Daily Journal

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, February 27

In today’s Journal ▪ Welcome and adios (almost) ▪ On yesterday’s topic ▪ Topic: About Numbers ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Hello and welcome to Sherry and Kimberley, and a sad farewell (I thought) to another subscriber. When I emailed him to say I was sorry to see him leave, it was news to him. So he’s re-subscribing. (grin) *** Frankly, the topic I posted yesterday was half tongue-in-cheek. As I wrote somewhere in that article, if someone else outlines and plots everything to within an inch of its life, that’s fine with me. In the … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, February 26

In today’s Journal ▪ Update on PWW ▪ Just got a note ▪ Topic: “Pantsers” vs. “Plodders” ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers The contributors for PWW seem to be getting excited and looking forward to posting on PWW. Note that I may or may not always agree with what they post. But that isn’t the point. The site isn’t “my” website. I’m only the guy who set it up and started the ball rolling. The site itself belongs to those who post on it. I’ll also contribute, but only every now and then as a guest … Read more

The Daily Journal, Monday, February 25

In today’s Journal ▪ Update on PWW ▪ Thanks in spades ▪ The Hovel, Part 2 ▪ My special offer stands ▪ Daily diary (and pictures!) ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers I received notice this morning that we have our first new subscriber who isn’t also a contributor at Professional Writers Writing. Woohoo! If you haven’t subscribed yet, I hope you will. And I hope you’ll tell all your writer friends. I think PWW is really going to be a big deal, a go-to source for writing information, advice and inspiration. *** Thanks for all the comments recently on … Read more

The Daily Journal, Sunday, February 24

In today’s Journal ▪ Yesterday ▪ Smashwords’ 10th Annual Read an Ebook Week ▪ Topic: Presenting… The Hovel ▪ A Special Offer (I’m feeling generous) ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Yesterday was interesting. I didn’t make much headway in the story, but I did get covers created for Blackwell Ops 2 and 3, promo files done, and those books uploaded for pre-order at D2D, Amazon and Smashwords. So all in all, a good day. On the home front, the heater in the house spontaneously started working again. Seems I have the only heater on earth that … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, February 23

In today’s Journal ▪ Topic: Paragraphing ▪ A Special Offer (I’m feeling generous) ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Topic: Paragraphing Despite what most of us heard in school, you don’t have to keep everything about a particular topic in one massive paragraph. Especially in fiction. And blog posts. In fiction, you should begin a new paragraph every time a different character speaks. Most everybody knows that. You should also begin a new paragraph when the scene or setting changes (even in the same setting, even a little). The primary benefit of shorter paragraphs (say up to … Read more

The Daily Journal, Friday, February 22

In today’s Journal ▪ MurderCon registration opening soon ▪ Daily diary and general rambling ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Registration for MurderCon, presented by Writers’ Police Academy, opens this coming Sunday. For information, see https://www.writerspoliceacademy.com/classes-available/. *** Up at a little after 3 to a rainy, drizzly morning. And the rain’s supposed to turn to snow later. According to those who profess to know, we’re supposed to get 6″ before it’s all done. Not something we’re used to here, but it’s only weather. It will be 70 degrees here by the middle of next week. Of course, today many of … Read more

The Daily Journal, Thursday, February 21

In today’s Journal ▪ Update on the PWW site ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers The basics of the PWW site are set in concrete now. We’ll have six regular contributors who will post once a week on Monday through Saturday. Sunday will be reserved for the guest contributors, who will post in rotation. Later today I’ll add a subscription form. I was going to use WordPress.com’s “JetPack” plugin, but WP.com has gotten too big for their britches. The plugin basically took over the PWW site, so I deactivated and uninstalled it. At the worst, I’ll create … Read more

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, February 20

In today’s Journal My apology for the very long Journal today. But it’s all good stuff. ▪ Update on the challenge ▪ Topic: Writers Need Adventure — Don’t They? ▪ Two folks chimed in ▪ Daily diary (yeah, it’s back) ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers With novel 3 of the challenge in the bank, I’ll probably begin novel 4 today. No idea at the moment what it will be. Maybe back to one of my series, maybe a standalone. I guess we’ll see. It won’t be another Blackwell Ops book, though, unless another truly unique character pops into my … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, February 19

In today’s Journal ▪ Please read this, and update on PWW ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Please read this. Looking back, I wish I’d set up this blog with only an excerpt via email from the beginning. Folks are just more likely to comment on the blog if they’re reading it on the website itself. Of course, I tried the experiment of going to a click-through model with the Journal, but most respondents didn’t like it, so I switched back. And don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame them. The format of the Journal isn’t conducive to excerpts. For … Read more

The Daily Journal, Monday, February 18

In today’s Journal ▪ Update on the challenge ▪ Update on Pro Writers Writing ▪ Topic: Ignore Name Calling ▪ The daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Today would be the last day of writing for book 3 of the challenge if I didn’t have a day in the bank. (grin) As it stands, I have today and tomorrow to finish the book on time. And it looks as if I’ll make it. I’d like to finish it today and carry over that bank day, but we’ll see. Everything depends on the characters. As it is, I expect … Read more