Goals and Goal Setting

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Goals and Goal Setting * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.” Isaac Asimov “As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” Ray Bradbury Goals and Goal Setting … Read more

An Excellent Question, and an Epiphany

In today’s Journal * An Excellent Question * Update, and an Epiphany * Of Interest An Excellent Question In response to my post “Mostly Dean Koontz,” Peggy K. asked an absolutely excellent question. It felt so important and maybe necessary that I was going to reprint her question and my response as today’s Journal post. However, I also experienced an epiphany yesterday shortly after I replied to Peggy. So today’s post is about that eiphany. I feel as if it’s one I’ve been straining to find ever since I started writing again. So please read Peggy’s comment and my response … Read more

Nothing

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Nothing * Of Interest Quote of the Day “I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.” Margaret Mead Nothing Nothing, really, to talk about today. But some of the stuff in “Of Interest” was too much fun to keep to myself. The novel is inching along. That’s all I can say about that at the moment without yelling a lot. Writing it brings up a less than fond memory of climbing Mount MF in full gear and drenched plastic ponchos at Camp Pendleton, … Read more

Mostly Dean Koontz

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Mostly Dean Koontz * Cuts Are Ugly * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I used to write from outlines. But when I wrote Strangers, which ended up having an enormous cast and being about a quarter of a million words, I decided not to do an outline and just start with the premise and a couple of interesting characters. I decided to wing it, and it was the best decision. I’ve never used an outline since.” Dean Koontz “If the character doesn’t work in the first 20 pages, you might … Read more

Emphasis, Critique Groups, the Novel

In today’s Journal * How Not to Indicate Emphasis * Offering Critiques * The Novel * Of Interest How Not to Indicate Emphasis Re Sue Colletta’s post (linked in “Of Interest”) on how not to emphasize words and phrases in fiction, I left a comment and thought I would share it here just in case any of you might find it useful. I learned in an Aldus PageMaker design class about a jillion years ago, if you HAVE  TO  USE  ALL  CAPS (headlines, etc.) it’s a good idea to hit the spacebar twice between every pair of words, as I did in the example. … Read more

The Yawning Chasms Along the Way

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Yawning Chasms Along the Way * And Then There’s Plottr * Dean’s In-Person Classes * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I’ve discovered Plottr. Without going into detail, it is the best tool I’ve used so far. Loving the timeline feature and templates for a variety of genres. It gives me writing prompts in the places I usually flounder, as well as a host of other nice features.” Cecilia Marie Pulliam “Mama says ‘Stupid is as stupid does’.” Forrest Gump The Yawning Chasms Along the Way If you don’t see … Read more

Heinlein’s Rule 2

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Heinlein’s Rule 2 * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” William Pollard “The arrogance of success”—this is why so many Stage 2 writers remain Stage 2 writers. Heinlein’s Rule 2 Rule 1 is “You must write.” Rule 2 is “You must finish what you write.” I probably won’t break that rule, but I came close to bending it pretty severely. I was going to put off finishing … Read more

An Idea-Breeding Article

In today’s Journal * An Idea-Breeding Article * By the Way (the novel) * There’s a post * Of Interest An Idea-Breeding Article Note: I will share several ideas for a story based on the post I mention below. Please share your ideas in the comments too. You can’t copyright an idea anyway, right? Might as well share it and let everyone get some practice. (grin) This is not, as you might expect, especially for science fiction writers. This event and its fallout could be included in mystery, thriller, crime and other genres as well. Even romance, I suppose. I … Read more

Very Short, Cozy Post

In today’s Journal * Very Short, Cozy Post * Happy Birthday * Of Interest Very Short, Cozy Post We’re making a trip to Sierra Vista a little later this morning. This post is short so I can get to the novel more quickly. Today’s “Of Interest” is all about (well, mostly about) cozy mysteries. But don’t let that put you off if you aren’t a writer of cozy mysteries. Almost any discussion of a particular genre includes gems and tidbits that apply, if not across the board of fiction, at least to other genres. Also, more than one fiction writer … Read more

Head Hopping and Author Intrusion

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Head Hopping and Author Intrusion * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan Head Hopping and Author Intrusion First, these are two different problems. In today’s “Of Interest” there’s a link to an excerpt of a post about head-hopping. The post is by Susan DeFreitas. What Susan writes in her post, which is basically a response to a question, is probably good advice. To be honest, I didn’t read it. Just be sure to … Read more