Dean Wesley Smith

The Journal: An Exciting Time and Short Story Done

In today’s Journal * An exciting time * Topic: * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers The next few weeks will be an exciting time for me. To start it off, I have to write a short story today to meet this week’s goal. (grin) Yep, I put it off again. I think I did that (subconsciously) because it makes meeting my goal more of a challenge. No idea at the moment what I’ll write about. And as I mentioned here recently, I suspect toward the end of February or early March, the current weekly blog post at my … Read more

The Journal: All About Challenges

In today’s Journal * All About Challenges * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers In the first “Of Interest” link today, DWS talks about and clarifies his Great Challenges (Publishing, Novel Writing, and Short Story Writing). If you want to jump-start your writing, I can’t recommend them strongly enough. In fact, if I had the funds, I’d jump into all three, and at least two (Publishing and either of the others). But with my current level of production, I’d also feel like I was cheating. After all, to satisfy the requirements of the Publishing challenge, you have to publish … Read more

The Journal: Free Stuff

In today’s Journal * Topic: Free Stuff * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Topic: Free Stuff Because I expect my production to really soar this year, from time to time I’ll be giving away a free novel or novella. I know not everyone reads this drivel every day, so I’ll try to remember to keep the giveaway in place for a week. When I give away anything, I’ll also try to remember to offer an advance glimpse at it with a description so you can gauge your interest. You can still get my latest, The Cazadores Lounge and … Read more

The Journal: No Seriously, Nobody Cares

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: No Seriously, Nobody Cares * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Nobody cares.” Dean Wesley Smith Topic: No, Seriously, Nobody Cares This morning, Kris Rusch wrote a kind of rambling Business Musings post titled, “Nobody Cares.” When it goes public in a few days, I’ll link to it in “Of Interest” so you can see it for yourself. I suspect it was rambling because she was tired from just having finished teaching a live workshop in Vegas. (I wanted badly to tell her she could … Read more

The Journal: Finished My Drawings and…

In today’s Journal * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers I finished up my drawings yesterday, basically one overall map of the ship and three close-up views of individual rooms, in about two hours. Now as I’m writing, I can glance up at the overall view and not have my characters going the wrong way to get someplace. (grin) I remembered I’d already mapped out the subsurface moon colony back when I wrote another novel, either The Thirteen-Month Turn or In the Siberian Fields, so I didn’t have to do that again. The colony was built to last, I … Read more

The Journal: The New World of Publishing

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: The New World of Publishing * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Doing has always been a binary choice; to do or not do. … Revel when you can in the celestial creative mind.” Robert J. Sadler Topic: The New World of Publishing Yeah, I know. Digital publishing and ebooks have been around awhile now. But every now and then I’m reminded why I still love this new world of publishing. An attentive reader who is also a successful professional writer pointed out that my … Read more

The Journal: On Routines

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: On Routines * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I do the best I can with every thing I write. … I just don’t care what others think about the final product and I have fun, and those two things keep critical voice at bay for me.” Dean Wesley Smith “If you set a goal of 500 or 1,000 words and you keep it every day, you feel as if you have accomplished something.” Amanda Patterson in a post for Writers Write Topic: On Routines … Read more

The Journal: A Ton More on Critical Voice

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Thanks and a request * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[T]he fun is that you can do anything you want because no one cares and it’s just fun and entertainment. The writers who really, really embrace that are often the most successful because not only do they not know where they are going (or care), their readers don’t know and love the ride.” Dean Wesley Smith in a comment to another writer “[F]ear does kill fun. No doubt about that, except on roller coasters, when … Read more

The Journal: How to Push Back the Critical Voice

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: How to Push Back the Critical Voice * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I would rather dance barefoot on a bed of nails than outline a novel. I know some writers find outlining essential. To me, outlining feels artificial, as if I’m moving characters around like chess pieces. I’m a terrible chess player. Not so good at checkers, either.” Dean Koontz on Twitter (courtesy Phillip McCollum) “[W]riters must look at writing like they look at reading other writer’s works. They must go to story … Read more

The Journal: Busting Some Myths for a New Writer

In today’s Journal * The topic for today and why I’m here * Topic: Busting Some Myths for a New Writer * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers The topic for today (and a few more) were recommended to me in an email from a writer (RG) who joined our Journal family fairly recently. Some parts of the topic will be old hat to some of you, but I encourage you to read it anyway. You never know what particular phrase will strike a chord. I hadn’t planned to write a Journal entry at all today, but I appreciate … Read more