In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* If You Want It Enough
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Unless you learn how to be in your head, you’ll never learn how to create.” Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda
If You Want It Enough
An accomplished writer friend recently posted a Substack in which he posited that DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs are stopping some ‘white males’ from publishing.
In a nod to Scott Adams’ Reframe Your Brain, a book about ‘reframing’ your choices and decisions, I want to peel back one layer here to reveal a hard truth:
If ANYone (regardless of race, gender, skin pigmentation, etc.) says DEI or anything else is stopping them from doing anything (including being published), they’re surrendering. But worse, they’re using someone else’s actions as an excuse to justify their surrender.
We’re all far more complex than we appear on the surface anyway, but in our currently topsy-turvy world, perceptions have somehow come to matter more than intentions or even facts.
Whatever. For example, I’m perceived as (labeled) a white male, so that’s just what it is. I neither have nor want the desire to control what others say or do. It doesn’t (and they don’t) matter that much to me. Besides, ‘haters are gonna hate’ whether I lose sleep over it or not. Again, that’s just what it is.
I can control only what I do and my reaction to what others do. For me, that’s the whole thing.
So I do what I do to the best of my ability, and I don’t worry about the rest. That attitude saves me a lot of time and energy. I recommend you do the same.
It’s all a choice, and only I can decide: If I want something, I go for it, period. If I don’t want that thing, or if it doesn’t matter enough that I’m willing to invest the necessary time, work, and/or money, then I don’t.
But I don’t complain about all the reasons I ‘can’t’ do something. To my knowledge, ‘I Can’t’ never did anything worthwhile.
‘I Can’ and ‘I Will’ are pretty good starter concepts, but ‘I Am’ cuts through all the nonsense. It gets all the way to heartmeat.
Here are the steps:
- Believe in yourself.
- Don’t make excuses.
Shrug. In the long run, cream mostly floats to the top. The rest sinks to the bottom.
So as that pertains to the act of fiction writing, I recommend you make cream: Learn your craft, practice, publish, repeat.
Then help your ‘cream’ rise to the top: Do whatever you must to build and maintain an email list of fans, then selectively advertise on BookBub, Amazon, Facebook, Wherever. Dozens of sources exist to show you various ways to do that.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Paid Advertising: Buying Attention on Purpose
9 Go-To Self-Publishing News Sources for Authors
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 480
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 480
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for January………………………… XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for January.…………………… 9720
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 9720
2026 consumable words………………… 9720
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29