Daily Journal

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

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Note on the September Challenge * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Free Book Plus a Brand Spanking New Newsletter! * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day Seriously, no matter what kind of fiction you write, take these quotes to heart. All are courtesy of a longtime friend and excellent fictionist. Thanks, Michaele! “If you aren’t having a blast and writing from the heart, then what’s the point?” Sarah Hogle, Romance author “As long as you know your characters, everything else kind of takes care of itself.” … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Taking Your Time: A Before and After Example * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Thinking is fun, but it doesn’t produce anything.” Patrick Dorn Taking Your Time: A Before and After Example (Personal to my first reader—Russ, this will not give away the story.) The following before and after example is from my current novel. I rarely share a work in progress, but I routinely do what you will see below in cycling. This is an example of why I talk so often about slowing down and … Read more