Harvey

In today’s Journal * About My Openings Critiques * Writing Better Fiction * Of Interest * The Numbers About My Openings Critiques As a few brave writers have learned, I respect serious writers far too much to pull a punch that needs to be thrown. That said, I do try to wrap the critique in kid gloves as much as I can. I’m always appreciative when a writer takes my sometimes seemingly harsh critique as I intended. The lessons I provide on openings—which are only enhanced by the fact that they’re delivered on your own work—will probably cut months or … Read more

In today’s Journal * Time Is Running Out * Outlines and Writing Nonfiction * Of Interest * The Numbers Time Is Running Out Just a reminder— The Daily Journal Is the Only Place Online where you can get myth-free, down-in-the-weeds, nuts-and-bolts writing advice on a regular basis. On May 31 after this Journal goes live, I’ll move all paid subscribers over to a new subscriber list. On June 1, I’ll launch a completely new Substack titled The New Daily Journal. From that date forward, only paid subscribers will receive every post. Those who choose to remain free subscribers after May … Read more

In today’s Journal * The Bradbury Challenge Writers * The Paragraph Formatting Tool * Of Interest * The Numbers The Bradbury Challenge Writers During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress: George Kordonis “The hitman and the painter,” 3000 drama Adam Kozak “Summer’s Discontent” 2900 Humor The Paragraph Formatting Tool First, let’s get this Tab and spacebar stuff out of the way right up front: the writer should never use the Tab key to indent the first line of a paragraph. Instead, he should use the Paragraph Formatting tool. You … Read more

In today’s Journal * The Find & Replace Function * Of Interest * The Numbers Way back in 2015  I wrote a series of blog posts under the umbrella title “Microsoft Word for Writers.” I thought I’d repost a couple of those topics here. Two of the more-essential topics are this one—on using the Find & Replace function—and the next post, on the use of the Paragraph Formatting tool. I hope they will help. The Find & Replace Function The Find & Replace function is the most useful tool in Microsoft Word. With the Find & Replace function, you can … Read more

In today’s Journal * New Story * Also Yesterday * Royalty-Free Cover Art * Update on The Passive Voice Website * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Short Story “Curious Shapes” went live yesterday on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. If you enjoy it, tell Everyone. If you don’t, shhh! (grin) One guy wrote to say he liked it. So I says to him, I says, “Whaddayou, sick?” (grin) Also Yesterday Since I was still in conscious-mind mode from a copyedit I recently finished, I did a lot of admin stuff. The key points are The … Read more

In today’s Journal * Another Novel Is Live * Two-Fer Sale * Openings Critique Ongoing * Bradbury Challenge Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Another Novel Is Live Blackwell Ops 24: Buck Jackson Returns went live this morning at Amazon and vendors supplied by Draft 2 Digital. Of course, it’s been available since publication at a lower price at StoneThread Publishing. Still, usually when I get a “your book is live” notice, I’ve just finished or am about to finish another novel. (grin) Not so this time. Because I took time off to do some maintenance around the place, … Read more

In today’s Journal * A Publishing Challenge of Sorts * Of Interest * The Numbers A Publishing Challenge of Sorts Heinlein’s Rule 4, You Must Put It On The Market (Publish), has always been the most difficult of the Rules for me to follow. To get your free, annotated copy of Heinlein’s Rules in PDF, click here. You can also download, free, What Heinlein’s Rules Mean to Me, an essay I wrote awhile back. For novels (and a few omnibus collections of novels) I have my Rule 4 problem pretty much under control now. But it wasn’t always that way. … Read more

In today’s Journal * The Passive Voice Site * Punctuation for Writers * Of Interest * The Numbers The Passive Voice Site which I visit every morning to find items for Of Interest, is currently down. I suspect the security certificate for the site has expired. I also suspect PG and his webhost are working to correct the situation. In the meantime I’ll check a couple times each day to see whether the problem has been rectified. Punctuation for Writers Punctuation is the least-understood tool in the writer’s toolbox. But despite its seeming insignificance, it is also among the most … Read more

In today’s Journal * Seeing Oneself “Represented,” or… * A Further Note on Copyediting * New Novel * Of Interest * The Numbers Seeing Oneself “Represented,” or Write Fiction for Fiction’s Sake There has been a great deal of talk in recent years about people with various surface differences seeing themselves “represented” in fiction. The other side of the same coin is a great deal of talk about “cultural misappropriation.” Representing any one group or sub-group is not the fiction writer’s job. The fiction writer’s job is only to tell a story. Hopefully s/he will tell it well enough to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * I’m Copyediting Again * Subscription Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[Y]our Opening Critiques offer … was the best 15 bucks I’ve ever spent, bar none.” Peter Armstrong, writer and Journal reader, in a comment Thanks for the endorsement, Peter. “Anyone who stops learning is old, at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” Henry Ford as reported in 1440 Daily Digest The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting To take part, write at least one short story per week (or … Read more