Daily Journal

The Journal: The Novel Wrapped

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Novel Wrapped * Reverse Outlines Again * Publishing Schedule * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[F]ocus your thoughts only on what you can act upon, and forget the all the rest. … On a daily basis, it’s you and the page. You control what words you put down, and how many.” James Scott Bell “[A]nyone touching your work will dumb it down. Try being an artist and standing up for your own work.” Dean Wesley Smith “I can publish a novel indie for around $5.00. And … Read more

The Journal: David Farland and Dan Baldwin

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * David Farland * Dan Baldwin * The end of the novel * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It’s been my belief from the beginning that there is virtually nothing an author can do to significantly impact sales. The best way for an author to sell books is to write more books.” John Gilstrap David Farland I’ve been linking to a series of posts by David Farland in “Of Interest.” So far he’s posted ten lessons. There might be more. I don’t agree with everything Farland says about … Read more

The Journal: Not Much Today

In today’s Journal * Not Mucn Today * I almost wrote a topic * Of Interest * The Numbers Not Mucn Today I’m publishing this issue of the Journal mostly to get the “Of Interest” items below out to you. I almost wrote a topic for this one, which I would have titled “Get Your Facts Straight.” It was the result of reading a pure puff-piece I read on the Authors Publish blog. The article was ostensibly about whether self-publishing was a good idea. The upshot of the article was “self-publishing isn’t for everyone, but when it is done right, … Read more

The Journal: The Novel and the Free Ebook

In today’s Journal * The Novel * Of Interest * The Numbers The Novel Well, as I reported several days ago, I planned to take my time with this one. But I seem unable to do that. On days when I reined myself in, I still wrote a lot of words. And so far I have zero cuts included in that word count. So it looks like this one could wrap as early as today, and probably no later than a few days from now. I’m hoping the characters will throw in a new twist or two. I’m very much … Read more

The Journal: I love a good argument

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I love a good argument * Of Interest * The Numbers I love a good argument, and I have two to report today. Re a point made in the first item in “Of Interest” today, I am an indie publisher, and I don’t believe traditional publishers make the lion’s share of book sales. The author of the article points out (correctly) that “The majority of the cover price of a book goes to the retailer—the book store—and the distributor.” I agree. The assertion is indisputable. So I would never say the … Read more

The Journal: Appreciate and Be Loyal to Your Creative Subconscious

In today’s Journal * Topic: Appreciate and Be Loyal to Your Creative Subconscious * Of Interest * The Numbers Topic: Appreciate and Be Loyal to Your Creative Subconscious Maybe one of the worst things about the myths of writing is that they cause otherwise perfectly good storytellers to make tons of mistakes. Chief among those mistakes is placing too much importance on any one reader’s opinion. Especially when the writer then changes the content of a story because of that opinion. I’m not talking about wrong-word usages or other typos here. I’m not talking about missing periods at the end … Read more

The Journal: Sigh. Regarding “Deep” POV

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Sigh. Regarding “Deep” POV * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.” Mark Twain “It’s far easier to talk about doing something than to actually do it.” Harvey Stanbrough Topic: Sigh. Regarding So-Called (for now) “Deep” POV In today’s “Of Interest” there’s a link to a long article about writing in “deep POV.” If I’ve ever heard an academic term, it’s that one. (However, I listed the link and left it there. If you get something … Read more

The Journal: No

In today’s Journal * No Topic * No Blog * Welcome * Of Interest * The Numbers No Topic Browsed the internet this morning for items of interest. I added those links to my Journal notepad document, then scrolled up to see what I’d written for a topic. I’ve written so many topics lately, I just assumed I’d written one for today and had it ready to go. I didn’t. So no topic for today. I usually write those the day before, then add the “Of Interest” items and “go to press.” No Blog I haven’t solved the problem of … Read more

The Journal: Writing Your Story Description

In today’s Journal * A Favor to Ask * Topic: Writing Your Story Description * Of Interest * The Numbers A Favor to Ask Apparently my posts from HarveyStanbrough.com (author site) no longer go out, which means nobody on that large mailing list received my special promo announcement about the ebook giveaway. It will take me some time to figure out what happened and why and how to fix it. I’m also no longer on Facebook. So if you don’t mind, please share this link with your friends and on social media. It would be a big help. Thank you: … Read more

The Journal: Readers Like to Fill-in the Blanks (Uh, No)

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * PQ Topic: Readers Like to Fill-in the Blanks * This morning I left a comment * Of Interest * The Numbers PQ Topic: Readers Like to Fill-in the Blanks Actually this isn’t a Persistent Question so much as a Persistent Misbelief. A myth. Something even writers sometimes pass along to other writers. And it’s male bovine excrement. My immediate response to “Readers like to fill in the blanks” is a pair of arched eyebrows, a head shaking slightly side to side, and “So?” As a writer, do you really care what … Read more