Harvey

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Mentorships * A Few Notes * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.” Lauren Bacall The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting To take part, the only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Then, if you want to share your success, submit the story title, word count, and genre to me each week for publication in the Journal on Monday. (Yes, you can also write a longer story and submit your progress each week.) The … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Short Story * Saturday * This Morning * Reminder * Microsoft Word for Writers * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I’d rather focus on writing something true and good instead of thinking about promotion or money.” Clint Watsonhttps://clintavo.substack.com/ (I recommend checking this out.) “Here’s the deal: once you learn to have fun as a writer, to write one good, clean draft, and get it out there either traditionally or independently, you will see something amazing happening. You will be developing an audience for your stories.” … Read more

In today’s Journal * Try a Meet-Cute * The KindlePreneur * Of Interest * The Numbers Note: I said in yesterday’s Journal I would be back no later than Monday. I didn’t say I wouldn’t be back sooner than that. (grin) Try a Meet-Cute If you want to write fiction but you’re having trouble pulling the trigger on it, don’t write fiction. Instead, sit down and write what happened between or among two or more characters in a scene in their story, the one they’re living. You don’t have to write it “well,” much less “perfect.” Just write that one … Read more

In today’s Journal * Correction * Taking a Step Back * Of Interest * The Numbers Correction A minor correction, considering only one person wrote to tell me about it. (grin) In one passage in yesterday’s TNDJ, I typed a URL wrong for a link. Links don’t like that. Here’s the passage again but with the correct link: I also offer a free template for a reverse outline, the value of which I’ve talked about elsewhere in this Journal. Visit the Journal website and key “Reverse Outline” into the search box to find those posts. And now… Taking a Step … Read more

In today’s Journal * An Interesting Question on Formatting * The Numbers An Interesting Question on Formatting Yesterday, a writer emailed to ask me whether D2D would change the placement of the page numbers in her manuscript when she uploads it for publishing. Naturally, I thought she was talking only about the placement of page numbers in a manuscript submitted for publication to paper. So I said I don’t know. I routinely submit my fiction and non-fiction manuscripts to D2D and Amazon for publication as ebooks, and in ebooks, there are no page numbers. More on that later. I very … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Speaking of Lawrence Block * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You never really know exactly what’s going to happen next in any truly engaging piece of fiction. Because good writing is never a matter of assembling a boxful of component parts according to a sheet of directions, and that holds true even when you’re the one who handcrafted the parts and wrote the directions.” Lawrence Block in “Chapter 1: Organic Writing” of Spider, Spin Me a Web Speaking of Lawrence Block You can find more quotable bits on pretty much … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Notes on Play vs. Work * A Note Re Subscriptions * Humans Are Mortal (Who Knew?) * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It is difficult to be afraid of anything about which enough is known.” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (again, via Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week on “Overcoming Fear” Yes. “…about which enough is known.” This is exactly why I write this Journal. So you will know enough to overcome your fear of WITD. The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting To take … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Overcoming Fear, a history * Ugh. Admin Stuff * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “If you don’t believe in yourself, why is anyone else going to believe in you?” Tom Brady in 1440 Daily Digest “Let’s talk, you and I. Let’s talk about fear.” Stephen King, opening words of the Foreword to Night Shift (1978, Armchair) Dr. Mardy continues. “A little more than two decades later, fellow horror writer Peter Straub wrote about these two brief sentences: “’With its deliberate repetition of the first two words, its … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Writing (Practicing) Is What Matters * Musings * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” John Wayne, quoted from his 1971 Playboy interview Writing (Practicing) Is What Matters Over ten years of practicing writing into the dark, I’ve pondered that overall topic countless times. WITD has become part of me. It and the first three Heinlein’s Rules are … Read more