The Journal: I’m a Fortunate Guy

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: I’m a Fortunate Guy * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “The book trade invented literary prizes to stimulate sales, not to reward merit.” Michael Moorcock “What does figuring out the schedule mean? It means I had to figure out what I was writing when. Then I had to figure out a realistic word count for the week/day. Then I had to do math to figure out when I would finish Project #1 and so on and so forth.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “Spend thirty minutes on Writer Bewarehttps://writerbeware.blog/ to see … Read more

The Journal: I Had to Laugh

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I had to laugh * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “If I’ve done my job in the first two hours, the audience will believe anything I tell them at the end.” Director Steven Spielberg on making up stuff in fiction “Tip: Non-outliners — write the story then add the foreshadowing.” Steve Hooley, TKZ, on foreshadowing (grin) I Had to Laugh I had to laugh, albeit in a good-natured way, when I first read that second quote. Yeah, I’m gonna take advice on how to write into the dark from an … Read more

The Journal: Critiques? Um, No.

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Critiques? Um, No. * Of Interest Quote of the Day “[U]sing someone else’s idea without using their expression of that idea is not copyright infringement. Copyright protects the expression of ideas, not ideas themselves.” The Passive Guy Topic: Critiques? Um, No. Disclaimer 1 — I’ll say up front that if you are one who actively seeks out criticism of your work from readers or from other writers, that’s fine. None of my business. To each your own. Disclaimer 2 — I’ll also say I’m not talking here about copyeditors or … Read more

The Journal: A New Blog on Substack

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Blog on Substack * A Great Series of Emails * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “We professional writers just write. It is what we do. But I would not write as much as I like to write if I didn’t have something, some sort of challenge or deadline or goal that I wanted to hit at the moment. The challenges, the goals, the deadlines are shields against the real world distractions.” Dean Wesley Smith “[T]he secret of writing. Have fun. If it is not fun, don’t do it. … Read more

The Journal: Editing? Nope, Not Me

In today’s Journal * Thanks, Fabien * Thanks, Danny * Topic: Editing? Nope, Not Me * Of Interest Thanks Fabien Thanks to a response from French author Fabien Delorme on a comment I left on Dean’s site, I revised both my author site at HarveyStanbrough.com and my publisher site at StoneThreadPublishing.com. Check them out if you like. Things are a lot easier to find. The former is now more about Writers, and the latter is more about The Writing. I’ll be working on the sites a bit more today, and maybe writing a little too. Thanks, Danny And thanks to … Read more

The Journal: The Final Brandon Sanderson Post

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Final Brandon Sanderson Post * In other news * Still writing * Of Interest Quote of the Day “A quick search of the publishing category on Kickstarter, sorted for active campaigns, showed me book projects that have funded and brought in (so far) anywhere from $50,000 to $500. The bulk of these are in the $10,000 category per novel … which is, roughly, what any new writer can expect from traditional publishing these days.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch The Final Brandon Sanderson Post If you don’t read anything else today, be … Read more

The Journal: Conveying the Senses

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Conveying the Senses * By the Way * By the Way 2 * Of Interest (An Inane) Quote of the Day “On the use of senses. Morrell suggests taking sight for granted, then including two others, but ‘sneak them in’ so it isn’t obvious. The object is to make the reader feel, not see. … I liked this better than the ‘use all 5 senses in every scene’ approach, which to me, often feels forced.” Terry Odell, a writer Any aspect of a story that is forced on the characters … Read more

The Journal: Benefits vs. Features

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Benefits vs. Features: Notes on Marketing and on Writing * Of Interest Quote of the Day “There’s a responsibility in being a person. It’s more than just taking up space where air would be.” John Steinbeck in East of Eden This is easily one of the more important and apt quotes I’ve ever included here. Benefits vs. Features: Notes on Marketing and on Writing Matt Perryman, author of the recent guest post on marketing, also passed along a book recommendation: The Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan Kennedy. I didn’t provide a … Read more

The Journal: Guest Post on Marketing

In today’s Journal * Guest Post on Marketing * Of Interest Guest Post on Marketing Note: The post below started life as a comment on yesterday’s post. But it was so well-done, I wanted to be sure everyone saw it. So I chose to use it here today as a guest post. Enjoy. And thanks, Matt. “Marketing and writing are vastly different skills. A person doesn’t have to be a writer before s/he can market and sell books.” Just getting caught up around here, and your remark here reminded me that one of the best marketers I know always drives … Read more

The Journal: Marketing vs. Writing

In today’s Journal * Marketing vs. Writing * Novella vs. Novel * Of Interest Marketing vs. Writing I received an email that read, in part, “I don’t trust people who teach ebook marketing but have zero ebooks under their belt.” I mention this just in case anyone else out there is thinking this way. Possibly the writer was referring to some of the marketing experts I recommended in the Journal recently. Regardless, this is a category mistake, and it isn’t even comparing apples and oranges. It’s comparing apples and fruit stands. Marketing and writing are vastly different skills. A person … Read more