In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Pen Names Revisited * Working Into a New Schedule * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You as the writer are just the conduit.” Vin Zandri in Episode #805: Write Only For Yourself As I commented on the video, “Easy for me. I just run through the trenches of the story with the characters, write what happens, and what the characters say and do in response. And if anyone asks why I wrote whatever dialogue or setting, I just shrug. “‘Cause that’s what happened.” Seriously, all I do … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Valuable Practice Exercise * Vin Again, and Keep Coming Back * I’m a Fortunate Guy * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” Kurt Vonnegut “On this day September 12 in 1817, 81-year-old John Adams had a great excuse for not writing someone back sooner. He opened his letter with, ‘The procrastination of old age and the dissipation of the month of August must be my apologies for neglecting … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Vin Zandri! * A Note on Pen Names * About Using Prompts * Further Clarification on Vella * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King “Good cover design is not only about beauty… it’s a visual sales pitch. It’s your first contact with a potential reader. Your cover only has around 3 seconds to catch a browsing reader’s attention. You want to stand out and make them pause and consider, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Welcome * Clarification on Vella * On Being Prompt (guest post) * A Few Words About Challenges * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself … that’s where it’s at.” Jesse Owens Welcome Welcomg to Zoey, Clint, Lakshmi and any other new subscribers to the Journal I hope you will visit the Journal website at https://hestanbrough.com. There you will find numerous free downloads on the Free Archives page. I also recommend visiting the If You … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Blackwell Ops 10 is LIVE on Vella! * Learning as You Go * For Anyone New to the Journal * Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * My Own Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I try to leave out the parts readers skip.” Elmore Leonard “New Ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion.”Henry David Thoreau (courtesy of Dan Baldwin) “I’ve never been in charge of my stories, they’ve always been in charge of me. . . . Jump off … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Nothing to Talk About Today * A Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I think it is not just about not planning, but not thinking at all while writing. I just follow my characters and write down how their stories unfold. When I think about how the story should go, I step into the way of my characters.” Balázs Jambor “This week I struggled with my writing, until I got to the revelation that I don’t have to wait to write until I feel good enough … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Vacation Was Short-Lived * Yates Briscoe… * How Much Description Is Too Much? * Well, Kindle Vella * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I finished my first novel that I seriously tried WITD on, and I’m sad to be done but also so thrilled! It was so much fun. My characters took me places I never expected. Literally, some things came up where I thought, ‘Did I just write that? I never would have planned that’.” Erin Donoho, recent convert I wrote back to welcome Erin to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Writer’s Block Strikes Me Down No “Of Interest” or “Numbers” today Quote of the Day “Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist; but by ascending a little you may often look over it altogether.” Arthur Helps Writer’s Block Strikes Me Down This is a guest post by Dan Baldwin. Enjoy. I’ve posted many, many, many times that I do not believe in writer’s block. I’ve said, often, that the phenomenon represents something else entirely and that the something else varies from writer to writer: Fear of completion … Read more

In today’s Journal * KDP Select and Vella * Vacation * Of Interest * The Numbers KDP Select and Vella Just in case any of you were wondering the same thing…. Yesterday, I got online in a chat with an Amazon rep (Raul). I asked whether I could simultaneously publish a novel to KDP Select and then also serialize it in Vella. I figured it was a stupid question, but I couldn’t know until I’d asked. I’d never heard of anyone doing that before, and for me it would be perfect. To my amazement, Raul asked me to give him … Read more

In today’s Journal * Started a New Novel * Blackwell Ops 9: Cameron Stance * No Vella Yet * Of Interest * The Numbers Started a New Novel Turned out I wanted to write another story in the Blackwell Ops world, or at least the character Jeremy Stiles wanted me to. I saw him on stage, of all things, waving and saying goodnight to a studio audience. In starting this one, I relied on my novel template, a thing I put together awhile back. The forematter and back matter are already in place along with the corrct font sizes and … Read more