In Today’s Journal * Learning Pacing from Film * My Personal Take on “Fictional” Characters * Of Interest * The Numbers Learning Pacing from Film I was recently blessed to read “How Goodfellas Reinvented the Gangster Film”, as published by BBC In History, a weekly newsletter I receive. As I’ve said many times before, even when genres don’t overlap, techniques that are valid in one genre are almost always valid in others. That includes the literary genres—essay, short story, novella, novel, stage plays, and screenplays (film)—as well as the commercial genres: thriller, mystery, romance, SF, and so on. If you … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Focusing Down * About Lawrence Block * On Personas and Pseudonyms * Genre Envy, Part 2 * Of Interest * The Numbers This is a long post, but all of it’s tied together. Focusing Down I’ve talked at some length before about the value of focusing down with your description. Focusing down on some details is an excellent way to pull the readers more deeply into the story. It’s a way to put the reader in the story with the characters. Chapter 3 of Nightfall, almost the whole chapter, is an excellent example of what I … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The NEW TNDJ Challenges * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Readers will return again and again to richly immersive worlds.” Kailee Pedersen (see Of Interest) “Details can lend authenticity to the setting, but can also be used to set up plot twists, foreshadowing, or simply as imagery to additionally convey mood, tone, and characterization.” Kailee Pedersen (see Of Interest) The NEW TNDJ Challenges Since I’ll be reporting every Monday on both the Bradbury and Stephen King challenges, I’ll combine them under The TNDJ Challenges. I’ve also revised … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Nightfall is Live * In Case You Missed It * Silly Numbers Stuff * Of Interest * The Numbers Nightfall is Live The first installment of my action-adventure novel Nightfall went live yesterday at Your Morning Serial. Go check it out. It’s free. And feel free to leave comments. I also changed my mind about posting installments only once a week. Every day was obviously too much for many readers, but I felt once a week was too long between installments. So I went through on Sunday and rescheduled a bunch of installments. Now one installment … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Bradbury Challenge: Expanded! * The Stephen King Challenge Resurrected * The Power of a Streak * Of Interest * The Numbers The Bradbury Challenge: Expanded! The Bradbury Challenge is easily the longest-running challenge I’ve ever issued in TNDJ. Back in the day, Ray Bradbury advised writers who want to learn to write fiction to write at least one short story per week for a year because nobody can write 52 ‘bad’ short stories in a row. Truedat. Now, the whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. But not … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Will WITD Work For…? * Guest Posts Welcome * I’m Having Fun Again Too * Of Interest * The Numbers Will WITD Work For…? A new subscriber to TNDJ (Thanks, Matt M!) is also reading through Writing Better Fiction. He wondered whether that non-technique of writing into the dark would also work for nonfiction. The answer is Yes. Mostly. Depends on what sort of nonfiction you’re writing. If you’re writing service repair or owner’s manuals or other tech manuals, no, WITD probably doesn’t apply. The subject matter is too technical. It has to be too precise. … Read more

In Today’s Journal * A New Short Story * Bradbury Reminder * On Traditional Publishing Agreements (guest post) * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Short Story “Silence, Ah Silence” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. A bi-directional crazy story. Go check it out. It’s free. If you enjoy the story, please click Like. Comments are welcome too. Both help with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else. Bradbury Reminder Today is Saturday. Just a reminder to get your Bradbury Challenge story info in to me before the Journal goes live on Monday. Remember, if you … Read more

In Today’s Journal * I Get Emails * Hard to Believe * Genre Envy, Part 1 * Of Interest * The Numbers I Get Emails Yesterday, writer friend Patrick D sent me a link to an interview with Peter Bradvold, a successful writer of westerns (see Of Interest). In the email, Patrick wrote that Mr. Brandvold’s “method aligns closely” with mine and “he only writes what he finds ‘fun’.” Patrick also wrote “But one thing I noticed about him, about you, and many other WITD writers, is that you have already internalized story structure, found inspiration in particular writers (in … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Nick Spalding Saga * Re “Best Sites for Writers” * Getting Back Into the Swing * Of Interest * The Numbers The Nick Spalding Saga I published The Nick Spalding Saga yesterday to Amazon and D2D, then uploaded it to my discount store. It’s $17.99 everywhere else but $15.99 on my store. However, as I’ll announce to Your Morning Serial readers next week (after they get a taste of Nightfall, the first book), you can also get the Saga for only $9.99 with a coupon. NOW, all of that said, if I were you I … Read more

In Today’s Journal * More Musings on Serialization * Update * Of Interest * The Numbers More Musings on Serialization This is a process post, a thinking-aloud post, that goes to marketing. Again, thanks to those who took a moment to leave a comment or email me about my serialized novels. I still hope a few others will step up, but we’ll see. As I mentioned yesterday re the frequency of installments, one person mentioned that maybe I shouldn’t post serial installments every day. She suggested posting an installment once a week. Later yesterday, another writer suggested posting once a … Read more