In Today’s Journal
* A New Short Story
* Blogging
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
A New Short Story
“Family” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. It’s free.
If you enjoy the story, please click Like. Comments are welcome too. Both help with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else. Gracias.
Blogging
A couple of days ago, a writer mentioned how difficult blogging can be. The context was her apparent wonder that I’ve been able to post a blog so often over such a long period of time.
My response to her was lacking. I wrote that “I just enjoy cutting others’ learning curves when I can. I love teaching, so of course that’s fun for me too.”
What I should have added is that I see sources of blog topics for TNDJ all over the place.
Often I’ll realize a new way to present a topic I’ve presented before.
But I also read newsletters and other blog posts every morning. When I encounter a topic that lends itself to writing fiction, I might expand on that thought, either to expand it or rebut it.
For example, my own favorite news source is the free 1440 Digest. 1440 is a politically unbiased news digest. Like Dragnet’s Joe Friday, I prefer “Just the facts.” Given the facts, I can form my own opinions.
Here’s an opinion: Journalists should present who, what, where, when, and how. They should leave the why (opinion) to the reader. Like educators, journalists should inform, not opine or indoctrinate. Indoctrination is an insult, a blatant assumption that the reader or listener has no capacity to think for him- or herself.
Anyway, sometimes I’ll write and post a takeoff from something I read there. As I have done today, I often also link to items from 1440 in Of Interest.
I’ve also recently found The Collector, which also offers a free weekly newsletter on a variety of topics that, I hope, will have no political bias. If they do, I’ll unsubscribe. I can get all the uninformed bias I want by visiting any social media account.
Some topics I find go directly to forms of writing (e.g., see “Satire” in Of Interest) and other topics go to characters and characterization (see the other three links in Of Interest) etc.
Of course TNDJ is not an author blog. It’s more of an instructional blog whose primary target audience is composed of those who ostensibly want to learn the craft of Writing Fiction.
But given that any fiction is a Story (i.e., a character with a problem in a setting) literally all other topics can feed into that.
Every other topic in the world (art, literature, travel, science, philosophy, various religious theories and beliefs and cults, various political theories and beliefs (but I repeat myself), various sports, etcetera etcetera ad nauseam) can inform
- your story’s character,
- one or more of the story’s settings, or
- the story’s major and lesser situations (conflicts, problems).
So every other topic in the world is a potential topic for TNDJ. So for me there is no lack of topics to write about.
The more you consciously read and absorb information about any topic that interests you or expands your interest, the more ‘source material’ you’ll have to inform your creative subconscious and your characters.
If you’re writing an author blog, consider exploring your characters (or even let them write ‘guest posts’) or maybe explore ‘behind the scenes’ stuff for individual stories or maybe write about locales or specific settings from your stories. Anything a reader or potential might find of interest.
“Why I write” is also a topic many readers find interesting, or tidbits about your personal life, writing or otherwise. Anything you can imagine writing about will find an audience.
Now, if you found any of the above confusing, please take a moment to read it again. I’m aware that I don’t always state everything as clearly as I would like.
And even when I’m clear-headed and able to express the thought exactly as I want to, some will get it and some won’t.
For me, that’s one of the great wonders (and joys) of teaching: Students will often force you to consider a topic in a different light or approach it or express it in a different way.
And that’s how I can easily write a new blog post so often.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
All About the Art of Satire (several links)
A Great Deal About the Beat Generation (a literary movement)
What Do the 12 Jungian Archetypes Reveal About You? Thoughts to absorb with your conscious mind that will inform your creative subconscious.
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: Living Up To Your Potential
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 780
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 780
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for January………………………… XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for January.…………………… 7130
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 7130
2026 consumable words………………… 7130
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29