Daily Journal

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * One More Quick Note on Slowing Down * Characters, and Differentiating Them * A New Story * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” Dolly Parton “Pacing is a complex issue with a lot of levels. I will stop reading at paragraphs that have five different thoughts in them and are huge just because the author can’t hit the return key.” Dean Wesley Smith (see Of Interest) One More Quick Note on … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * What I Learned from the King * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we’ve never met, living lives we couldn’t possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character’s skin.” Ann Patchett “The intellect has many wonderful uses—categorizing and sorting (and revising, oh so much revising.)—but it’s a terrible writer.” Sarah Chauncey If the “intellect” is such a … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * Switching PsOV Inside Chapters, Redux * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I did not want to leave her in the sea. In Acapulco, that might have been all right. Even the mightly Pacific Ocean would take a very long time to whisper an atrocity all the way from Acalpuco to my little part of the sea at Mazatlán.” The POV character considering a harsh thing she will soon have to do in Blackwell Ops 18: Soleada Garcia: Settled “He who is not courageous enough to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * Thought of the Day * Topics? * Support the Journal * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “How could she not understand? But we each live our own life. We wear blinders of our own choosing, and we make our decisions based on that limited view. There is nothing more I can do for her.” Soleada’s thoughts about an acquaintance who has just made a serious error in judgement (Blackwell Ops 18: Soleada Garcia: Settled) “Aspiring authors, get this through your head. Cover art serves one … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Welcome * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * On Scribe Media and Other Scammers * The Ellipsis and the Em Dash in Fiction * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The fact self-publishing isn’t big news now is exactly because it’s so successful. It’s zooming along with no roadblocks, so there’s no news. Authors who take their indie careers seriously are making a lot of money self-publishing. They’re doing their own marketing and turning out books quickly for their growing fan bases.” Anne R. Allen (see Of Interest) … Read more

In today’s Journal * Reminder * Changes Coming to the Journal * Re “No Activity” * Coming Soon * Of Interest * The Numbers Reminder You Bradbury Challenge participants, remember to get your story info in to me sometime today or tonight, before the Journal goes live on Monday. Anyone else want to jump in, feel free. A challenge is a great way to get your writing going again. Changes Coming to the Journal Some changes are coming to the Journal. For one thing, soon I’ll probably begin publishing it a little less often. We’ll see. Anyway, I definitely will … Read more

In today’s Journal * Just a Bit of Dialogue * A New Story * New to “Free Archives & More” * Of Interest * The Numbers Just a Bit of Dialogue That popped into my head a few days ago. Him: “”You don’t care. You probably won’t even be in the room with me when I die.” Her: “I will if you die of a gunshot wound.” A New Story “The Storyteller,” the fourth story in an interconnected series of ten magic realism stories, went live yesterday on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. If you enjoy magic realism or Mexico, you … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Taking a Stand on Generative AIy * Yesterday & The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Artificial intelligence isn’t a person. It’s not even really … a machine. It’s the representative of a company. It’s the tool of not just one corporation, but many. And it only exists because real people did real art. … It’s a thief.” Chuck Wendig “The allure of AI entices those people who fetishize ideas but dismiss the work. …. AI in creativity is for the people who have no skill, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * Correction * One More Note on Goals * Something I Wish for You * Back to Research for a Moment * The Writing Yesterday * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[T]rust your own writing and voice. Act like an artist instead of a doormat for heaven’s sake.” Dean Wesley Smith “I ghosted a novel set in Argentina a couple of years ago. When writing a scene, I logged on to ‘airport Buenos Aires images,’ picked out a few details, and wrote my characters walk-through. I … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Research for Fiction Writers * The Novel Wrapped * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “With the old economics destroyed, organizational forms perfected for industrial production have to be replaced with structures optimized for digital data. It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about a publishing industry, because the core problem publishing solves — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of making something available to the public — has stopped being a problem.” Clay Shirky “A revolution is brewing in the music business as a new generation … Read more