Daily Journal

In Today’s Journal * A New Short Story * 2026 Fiction Words Per Day Challenge? * A Change Is Coming * Last-Minute Christmas Gifts for Readers * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Short Story “Fire & Ice” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. It’s free. It’s also a good story. A little intense, and if I’d written it more recently I would have paragraphed it differently, but otherwise I wouldn’t have changed very much. If you enjoy the story, please click Like. Comments are welcome too. Both help with … Read more

In Today’s Journal * My Quote of the Day * Follow Up, and WITD * Of Interest * The Numbers My Quote of the Day “In ‘whatever works,’ be sure you define ‘works.’ Don’t do yourself the disservice of letting the word lie there limply as a vague, indefinite term that means nothing.” Harvey Follow Up, and WITD a last big push for writing into the dark In yesterday’s post, I rebutted some pretty severe misinformation. At TNDJ, I don’t only allow dissenting opinions, I actually encourage them. On the other hand, I won’t abide half-truths and misinformation. So in … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * An Open Letter to a Control Freak * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Believe in your work. If someone is trying to mold it into something it’s not, you need to stand up to him or her and take your work back.” Vincent Zandri (see Of Interest) An Open Letter to a Control Freak Recently, a guy named Matthew Louis wrote a post on a Substack to which I’d subscribed several months ago. I was unable to leave a comment, so I’ve since unsubscribed. But I’m all … Read more

In Today’s Journal * What to Write Next * Of Interest * The Numbers What to Write Next In today’s Of Interest, an article from Writers in the Storm provides advice on how to come up with what to write next. It’s actually a pretty good article. But in one paragraph, the author, Julie Glover, writes Some writers have more ideas than they can write in a lifetime. How can you decide which ideas get the red flag, and which get the go-ahead? That’s been my experience. I have more ideas than I can write. They come at me almost … Read more

In Today’s Journal * About Generative AI * A Few Notes on Genres * Of Interest * The Numbers About Generative AI From 1440 Science & Technology newsletter: Generative AI systems are unlikely to ever author truly creative work. (University of South Australia | Candy Gibson.) “A study found LLM creativity has a maximum of 0.25 on a scale from 0 (no creativity) to 1 (maximum creativity), on par with average human creative capacity. “Under current design principles, AI systems produce content of creativity equal to their datasets, which professional and expert creators will recognize as lacking originality, novelty, and … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Welcome * The Current Novel * How TNDJ Comes Into Being * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Big things happen an’ you deal with ‘em, that’s all. Got no choice. But most often the little things determine which big things happen, or at least which ones get a foothold.” Wes Crowley, in Chapter 19 of The Rise of a Warrior, now streaming on Your Morning Serial. Welcome I haven’t said this for a while, so welcome to all the new subscribers to TNDJ. I hope it will … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The TNDJ Challenges Report * More on Description * Another Writer Emailed * Of Interest * The Numbers The TNDJ Challenges Report Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. Feel free to jump in at any time. Email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. Bradbury Challenge The requirement is to write at least one short story or short-short story per week. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories: Loyd Jenkins “Moon on the Back Forty” 3540 Weird Western Vanessa V. Kilmer “DIY … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A New Short Story * A Writer on Challenges * Throw-Away Words and Author Intrusion * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost.” George Shultz A New Short Story “An Elegant Gesture” 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. … Read more

In Today’s Journal * On the Purpose of Description * The Numbers On the Purpose of Description I often hear or read that any description a writer includes in a story should advance the story line. Um, not true. Plus it gives the writer the idea that s/he should ‘think’ about the description. The plot—this happens and then that happens and then another thing happens (as Bradbury said, the footprints that are left behind as the characters run through the story)—advances the storyline. And of course, in an authentic story that’s unfolding before your eyes, you can’t preplan that. But … Read more

In Today’s Journal * How to (and How Not to) Set Goals: Part 2 * A Writer Emailed Me * Of Interest * The Numbers How to (and How Not to) Set Goals: Part 2 Please read Part 1 of this post on Substack or on the Journal website. Let’s pull up our big-kid pants and face it: In any endeavor, defeat absolutely sucks. “Failing to success,” when it spurs you to greater heights, can be a good thing. But when it serves as a catalyst to accept or even expect that you “can’t” do something…. well, as my mama … Read more