I’ve Reached the End

In Today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* I’ve Reached the End
* Of Interest

Quote of the Day

“I’ve never written to please other people. … “I just write. You either do it, or you don’t.”” Larry McMurtry in a 2015 interview (see Of Interest)

I’ve Reached the End

The quote of the day is appropriate. For a very long time, I’ve written, and now I won’t.

After a dozen years at the helm of TNDJ plus delivering numerous writers’ conference sessions, copyediting bouts, and private in-person seminars on the glories of writing fiction, the end of my fiction-teaching journey has arrived. It came upon me suddenly, although I can’t say it came without warning.

Over the past several months, I’ve thought time and again that I’ve given all I have to give to other writers through the Journal and The New Daily Journal and my nonfiction books.

Believe me, I wish I could just be starting out again, learning to trust myself and my characters and Heinlein’s Rules and writing into the dark. Among all of the experiences of my life, this fiction-writing and instructing gig has been the absolute best.

In fiction, my characters filled my life with exhilaration. In nonfiction, especially through TNDJ, all of you had a part in making the teaching experience exciting. I love watching little light bulbs come on even in this virtual classroom. So from the center of my heart, thank you.

Your own journey in fiction writing will continue as it should or as you allow it to or enable it to. I can only hope for your sake it’s half as much fun for you as my journey was for me.

I will leave the Journal website and the TNDJ Substack up as long as I can. Review them while you are able. When the URL for my websites come up for renewal, I will allow them to expire.

As for my own writing, it’s all crap.

I was never quite able to get the hang of it, especially that elusive narrative-to-dialogue “golden ratio”.

So in the coming days, I will “unpublish” everything. Soon my fiction and nonfiction works, currently available everywhere ebooks are sold as well as at my Payhip online discount store, will vanish with a click of the mouse.

Still, to say I’ve enjoyed this journey would be a massive understatement. Especially to those of you who’ve been there since the beginning, thank you.

Finally, of course, if it weren’t April 1, all of the above might be true.

With apologies, I’ll talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Larry McMurtry: Minor Regional Novelist Kind of fascinating. (Thanks to Gary V for the link.)

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