Dean Wesley Smith

The Journal, Saturday, September 8

Hey Folks, Topic: On Being a Hack Writer Character stands up tentatively from a brown metal folding chair: Hello. My name is Harvey Stanbrough and I’ve become accustomed to the idea that I am a hack writer. Character resumes his seat. Someone yells, “Scene.” That doesn’t mean I write stories about taxicabs, but that I write far too fast and turn out so much work that no possible way could it be any good. (grin) Never mind that my poetry and fiction is taught in at least two university English programs. I must be a hack. How else could I … Read more

The Journal, Friday, September 7

Hey Folks, Do you use telephones? I don’t like them. Rarely, if we’ve worked out the details ahead of time via email, I’ll talk with a very good friend via phone, but that’s about it. And two times out of three in the past year when that happened, the friends (Marines from a few decades ago) were dismayed, and said so, that I sounded so “old.” Isn’t that uplifting? (grin) Well, several months ago, an acquaintance I literally haven’t seen for 30-some years asked whether I would judge a writing contest for her writers organization. I said yes. Yesterday, she … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, September 6

Hey Folks, Very long but very informative post today. I hope you’ll get your favorite beverage and hang in there. Wow. According to a staff member at Reedsy, “The New York Times recently reported that short stories are ‘experiencing a resurgence’ with both readers and critics alike. In 2017, sales of short story collections shot up almost 50% over the previous year. In the past five years, three of the most prestigious prizes in fiction — the Booker, the Nobel, and the Folio — were awarded to writers best known for their short stories. “In other words: the short story … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, September 5

Hey Folks, Today you get to see evolution, Harvey Stanbrough style. You know how much I like playing with numbers, right? So yesterday afternoon, I opened each short story in The Storyteller and checked the word count. Yeah, I’m just that anal. In the short stories alone (there are 11, not 10 as I previously reported), there are 50,061 words. The novel itself is only 55,140 words, including the short stories. So you can see why I said the “novel” actually is only a framework to showcase the short stories. Anyway, as I wrote earlier, I probably won’t ever publish … Read more

The Journal, Monday, September 3

Hey Folks, Happy Labor Day. I wrote a whole long post yesterday, mostly whining about Heinlein’s Rule 4. Then I forgot to post it until about 5:30, and of course by then it was too late. Well, that’s why I call it an “almost daily” Journal. I counted yesterday’s nonfiction words (530) in my writing, but I won’t make you suffer through it. I consider myself an adherent to Heinlein’s Rules, yet lately I slip and fall when I approach Rule 4. In brief… 1, 2, and 3 — I write, I finish what I write, and I don’t rewrite. … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, September 1

Hey Folks, New day, new month. I got Nick Spalding 1 (I’m still not sure of the title) sent off to my first reader yesterday. Writing that one filled in a lot of previously unknown details about a secondary character who took a larger role than I expected. So now I have to go back through NS2 and tweak it here and there. Should be fun. This won’t be a rewrite. Mostly I’ll be cutting some of Nick’s private thoughts re that character. So there’s that. No writing today other than this little bit. A shopping trip to Sierra Vista … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, August 30

Hey Folks, After checking email and Facebook and a few reliable sources for “Of Interest,” I was about to move straight to the novel this morning. Then I had a thought and wrote a bunch of stuff below. But I got there eventually. I mentioned yesterday that I had a glimpse of the end of my WIP. So now I guess I’m anxious to get there. I guess that’s why I was eager to get straight to the story. Once I know the end, I want to finish the thing and get on with the next one. Finishing is possible, … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, August 28

Hey Folks, A new, educational quote about writing, especially for any beginning writers and rewriters out there: “If you write one story [or novel], it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” — Edgar Rice Burroughs *** Well, I wrote some today. But I had a thing, a clingy thing, in the back of my mind, bugging me. I was supposed to receive a UPS package (cigars) yesterday, but coincidentally, yesterday was the day our road (an alley, really) was closed as workers were putting in a new gas line and something … Read more

The Journal, Monday, August 27

Hey Folks, Well, one of my novels is in a new bundle from BundleRabbit: Cosmic Clashes. So that makes eight active bundles. (grin) You can see all of the bundles that contain my work at http://harveystanbrough.com/bundles/. *** Worked through the day yesterday and finished the copyedit. Looking very forward to getting back full-time to my own WIP today. *** My first reader is excellent. Chief (to me) among her finds were places where my character “secreted himself” instead of simply “hid.” (grin) In every case, those were places where I allowed the language to take precedence over the story. I … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, August 25

Hey Folks, A lot going on today, so if I write any fiction, I’ll report those numbers for today and tomorrow in Monday’s Journal. Topic: Preaching to the Choir, Part 1 Yeah, Parts 1 and 2. I was going to post the whole topic, but it came in at around 1500 words, so Part 1 today, Part 2 tomorrow. (grin) By “preaching to the choir,” I mean reminding folks of things they already know, but maybe of which they can use an occasional reminder. I received a particularly interesting blog post in my email, one that reminded me of myself … Read more