In today’s Journal * Insinuations and Truth * Of Interest * The Numbers Insinuations and Truth Editor’s Note: I had a hyper-busy day yesterday, and not all of it was writing. And then I got up late this morning. So I brought back a topic I might have posted before, but if I did, I have no idea when. If you’ve read it before, forgive me. It will probably serve as a good reminder anyway. Occasionally, I read or hear an insinuation from other writers that writing into the dark (WITD) is equivalent to writing sloppily (for example, “letting characters … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * A Writer on Writing * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Soul is when you take a song and make it a part of you—a part that’s so true, so real, people think it must have happened to you.” Ray Charles The same is true of Story…. The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting To take part, the only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. If you want to share your success, submit the story title, word count, and genre to me … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Write What You Know… * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day ” To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge”. Nicolaus Copernicus, after “To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.” Confucius Write What You Know Even if You Don’t Know It, Although You Do, Y’Know? a guest post by Dan Baldwin Writers are hammered with marching orders to always write what you know. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A New Short Story * Reminders * A Writer on Writing * Another Note on Writer’s Block * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you’ve been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are.” HG Wells A New Short Story “Beats All You Ever Saw” (the old version) went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. If you … Read more

In today’s Journal * The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 3 * The Numbers The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 3 If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. If you missed Part 2, you can read it here. Here’s the last bit of this series from Michaele: In my writers’ group we do not read and dissect each other’s writing. Instead they give me topics or problems they’re interested in. Those who had a problem passage could bring it and I would use it for teaching purposes. (Joseph Epstein mentioned learning from other’s mistakes and how to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 2 * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” Sydney Banks (Thanks to Harold Goodman for the quote) A Note on the Writing I had my template for the next Blackwell Ops novel open and— Bam! An idea popped into my head. So I wrote a short story. After a brief break, I started another short story. So I guess I’ll be on … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 1 * Of Interest * The Numbers The MFA: Valuable or Harmful? Part 1 A guest post by Michaele Lockhart Editor’s Note: I have known Michaele Lockhart for almost 30 years. We first met in the mid-to-late 1990s at the annual writer’s conference in Tucson held under the auspices of the now-defunct Society of Southwestern Authors. Michaele is an excellent storyteller, an excellent writer, and an excellent copyeditor. I was thrilled when she agreed to let me use her email to me for this short … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live * Tomorrow, MFA 1 * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Punctuation saves lives: ‘Let’s eat Grandma’ is a very different story from ‘Let’s eat, Grandma.” from a favorite old meme Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live Yesterday I posted the first issue of Harvey’s Notes to Earth, a brand-new newsletter. It went out to everyone who took advantage of my free-book giveaway. In that issue, I talked a little about the genesis of Blackwell Ops and that world. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Re the September Challenges * Oops * I Get Emails * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Prelude to Posts on MFAs * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” BB King Re the September Challenges Folks, the reporting date is Monday every week, but that doesn’t mean you have to count only what you wrote through Sunday. You CAN report before midnight on Monday instead, right? That gives you all day Monday to add to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Correction * Recasting a Story * Finding a Novel * A Personal Anecdote * The Numbers Correction Yesterday I listed Adam Writes as an example of a good substack to theck out if you’re thinking of posting your writing online. But I added the wrong URL. Here’s the correct one: https://adamkozak.substack.com/. Check it out. And sorry. I should have double-checked before I posted that yesterday. Recasting a Story I’ve said here before if you start a story and it doesn’t work, you can do one of two things: Either pitch it out altogether and write something … Read more