Month: September 2023

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Shameless Self-Promotion * Writing Prompts Are Yours for a Song (guest post) * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” Ernest Hemingway “The English major reads because, as rich as the one life he has may be, one life is not enough. He reads not to see the world through the eyes of other people but effectively to become other people.” Mark Edmundson Shameless Self-Promotion Those of you who are in southeast … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Four More Episodes * Rare Book Signing Event * Vignettes, Short Stories, and the Challenge * Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “What does it matter if I’m 23 or 53? I’m making stories up, not fighting fires or digging ditches under a steady rain.” George Kordonis, on starting to write fiction seriously at 53. “Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.” Carl Sandburg (stolen from Dan Baldwin’s Writing Tip of the Week, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Shameless Self-Promotion * An Administrative Note * A Quick Lesson on Spanish Name Pronunciation * No Joy * More Info on Vella * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.” John Cleese (Thanks to Russ J for reminding me of this.) Take note, fiction writers. Once again, all things “bad” about creativity boil down to fear. And every fear you ever have is a function of the conscious, critical mind. Shameless Self-Promotion (and … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Shameless Self-Promotion * Welcome * A Quick Lesson on Spanish Name Pronunciation * “The Old 710” * The Myths, and What Gives? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” Muhammad Ali “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” BB King “The island on which traditional publishers and their camp followers live provides a very warped view of the real book … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Pen Names Revisited * Working Into a New Schedule * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You as the writer are just the conduit.” Vin Zandri in Episode #805: Write Only For Yourself As I commented on the video, “Easy for me. I just run through the trenches of the story with the characters, write what happens, and what the characters say and do in response. And if anyone asks why I wrote whatever dialogue or setting, I just shrug. “‘Cause that’s what happened.” Seriously, all I do … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Valuable Practice Exercise * Vin Again, and Keep Coming Back * I’m a Fortunate Guy * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” Kurt Vonnegut “On this day September 12 in 1817, 81-year-old John Adams had a great excuse for not writing someone back sooner. He opened his letter with, ‘The procrastination of old age and the dissipation of the month of August must be my apologies for neglecting … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Vin Zandri! * A Note on Pen Names * About Using Prompts * Further Clarification on Vella * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King “Good cover design is not only about beauty… it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Welcome * Clarification on Vella * On Being Prompt (guest post) * A Few Words About Challenges * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself … that’s where it’s at.” Jesse Owens Welcome Welcomg to Zoey, Clint, Lakshmi and any other new subscribers to the Journal I hope you will visit the Journal website at https://hestanbrough.com. There you will find numerous free downloads on the Free Archives page. I also recommend visiting the If You … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Blackwell Ops 10 is LIVE on Vella! * Learning as You Go * For Anyone New to the Journal * Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * My Own Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I try to leave out the parts readers skip.” Elmore Leonard “New Ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion.”Henry David Thoreau (courtesy of Dan Baldwin) “I’ve never been in charge of my stories, they’ve always been in charge of me. . . . Jump off … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Nothing to Talk About Today * A Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I think it is not just about not planning, but not thinking at all while writing. I just follow my characters and write down how their stories unfold. When I think about how the story should go, I step into the way of my characters.” Balázs Jambor “This week I struggled with my writing, until I got to the revelation that I don’t have to wait to write until I feel good enough … Read more