Month: July 2023

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * End of July and Goals * Bradbury Challenge * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.” Stephen King “Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel sh*t from a sitting position.” Stephen King “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King These quotes were part of my response to a … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Seeking Perfection * A Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I’m sort of murdered for selling books. The idea is, if you make money your work can’t be literary.” Mark Helprin Um, yet another stupid myth. “…authors should realize that in the quest for perfection they can perfect something to death.” Dan Baldwin Not to mention, what is perfect for the author is nothing close to perfect for a majority of readers. Seeking Perfection Sorry for the late delivery today. I wasn’t going to write an … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Personas vs. Pen Names * A New Story * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “If I can’t muster up the enthusiasm to care about my topic, I can bet you won’t.” Matt Perryman “The ideas, philosophies, methods, techniques, tips, tactics, and perspectives I’m digging up will be of interest and value to anyone who writes, creates, or has any need to focus the mind on sustained creative work.” Matt Perryman I’m personally very much looking forward to the new direction Matt is taking Meaningful Particulars. I urge … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Suffering for Your Art? Poor Baby * Grief, and Casting About * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I’m going to go do this crazy thing. I’m going to start this company selling books online.” Jeff Bezos Suffering for Your Art? Poor Baby At The Passive Voice this morning I found this article: “You Don’t Need to Suffer to Make Art—But It Can Help.” Folks, let me tell you something. All those writers out there who are “suffering” for their “art” are self-absorbed snots, and they wouldn’t know … Read more

In today’s Journal * The Sequence (Guest Post) * Of Interest * The Numbers The following is a guest post by Dan Baldwin, copied from his weekly blog. The post is presented exactly as it appeared in my email. If you enjoy Dan’s thoughts on writing, I strongly urge you to subscribe. To do so, email him at baldco@msn.com. The Sequence Screenplay writers often use the sequence technique in the mid portion of their work. The sequence involves a lot of shots of different people in different locations doing different things all related to the central theme. Once in editing, … Read more

In today’s Journal * A Thought * On Cycling * Of Interest * The Numbers A Thought Fully giving yourself over to Story—allowing your characters uncontrolled access to your creative subconscious and complete control of your fingers as you and they race through the story that they, not you, are living—is easily among the more sensual, intimate, and purely truthful acts you can ever perform as a writer. On Cycling I get questions on cycling, and especially cycling vs. editing, so let me be as absolutely clear as possible: Like writing into the dark, cycling is a free-flowing function of … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Bradbury Challenge * A Personal Thank You * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart Bradbury Challenge Most of those who have joined in this challenge have written tens of thousands more words than they might have otherwise. You can still join in the challenge at any time. And if you’re a fiction writer, why not? There’s no cost, and the challenge is a great way to increase your inventory and jumpstart your … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * One Writer’s Take on the Bradbury Challenge * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “No rules re grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc. really matter. You know, unless you actually WANT the greater number of readers to understand what you’ve written and take from it what you want them to take from it. In that case, you must learn the rules, not so you won’t break them, but so you can break them intelligently and intentionally to create a certain effect in the reader.” Me in a comment on a … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Still Here * A New Story * The Bradbury Challenge Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I don’t spend any time whatsoever thinking about what might have been.” Alex Trebek Still Here I’m still here, still putting some things together mentally, emotionally and physically. I hope to be back before too long. I feel like I’ve been saying that for the past 2 years, and it’s only kicked into high gear over the past three months. It’ll all work out. In the meantime, I wanted to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Story Ideas * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela Story Ideas Nothing much today. I was browsing my “Blueprint,” the Interesting Engineering newsletter I receive almost daily, and it struck me that the current issue is chock full of story ideas. Many issues are. You don’t even have to read the articles, though I advise it. You can take one or more story ideas suitable for any (or all) of several genres from only the title of many of … Read more