Dean Wesley Smith

The Journal: “Can’t” vs. Critical Mind Excuses

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Can’t vs. Critical Mind Excuses (in which Harvey gets mouthy) * Welcome * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Can’t never did anything.” Shirley Stanbrough (my mom) Topic: “Can’t” vs. Critical Mind Excuses In “Of Interest” today is an article titled “10 Ways to Feel Like a Real Writer When You Can’t Write Thanks to Coronavirus.” Normally I wouldn’t even link to this silly article, but some of the 10 activities on their list are still things writers need to do, so I … Read more

The Journal: Why I Don’t Talk Much About CoVID-19

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Yesterday * Topic: Why I Don’t Talk Much About CoVID-19 * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “If it’s not on the page, your reader doesn’t know it.” Nathan Bransford Yesterday, I got sidetracked for awhile by a new (to me) source for royalty free photos. See Visual Hunt at https://visualhunt.com/ (via Jane Friedman). The daily word count continues to decrease (see Day 4, sigh). I’ll have to see whether I can do something about that. (grin) It has nothing to do with the novel. The … Read more

The Journal: Think

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Yesterday * Topic: Think * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.” John Cleese (from KillZone blog a day or two ago) Yesterday, I got up early to give myself more time on the novel, but that didn’t really work out. I was tired much of the day, and I wasn’t thinking quite right. Lesson learned. Maybe. I got just over 3600 words (see Day 3). At the end of the … Read more

The Journal: On Goals

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: On Goals * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” Orson Scott Card Topic: On Goals Yesterday after I posted the Journal, I hazarded a look at my short story goal spreadsheet. Since I started on January 1, I’ve written 12 short stories. Great fun. Then I missed. So I was thinking I was probably behind by … Read more

The Journal: Today I’ll Finish

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story. But it isn’t like that. You work, and that’s all there is to it.” Harlan Ellison “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented from the successful is a lot of hard work.” Steven King Yesterday, I rolled out around 2, and by 10 … Read more

The Journal: A Short, Early Post

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Dean Wesley Smith * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” William Faulkner So yesterday, in addition to writing and posting the Journal, I dropped a note to my friend Dean Wesley Smith. It isn’t like he and I hang out. I consider him a friend because without all I’ve learned from him, I wouldn’t be even a shadow of what I am today as … Read more

The Journal: The Reverse Outline (RO) Revisited and Shared Worlds

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * From James Scott Bell * Yesterday * Topic: The Reverse Outline (RO) Revisited * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E. L. Doctorow From James Scott Bell’s newsletter, ” how about some old-school pulp fiction… free! My favorite genre is crime/detective fiction from the golden era, 1920-1950. Here’s a treasure trove, including issues of the most famous pulp … Read more

The Journal: A Very Short Post

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * You can join Kevin Tumlinson * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.” Natalie Goldberg “Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Stephen King I learned in an email, you can join Kevin Tumlinson and Michael Bunker LIVE for Episode 3 of The Kevin Show, coming … Read more

The Journal: Learn Copyright

In today’s Journal * Yesterday * Topic: Learn Copyright * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Yesterday. Just wow. This is basically an update of Monday’s Journal entry. Literally within minutes of posting that entry, I turned to the writing computer and realized I was actually finished with The Othgygnrks 2, which is mostly the alien viewpoint that was missing back in March. (If you’re curious, it’s pronounced Oth-gig-nurks.) The total word count for that one is on yesterday’s post (20697 words). From here on out, you’ll see only the numbers for the compiled novel, For the Good of … Read more

The Journal: Yesterday and an Offer

In today’s Journal * Yesterday * A lot of people * If you would like to taste-test * Finally, if any of my patrons * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Yesterday was a much better day of writing with well over 4000 words (see Day 7). The only thing that slows the process is stopping now and then to integrate the March novel with the current one. More than once I’ve felt like it would have been wiser (and easier and a lot more fun) to just trash the whole thing and start over like I was going … Read more