David Farland

The Journal: Another Way to Think of Your Daily Word-Count Goal

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Another Way to Think of Your Daily Word-Count Goal * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “[M]y editor and agent at the time felt strongly that a degree of ambiguity in the end made the story better. I never agreed, but it was my first book, and I was dizzy from the whole experience, so I said okay. I’ve regretted it for 25 years.” John Gilstrap Topic: Another Way to Think of Your Daily Word-Count Goal I happened on this while replying to Diane Darcy’s … Read more

The Journal: More on Word-Count Goals (a process post)

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: More on Word-Count Goals (a process post) * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “If you’re not productive in this new world, you’re done. You’re just done.” Dean Wesley Smith Topic: More on Word-Count Goals (a process post) I had a few questions about this, so I thought I’d revisit it. My daily word count goal is 3000 words per day beginning on January 1. Yesterday, I practiced. I started a short story that didn’t pan out, and I missed my goal. In fact, I … Read more

The Journal: A Cautionary Tale

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: A Cautionary Tale * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “[I]t’s equally important to put the book aside and write another.” Mark Alpert Topic: A Cautionary Tale Author Mark Alpert, in the Kill Zone blog today, posted what he calls the “Lesson of the Decade.” Please go read it now. The first three paragraphs have to do with nostalgia rather than writing. That’s fine. But those and the lesson he imparts in paragraph four (see “Quote of the Day” above) are the best parts of … Read more

The Journal: Trusting the Process

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Have you ever blown an entire morning noodling with a single paragraph or, worse, a solitary sentence? Resistance has outfoxed you. You have hung up an entire battalion trying to capture an outhouse.” Steven Pressfield Had a good writing day today. This is a really twisted novel, but the disparate parts are starting to come together. Folks, this is the truly great thrill of writing into the dark: to just write the next sentence and let the story unfold as … Read more

The Journal: An Excellent Opportunity

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: An Excellent Opportunity * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I have always followed one bit of advice that echoes in my head, and it’s that as a writer … your number one job description is to communicate properly your idea. Being self-indulgent is for fine artists.” world-famous writer and cartoonist Bob Eckstein Topic: An Excellent Opportunity For anyone out there who wants to make money with your stories or the story bits that I call “internal IP” (settings, characters, items, gadgets, etc.), Dean Wesley … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, December 27

Hey Folks, I got into a short email discussion with a fellow novelist who also writes off into the dark. The upshot was, he wondered whether maybe — when a character does something that’s unexpected and out of character — it’s all right or even necessary to create a history for that character that would explain the unexpected action, a kind of character sketch (my term, not his). I decided to copy my response here as a topic. Topic: Writing Into the Dark, Take 2 I did a post on Writing Off Into the Dark over on the Pro Writers … Read more