Daily Journal

The Number One Lie Professional Fiction…

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I’ll Get to the Lie * The Number One Lie Professional Fiction… * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.” John le Carre’ “Forever is composed of nows.” Emily Dickinson I’ll Get to the Lie in a moment, but first, as a preface, something I got from a friend via email. No doubt he thought it was funny: “In a brief exchange in a book I read a while ago, two undercover FBI agents were on … Read more

Editing, Mentorships, Streaks and a New Story

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * No More Editing * Why No Streak Challenge? * Mentorships End * A New Story * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Alfred Hitchcock “Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.” Alfred Hitchcock “If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.” Alfred Hitchcock “Wanting or believing in something—the concept of critique groups, for example—does not validate its usefulness.” Harvey No More Editing I’ve decided … Read more

The Origin Story Wrapped

In today’s Journal * The Origin Story Wrapped * No More Stupid Streak Challenge * Too Necessary for “Of Interest” * Of Interest The Origin Story Wrapped Every novel writes differently. Yawn, stretch. How many times have I said that? I keep waiting for them to run out of new ways to write and start repeating. Hasn’t happened yet. As far as I can remember, I’ve never written any story of any length before in which I wrote the ending long before the entire story was laid out. I did that with this one. A few days ago (Writing Day … Read more

Adios TKZ, and the Run-On Sentence

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Adios TKZ * What Constitutes a Run-On Sentence * Pearl Harbor Day * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Fear of life closes off more opportunities for us than fear of death ever does.” Agnes Moorehead “If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.” Chuck Yeager “Dare to be bad.” Nina Kiriki Hoffman Adios TKZ After several years of checking The Kill Zone blog every day, my own blog post yesterday caused me to look … Read more

The Fiction Writer Is an Action Correspondent

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Fiction Writer Is an Action Correspondent * Of Interest Quote of the Day “The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” John Bingham, running speaker and writer The Fiction Writer Is an Action Correspondent I define an “excellent question” as one that forces me to think about and explain a concept in a different way, a way that might get through to more students. I received such a question yesterday from my longtime writer friend and dedicated Texan Gary V. As is … Read more

Timing Apps

In today’s Journal * Timing Apps * Of Interest Timing Apps According to the comment of a writing friend on one of DWS’s posts, she uses a free writing app called Be Focused. It enables you to “set intervals for the time you want to write, and … an interval for the break.” Not my cuppa, but every writer is different. Some of you might need or want this app or a similar one. Whatever works. Be Focuses has helped my friend “consistently write 2000 words per day” with four write/break intervals set (in minutes) at 25/15, 25/45, 25/15, 25/15. … Read more

Blurbs, Numbers, and Thanks

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Corrected Numbers * Blurbs * Thanks * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When you write, just write. Then get feedback and work on improving your craft.” James Scott Bell “Excellent. Perfect advice. I’d make only two tiny additions: ‘When you write, just write. Then [publish,] get feedback and [write the next story or novel to] work on improving your craft.’” Harvey Stanbrough Corrected Numbers I just realized as I was wrapping up my writing yesterday that I didn’t update my novel counts under Numbers when I finished my previous novel. … Read more

Setting Goals and Challenges

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A New Short Story * Setting Goals and Challenges * Of Interest Quote of the Day “The electric guitar. A vast improvement over the gas and steam-powered guitars of the past.” James Taylor to the audience as he strapped on a Fender solid body electric guitar A New Short Story I posted a new short story yesterday and have received several kind comments on it. Possibly because it’s so weird. You can read it at https://harveystanbroughwrites.com/category/short-story-of-the-week/. If you’d rather not miss a story, you should be able to subscribe at https://stanbroughwrites.substack.com/. … Read more

The Sentence

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Sentence * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin (the original quote) Confused much? Here’s a translation into active voice: “You can’t change every problem you face, but you can’t change any that you don’t face.” James Baldwin (paraphrased into active voice) The Sentence I really didn’t expect to post this. I looked up and there it was. I’m reminded of a line uttered by Pacino (as Michael Corleone) during a scene … Read more

A Good Question, and Punctuation

In today’s Journal * A Good Question * Punctuation * Of Interest A Good Question In a comment on “An Email, and You Who Disagree,” Chynna P wrote “[D]oes this mean you’ll stop writing the Journal soon?” I doubt many read the comments, so I thought I’d respond in today’s edition of the Journal. (I hadn’t planned to post an edition today at all.) First, thanks to Chynna for the question. She read the post correctly, but the answer is, I honestly don’t know. I’m not getting any younger, and I’d really rather fashion an intentional end to my contribution … Read more