DeanWesleySmith.com

The Journal: Blackwell Ops 8

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Blackwell Ops 8 * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway “Storytelling is a natural, instinctive act. If we weren’t taught so stringently that plotting and criticism and rewriting were necessary, we would never bother with them. As a result, our stories would be far easier to write. They would also be better, by which I mean original and unique to the writer’s own (creative subconscious) voice.” Me in reply … Read more

The Journal: Very Short Post Today

In today’s Journal * Very Short Post Today * Should One Seek A Critique? * Of Interest Very Short Post Today Just not a lot to say, and I’m aware that a lot of the stuff inside the recent topics has been negative. I want to get away from that for awhile. Also, the novel’s coming along, but very slowly. I put down fewer than 500 words yesterday, so I didn’t bother updating the numbers. I feel the novel is (I’m) on the verge of breaking out, but it’s (I’m) not quite there yet. As you might imagine, critical mind’s … Read more

The Journal: The Lessons We Learn

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: The Lessons We Learn (a guest post) * Thanks, and guest posts * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[I]f the market [target audience] determines what works, … what good is a critique in advance?” Matt Perryman “Creating the impression that copywriters need critiques is lucrative business.” Matt Perryman Topic: The Lessons We Learn a guest post by Matt Perryman I wanted to relate an anecdote that relates to your post on crawling befor you walk. Your post made me laugh because it’s not limited to fiction writers. In my … Read more

The Journal: When You Outline a Novel

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: When You Outline a Novel * Of Interest Quote of the Day One more note for Memorial Day: “… If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” from “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, a poet and British soldier who was … Read more

The Journal: Crawl Before You Walk

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Memorial Day * Topic: Crawl Before You Walk * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[W]e writers are great with imagination, yet we don’t know enough about licensing and copyright to imagine what products could come from our IP.” Dean Wesley Smith “He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.” P.G. Wodehouse “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of … Read more

The Journal: William Faulkner

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * William Faulkner * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Once these people come to life … they take off and so the writer is going at a dead run behind them trying to put down what they say and do in time…. They have taken charge of the story. They tell it from then on in.” William Faulkner “These people I invent and after that I just run along and put down what they say and do.” William Faulkner “They are still in motion in my mind. I can laugh at … Read more

The Journal: A Few Changes to the Journal

In today’s Journal * A Few Changes to the Journal * Of Interest A Few Changes to the Journal Mostly I’m posting this to get the “Of Interest” items out to you.(grin) A reader accidentally unsubscribed yesterday and asked me to add him back to the list. I tried to add the subscriber again, but MailChimp wouldn’t allow it. Since he unsubscribed, he has to resubscribe himself. (I’m not sure why they made me click a box that said I had his permission to add him if they weren’t going to believe me.) So I was going to email him … Read more

The Journal: Only a Few Things

In today’s Journal * Great Writing ‘Puter for Sale * Flash Sale on Teachable * Big Book Giveaway * Of Interest Great Writing ‘Puter for Sale I’ve long advocated the use of a writing computer, meaning a separate machine dedicated to nothing but writing fiction — so no internet, no games, no business stuff — just Word or Word Pad or some other word-processor. The theory is (and I’ve proved it for myself) that sitting down at that dedicated writing computer triggers your creative subconscious that it’s time to play and have fun telling stories. I have a flawless, extremely … Read more

The Journal: I Had to Laugh

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I had to laugh * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “If I’ve done my job in the first two hours, the audience will believe anything I tell them at the end.” Director Steven Spielberg on making up stuff in fiction “Tip: Non-outliners — write the story then add the foreshadowing.” Steve Hooley, TKZ, on foreshadowing (grin) I Had to Laugh I had to laugh, albeit in a good-natured way, when I first read that second quote. Yeah, I’m gonna take advice on how to write into the dark from an … Read more

The Journal: A New Blog on Substack

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Blog on Substack * A Great Series of Emails * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “We professional writers just write. It is what we do. But I would not write as much as I like to write if I didn’t have something, some sort of challenge or deadline or goal that I wanted to hit at the moment. The challenges, the goals, the deadlines are shields against the real world distractions.” Dean Wesley Smith “[T]he secret of writing. Have fun. If it is not fun, don’t do it. … Read more