Daily Journal

In today’s Journal * The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 3 * The Numbers The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 3 If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. If you missed Part 2, you can read it here. Here’s the last bit of this series from Michaele: In my writers’ group we do not read and dissect each other’s writing. Instead they give me topics or problems they’re interested in. Those who had a problem passage could bring it and I would use it for teaching purposes. (Joseph Epstein mentioned learning from other’s mistakes and how to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 2 * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” Sydney Banks (Thanks to Harold Goodman for the quote) A Note on the Writing I had my template for the next Blackwell Ops novel open and— Bam! An idea popped into my head. So I wrote a short story. After a brief break, I started another short story. So I guess I’ll be on … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 1 * Of Interest * The Numbers The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 1 A guest post by Michaele Lockhart Editor’s Note: I have known Michaele Lockhart for almost 30 years. We first met in the mid-to-late 1990s at the annual writer’s conference in Tucson held under the auspices of the now-defunct Society of Southwestern Authors. Michaele is an excellent storyteller, an excellent writer, and an excellent copyeditor. I was thrilled when she agreed to let me use her email to me for this short … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live * Tomorrow, MFA 1 * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Punctuation saves lives: ‘Let’s eat Grandma’ is a very different story from ‘Let’s eat, Grandma.” from a favorite old meme Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live Yesterday I posted the first issue of Harvey’s Notes to Earth, a brand-new newsletter. It went out to everyone who took advantage of my free-book giveaway. In that issue, I talked a little about the genesis of Blackwell Ops and that world. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Re the September Challenges * Oops * I Get Emails * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Prelude to Posts on MFAs * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” BB King Re the September Challenges Folks, the reporting date is Monday every week, but that doesn’t mean you have to count only what you wrote through Sunday. You CAN report before midnight on Monday instead, right? That gives you all day Monday to add to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Correction * Recasting a Story * Finding a Novel * A Personal Anecdote * The Numbers Correction Yesterday I listed Adam Writes as an example of a good substack to theck out if you’re thinking of posting your writing online. But I added the wrong URL. Here’s the correct one: https://adamkozak.substack.com/. Check it out. And sorry. I should have double-checked before I posted that yesterday. Recasting a Story I’ve said here before if you start a story and it doesn’t work, you can do one of two things: Either pitch it out altogether and write something … Read more

In today’s Journal * A New Short Story * Yesterday * On Writer’s Block and Ray Bradbury * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Short Story “Barbecue” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. If you enjoy it, tell Everyone. If you don’t, shhh! (grin) Yesterday Weird. Yesterday I wrote my short story for the week: “Lars Manhattan and the Toast of the Town.” I suspect it’s the worst piece of crap I’ve ever written, but I also suspect the reader won’t be able to put it down. That’s what I … Read more

In today’s Journal * A Brief Lesson on Averages * Coming Up Soon * Of Interest * The Numbers A Brief Lesson on Averages Okay, one, when you miss a day of writing or fall short of your daily goal, believe in yourself. You know you are capable of writing 1000 or 2250 words per day. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have joined in the Great September Challenge. Likewise my own challenge for this month is to write 3000 words per day. But again, that’s on average. And I’ve kept a running daily average below in Numbers so you can … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Writing * Seven Tips on Ghostwriting * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “When writing and making up stuff isn’t fun, there is a basic rule… You are doing it wrong.” Dean Wesley Smith The Writing I didn’t get much done on the novel yesterday. Switching routines in the middle of my personal internet outage and all that. Anyway, the novel will wrap in another day or two. In the meantime, my poor performance today ALMOST pulled my average down below 3000 wpd. But not quite. (See? … Read more