DeanWesleySmith.com

It’s Been a Week

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * It’s Been a Week * Succumbing to Unreasoning Fear * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “And how do we discern character?” A question posed by an anonymous AP writer in an article about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My response: Easy. Compare the words a person says and … Read more

Working with Serious Writers

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Working with Serious Writers * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.” Stephen King “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” Stephen King “You go to work. You don’t wait for inspiration to strike. You sit down and write. If you don’t feel like writing, you write anyway. Writers’ block is an affectation.” Elaine Viets on writing fiction Topic: Working with Serious Writers A mentorship slot just came open. … Read more

A Note on Traditional Publishing

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Note on Traditional Publishing * I’ve Been Fretting * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[O]f the 58,000 trade titles published per year, fully half of those titles ‘sell fewer than one dozen books.‘ (Not a typo, that’s one dozen.) More broadly, 90 percent of titles sell fewer than 2,000 units. Even a small advance of a few thousand dollars would not earn out at standard royalty rates.” Dean Wesley Smith, quoting directly from the Hot Sheet (emphasis added). “The story so far: in the beginning, the universe was created. … Read more

The Value of Having a Place to Report

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Value of Having a Place to Report * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.” Lord Chesterfield “You know how I mentioned before that I had written this entire novel without stopping and that I was currently cycling back on the entire book? … As I returned to each chapter and cycled back on it, there was extremely minimal work for me to do. My creative voice had gotten it right from the onset.” Monica Arac … Read more

End of the Hiatus

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * End of the Hiatus * TinyLetter? Um, No * About Paid Reviews * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.” Bertrand Russell “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward.” Princess Diana End of the Hiatus I seem unable to stop playing with the Journal. There’s just too much to pass along, whether positive thoughts on writing, interesting posts by other writers, or warnings like the one below … Read more

Response to a Mentoring Student

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Response to a Mentoring Student * On Paid Book Reviewers * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[I]f your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” David Foster Wallace Topic: Response to a Mentoring Student Here’s a response I sent to one of my mentoring students yesterday morning. I did change it a little or add to it here and there. But since it was already largely written, I had only to copy and paste it, then schedule the post to release this morning. The whole process, … Read more

Getting It

In today’s Journal * Possibly A Brief Hiatus * Last Day of Dean’s Workshop Sale * Topic: Getting It * Of Interest Possibly A Brief Hiatus There’s a good chance I’ll take a brief hiatus from posting to the Journal for a few days to reset my fiction-writing schedule. I was reminded recently of how very prolific I was a year ago. I want to get back to that all-consuming joy. I also want to reset my Journal-writing, mentoring (seriously considering adding another level), and other-stuff schedule. Of course, I’ll continue to make my rounds of the internet, and sometimes … Read more

The Journal: The Value of Goals

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * TinyLetter? * Topic: The Value of Goals * Of Interest Quote of the Day “I’m ready to finally take the plunge into WITD.” Chynna Pace I love that kind of committment. (grin) No “thinking” no “considering” no “maybe.” Just a healthy dose of Let’s Do This. TinyLetter? Has anyone else heard of TinyLetter? It’s by MailChimp, but it costs nothing and is absolutely no-frills. When I closed my MailChimp account, with its dying breath it said I might want to check out TinyLetter. I’m glad I did. TinyLetter is billed as … Read more

The Journal: Do I Use a Copyeditor?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Do I Use a Copyeditor? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Science fiction is the only genuine consciousness-expanding drug.” Arthur C. Clarke “Without goals, training has no direction.” Natalie Coughlin which is why I recommend a daily word-count goal “So next time you sit down at your writing computer, just let the creative voice run and play…. You might be surprised at how much fun you have writing and how good what you write turns out to be (if you leave it alone.)” Dean Wesley Smith “Do or do … Read more

The Journal: A Frenzy of Fuzzy Disequilibrium?

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: A Frenzy of Fuzzy Disequilibrium? * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke Topic: A Frenzy of Fuzzy Disequilibrium? Over at the Kill Zone blog today, James Scott Bell offers “How to Form Your Bestseller in 10 Days” and offers a system for doing so. The keyword there is “form.” For those who are satisfied with the labor involved in that, it’s fine. Jim posits that “the word system immediately sets the various hairs on the back of an ‘intuitive’ … Read more