Daily Journal

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Late Last Night * Elements of Your Stories * Finished the Novel * The Bradbury Challenge * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It’s your reaction to your failures that make your success.” Adam Levine to a contestant on The Voice back in 2018 (per Dean’s post yesterday) Late Last Night I added a new page to HarveyStanbrough.com, then copied it over to the Journal website at HEStanbrough.com. You can find it on either site by clicking the tab labeled If You Really Want to Write Fiction. Elements … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Welcome * More Short Stories Coming * Great Articles * The Value of New York Editors and Publishers * A Bonus Topic: The Writing * So I Don’t Forget * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I remember when I would sent out hundreds of copies of a book to agents hoping to get an agent. I felt like it was a job interview. And I felt that I, the one who actually wrote, had to impress some nonwriter to ‘get my foot in the door’.” George Kordonis … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Time Flies When You’re Having Fun… Writing * I Am Not an “Actual Author” (grin) * A New Story * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Whatever your impressions of pulp fiction are, no one can deny that the best of the pulp writers paved the way not just for modern genre fiction, but for future masters of the craft. … There is no reason we cannot do the same now. Write Fast, Write Clean, Publish Often.” Frank Theodat, editor of Pulp, Pipe, & Poetry magazinehttps://pulppipepoetry.substack.com/ in “The … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Writing * Speaking of Reverse Outlines * A Whole Other Level of Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Why would I write from AI outline? it wouldn’t even be my story.” Balázs Jambor in a comment on yesterday’s post The Writing Yesterday I went to the Hovel at 6:30 but spent the first almost four hours of the morning finally putting together a reverse outline. Duh. During my absence and spotty return to writing fiction, I’d forgotten how necessary this is. When I stopped for … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Royalty Free Photos * More on AI (sigh) * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “One of the main reasons why I embrace the indie method of publishing is not only for the additional cash it makes me, or will make me down the road, but because of the independence it offers me both as a creative and a businessperson.” Vin Zandri, in the lead-in to his recent YouTube offering Royalty Free Photos A fellow writer emailed to ask where I get royalty free photos … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * More on Selling Direct * Invitation to a Challenge * On Earning with Substack * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “In two more weeks (after this one), the challenge will have been going half a year! Pretty amazing.” KC Riggs “Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” (grin) P.J. O’Rourke Selling Direct, from Vin Zandri For more on selling direct to readers, please watch Vin Zandri’s YouTube recording. You can find it at https://www.youtube[dot]com/live/qh-bPT8bebU. Invitation to a … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Cyberpunk? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Be yourself. The world worships the original.” Ingrid Bergman “[I]f you use one of the AI writing services, you are taking other writer’s work … and secondly you don’t own the copyright.” Dean Wesley Smith “[A]bsent a book’s creator admitting she/he used artificial intelligence to write a book, how is anyone going to know for certain whether the author used AI to assist in the creation of a book or parts of a book?” The Passive Guy More on AI … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Expanding the Bradbury Challenge * Why Amazon Kindle Unlimited? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I’m Larry Niven, and I daydream for a living.” Larry Niven, at a conference, as reported by Peggy K. “That myth (writing is hard) seems to come back every now and then. I blame all the English teachers I had who fawned over published writing and made us go ever word of say Shakespeare’s Hamlet as if it was magic. The guy sat on his butt and wrote. Thats all.” George K. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Dean Hits One Out of the Park * A Thought on Abandoning Amazon et al for Direct Sales * Saturday * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate, they stop being writers.” Charles Bukowski “I sit alone, in a room, and make stuff up. That’s my job description. I have, without a doubt, the easiest and best job in the world. It is a giant myth that my job is hard work.” Dean Wesley Smith “[W]hen we are really … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Story * Stephen King on AI writing fiction * The Writing * A Reminder and Two New ePulp Magazines * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I decided I didn’t want to waste any more time…. I revisited my favorite stories and writers, listened to Brabdury’s lectures at UCLA on YouTube, and even looked through your Journal Archives to give myself a hard reset. I did this for a few days before showing up at my writing desk. I’m throwing my hat back into the Bradbury … Read more