacebar twice between every pair of words, as I did in the example. … Read more

The Yawning Chasms Along the Way

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Yawning Chasms Along the Way * And Then There’s Plottr * Dean’s In-Person Classes * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I’ve discovered Plottr. Without going into detail, it is the best tool I’ve used so far. Loving the timeline feature and templates for a variety of genres. It gives me writing prompts in the places I usually flounder, as well as a host of other nice features.” Cecilia Marie Pulliam “Mama says ‘Stupid is as stupid does’.” Forrest Gump The Yawning Chasms Along the Way If you don’t see … Read more

Heinlein’s Rule 2

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Heinlein’s Rule 2 * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” William Pollard “The arrogance of success”—this is why so many Stage 2 writers remain Stage 2 writers. Heinlein’s Rule 2 Rule 1 is “You must write.” Rule 2 is “You must finish what you write.” I probably won’t break that rule, but I came close to bending it pretty severely. I was going to put off finishing … Read more

An Idea-Breeding Article

In today’s Journal * An Idea-Breeding Article * By the Way (the novel) * There’s a post * Of Interest An Idea-Breeding Article Note: I will share several ideas for a story based on the post I mention below. Please share your ideas in the comments too. You can’t copyright an idea anyway, right? Might as well share it and let everyone get some practice. (grin) This is not, as you might expect, especially for science fiction writers. This event and its fallout could be included in mystery, thriller, crime and other genres as well. Even romance, I suppose. I … Read more