Daily Journal

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Wes Crowley Book Sale (in Paper) * My Comments on a TKZ Post * Of Interest Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting As you can see, the challenge is still ongoing for some. Of course, others probably still are meeting or exceeding the challenge as well but simply aren’t reporting numbers to me, which is perfectly fine. If anyone is having trouble with the challenge, I suggest you write the story for the week on the first day of the new week. Get it out of the way … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards * Want to be a Best Seller? * A Reminder * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “the internet’s and high tech’s steep and brutal downsides—political polarization for profit, the knowing encouragement of internet addiction, the destruction of childhood, a nation that has grown shallower and less able to think….” Peggy Noonan in “Artificial Intelligence in the Garden of Eden” in The Wall Street Journal “Hubris is one of the great renewable resources.” P. J. O’Rourke Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards Yesterday my wife forwarded me … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Ray Bradbury * If You Believe Writing Fiction Is Hard Work * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Though it cleared the launch pad, Starship’s first orbital launch attempt ended with a dramatic explosion, or as SpaceX put it, ‘a rapid unscheduled disassembly’.” Chris Young, for Interesting Engineering. Great spin, no? “Night is everything. The shadows come out from under the trees and shadows become night.” Ray Bradbury “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Creating Realistic Characters * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Don’t be a character assassin with your own characters. Even your villain can be noble.” David Farland “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” Mark Twain “In marketing you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want?” Roy H. Williams There’s my problem right there. Boredom and shouting are, well, boredom and shouting. And seduction is dishonest. Creating Realistic Characters I almost launched into a whole long thing on characters. For example, that any … Read more

In today’s Journal * How Ernest Hemingway Wrote * The Writing * Of Interest How Ernest Hemingway Wrote That’s the plainest, best title I could have given this topic. Had I seen that title at ANY time during my life, I would have shoved through crowds to be sure I was allowed to read what was below it. Yet dozens of writers will glance at the title and not bother to read the text. Oh well. That’s why God invented Jim Beam and Jameson & Sons Irish whiskey. If you would like to learn a LOT about how Ernest Hemingway … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I Keep Forgetting * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” Golda Meir “Prompt engineering is the imminent future. Do you have it in your arsenal of skills?” from an advertisement for classes on Skillshare—This would be an excellent line of dialogue in an SF story. “Peggy Dean’s ChatGPT for Creatives is a great start for anyone who wishes to learn how to integrate this AI tool seamlessly in their workflow and increase productivity.” … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Looking Into ALLI * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.” Mark Twain “The avant-garde group … revelled in constraint. In 1947 Raymond Queneau, the collective’s co-founder, had imagined a single short story in 99 different ways in his ‘Exercises in Style’. In 1969 Georges Perec wrote a novel that omitted the letter ‘e’. Three years later he produced a novella in which … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * It’s Monday! * Keeping Track * Writer friend Aldred G * And from Chynna P * The Writing * Of Interest Quote of the Day “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Benjamin Franklin It’s Monday! and below are the results from the Challenge Writers for this week. You can still join in the challenge at any time, of course. There’s no cost, and it’s a great way to have some fun, jumpstart your writing, and let others see what is possible. Tony DeCastro “A Man Named Silk” 4200 words, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Social Media * The Purpose of My Bradbury Challenge * Short Story Prize Opportunity * The Writing * Of Interest Social Media Well, I established a MeWe account. Immediately it felt a lot “cleaner” than Facebook. Not sanitized by any means, but not riddled with disease and unreasoning hatred either. And MeWe doesn’t manipulate the snot out of everything the way Facebook does. All of that said, I honestly don’t know whether or how long I’ll stay on MeWe either. It isn’t that I’m not social at all, but I realized two things: One, my primary … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * Cycling Redux * Bradbury Challenge Report, and Going Back to Monday * The Writing * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Stop worrying about your lack of sales of your five novels, take a deep breath, and go write. And remember to have fun.” Dean Wesley Smith “The question is not what you look at but what you see.” Henry David Thoreau “I experimented by turning off all my device notifications and staying in the groove for hours. The experience was like being deep in prayer at the altar … Read more